The grace period everyone mentions has one big condition: you must have submitted your renewal before the expiration date. Submit a day before, you keep using benefits for up to 24 months while CBP processes. Submit a day after, you start over — full $120 fee, full background review, full new interview.
Done in seconds. No sign-up required.
What "expiration" means for you depends entirely on whether you submitted a renewal before the date passed. The difference between submitting on May 31 and June 1 can be hundreds of dollars and several months of standard customs lines.
Your benefits continue uninterrupted while CBP processes the renewal. The kiosks still recognize you. Your KTN still works for TSA PreCheck. The 24-month grace window is your buffer against slow processing.
Cost: $120 renewal fee, no interview in most cases.
Benefits stop the moment the date passes. Global Entry kiosks reject you. Your KTN stops working for TSA PreCheck on flight bookings. You must reapply as a new applicant — the system gives no special treatment to former members.
Cost: $120 application fee + interview wait + lost expedited travel during the gap.
If you didn't submit a renewal in time.
The expedited US re-entry that the program is built around. Returning to the US after international travel without it means joining the standard CBP line — often 30 to 90 minutes at major hubs.
Your Known Traveler Number stops working for PreCheck the moment Global Entry lapses. New flight bookings won't get the PreCheck indicator on your boarding pass.
CBP doesn't refund or discount the application fee for former members. Reapplying after expiration costs the full $120, plus the time and travel for a new in-person interview.
On paper, the cost difference between renewing on time and reapplying late is $0 — both pay $120. The actual cost is in the time, the friction, and the lost utility of the program during the gap.
The 24-month grace period is generous, but it isn't a substitute for renewing on time. It just buys you processing time once you've submitted. The actual deadline you cannot miss is your card's expiration date — submit by then and the grace period applies. Miss it and the program treats you like you've never been a member.
A reminder set for ~13 months before your expiration date — see when to renew Global Entry for the timing math — is the simplest insurance policy. It costs nothing and removes the failure mode entirely.
Find your date on your TTP dashboard, then come back to the main renewal page to set the reminder.
Set the reminder before this becomes a $120 problem:
Done in seconds. No sign-up required.
Yes, but only if you submitted a renewal application before the expiration date. CBP gives you a 24-month grace period during which you keep using benefits while your renewal is processed. If you didn't submit anything before the date passed, the grace period doesn't apply — you have to reapply as a new applicant.
Only if your renewal was submitted before that date. If it was, you're inside the 24-month grace window and the kiosks will continue to recognize you while CBP processes the renewal. If you missed the deadline, the kiosks will reject you immediately and you'll need to use the standard customs line.
Yes — TSA PreCheck eligibility comes from your active Global Entry membership through your Known Traveler Number (KTN). Once the membership expires without a submitted renewal, your KTN stops working for TSA PreCheck on flight bookings. If you let it lapse, you can either reapply for Global Entry or apply for TSA PreCheck separately ($85 for 5 years).
You can't renew an already-expired membership. Once the date on your card passes without a submitted renewal, the renewal button disappears from your TTP dashboard and you have to file a new application. Some members have submitted renewals shortly past expiration through workarounds, but officially the eligibility window closes the day your membership expires.
Most likely yes. Reapplying as a new applicant means CBP treats you the same as a first-timer — full background review, conditional approval, and an in-person enrollment interview at a CBP enrollment center. Interview wait times vary by city but commonly run from a few weeks to several months in major metro areas.
Not officially. CBP does not offer paid expedited processing for Global Entry. The only practical levers are getting an interview at a less-busy enrollment center, doing the interview at a port of entry on your next international trip, or — most reliably — not letting it expire in the first place.
Renew before expiration and the worst case is a 24-month grace period. Miss the deadline and you start over. A reminder costs nothing and removes the failure mode.
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