Global Entry

If you travel internationally a lot, Global Entry is totally worth it. Most travel-oriented credit cards offer credit every few years for the application cost of $120 and you get rapid entry to the US and TSA Precheck which lets you keep your laptops in your bags and so on.

As an Indian

This is particularly beneficial if you are an Indian passport holder, since this is the only way to get out of having to be in a big line at immigration. Global Entry is a lot faster with the caveat that you give them the right to capriciously take it away and the right to monitor you through a bunch of databases. This is a fantastic trade, in my opinion, so I signed up.

You can have Global Entry either as a H1B visa holder or as a Lawful Permanent Resident (a green card holder). I have done it as both, and while the latter involves fewer steps, once you're a member there's no difference.

As a H1B holder

This is a slightly complicated process that may have been simplified over time. I signed up back when this was first offered and here were the steps back then:

1. Apply for Global Entry in the US
2. Receive a notice that you should continue with Indian police verification
3. Sign up on the GOES/GES portal and link the Indian ID with the Global Entry application ID
4. Wait for the police to come to your Indian address and verify you there
5. Wait for the Indian side to approve
6. Wait for it to synchronize on the US side
7. Go through a Global Entry interview-on-approval gate

This appears to be simplified now. The process is roughly:

1. Apply for Global Entry in the US
2. Receive a notice that you should continue with the Indian side
3. Get a Passport Seva Kendra appointment and submit your documentation
4. Wait for synchronization
5. Go through a Global Entry interview-on-approval gate

The big difference appears to be that you know when you have to submit documentation because you have a PSK appointment. That's a big improvement since you can't predict when the police will show up. I've never done this second method, though I have completed the first and have had Global Entry since some time in 2017.

As a H1B holder, you won't receive a Global Entry card, but you'll have a PASSID which is what you'll enter online when airlines ask for trusted traveler program IDs.

The entire process took about 8 months for me. Conditional Approval was a couple of months, and then getting it synced to the Indian system and having that approved took some time (but also because I had to fly back), and then having it sync back took a really long time.

As an LPR

As a green card holder, everything is a lot easier to sign up for. The process is similar to being American, and since India's background verification doesn't take place, you just plug in all your details and there's no other party except the American government that handles things.

You should get an actual Global Entry card on this pathway.

Renewing from H1B to LPR

If you had an H1B when you originally applied, and are renewing as a green card holder, it's quite straightforward. If you had an H1B, then applied for renewal, then got a green card, you have to finish up with the Indian process. But that takes a long time. As of Jan 2025, the Global Entry officer told me that it would take 15 months longer. In practice, it's a lot easier to have it cancelled and reapply with your green card.

In my case, the application was stuck in Conditional Approval but my old status was extended for a really long time. Once I received my green card, I cancelled and restarted because every other time the immigration officers would remind me that I needed to add my green card in to my profile online. I did have it added, but something to do with the interaction of the renewal and the green card must have led to this particular system not being updated.