Due Diligence

So we read about the Global Entry System and TSA pre check and they sound like a great idea.  No more long lines at airports, right?  

Last August we go on line, fill out applications, and give them a credit card number (their most important step).  Once we have preliminary approval a couple of days later it’s time to schedule our “in-person” interview with US Customs and Border Protection, just to make sure we are us.  We bring up the calendar for the Portland office, first available appointment:  March 5, 2017.  Seven months out!  We look at Seattle.  Much better, only 4 months, Monday, December 5^th at noon.  So we plan an early drive up that morning, back the same day.  No sweat.

Friday, December 2^nd rolls around and guess what Matt Zaffino has to say?  “Coming on Monday:  Snow in Portland, Snow in Seattle, Snow in Longview, Snow in Centralia.”   If we miss the appointment, we will probably have to wait until late 2018 to get 'er done, so we book a hotel next to SeaTac for Sunday night and drive up a day early.

Next morning we head to the airport early figuring we will have a nice leisurely sit down breakfast.  Well SeaTac has lots of airplanes, lots of travelers in a big hurry, and lots of police carrying assault weapons.  What they don’t have is a nice sit down restaurant outside the security check points.  So breakfast turns out to be Seattle’s Best Coffee, a nuked breakfast muffin, a fruit plate, and a two hour wait sitting on the concourse.

Finally it’s time for our interview.  We arrive (early again) at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office.  Our friendly, helpful, (armed) customs agent tells us that he can’t use our non-certified birth certificates, but that he can make do with our passports.  He then asks us about all of our arrests, convictions, and incarcerations, takes our pictures and fingerprints and in about 10 minutes sends us on our way.  A few days later our new photo ID arrives in the mail.

"MULTIPASS"......Mr. and Mrs. Corbin Dallas

So after a $100 each application fee, $90 bucks for a hotel room, $12 parking at the hotel, $9 parking at the airport, and a tank of gas, we are now able to go through airport security without taking our shoes off.  God bless the U.S.A.