Updated
Renewing is a different process from applying the first time, and most of it happens in one place. Here is the whole thing, in order, including the part people get caught by: a renewal can still send you back to an enrollment center for an interview.
You can file a renewal up to one year before your membership expires, and there is a real advantage to filing early rather than waiting for the expiry date.
If your renewal is submitted before your card expires, CBP allows your benefits to continue for a period after the expiry date while the application is still being processed. Miss that window and you lose the cushion — so the practical advice is to file as soon as the option appears in your account, not when you get the reminder.
Go to ttp.dhs.gov and log in with the Login.gov credentials tied to your membership. Everything below happens here — there is no separate renewal site.
If you are inside the renewal window, the dashboard shows a renewal option against your Global Entry membership. If it is not there yet, you are more than a year out.
Your existing information is carried over. Check addresses, employment and travel history carefully — anything that has changed since you first enrolled is worth getting right, because mismatches are a common reason an application gets pulled for review.
The fee is paid in the account at submission. Check the current amount on CBP's site before you file — it has changed in recent years, and the figure quoted in older guides is often out of date.
Some renewals are approved outright. Others come back conditionally approved, which means you need an in-person interview before it is finalised.
Often not — many renewals are approved without one, which is why plenty of people renew without ever thinking about enrollment centers. But a conditional approval puts you right back into the same queue as first-time applicants, and that is where renewals stall.
Interview slots at most centers are booked out well beyond the horizon the scheduler shows. Openings do appear constantly as other people cancel and reschedule; they are just taken within minutes. You can see how each center is currently behaving, including the average number of days out and how often a near-term slot is actually available, on our wait times by enrollment center page.
If you have been conditionally approved, this is the step worth acting on quickly. Global Entry Spotter watches every enrollment center around the clock and texts you the moment an earlier appointment opens near you, so you can take a cancellation instead of waiting for the next scheduled batch.
This is the most common worry, and it is usually less serious than it feels. If you filed your renewal on time, CBP allows continued benefits for a period past the expiry date while the application is pending. In practice, travelers also report that TSA PreCheck obtained through Global Entry keeps working through that gap.
What you should not assume is that the kiosks and lanes will keep working indefinitely. The extension is finite, and renewals have run long enough that people have reached the end of it. If yours has been pending for months, chase it rather than waiting.
Renewal status lives on the TTP dashboard. If it has been sitting in pending review for months with no movement, CBP's contact form can be used to request a status check — one of our co-founders had a renewal approved 24 hours after submitting exactly that request, after months of silence.
The full account, including the precise dropdown options he selected on the form, is here: How I Sped Up My Global Entry Renewal. That post also covers how long renewals are actually taking.
Can I renew after my membership has already expired?
Yes, but you lose the continued-benefits cushion that filing on time gives you. There is also
a point past expiry where CBP treats it as a new application rather than a renewal, so the
longer you leave it, the more you stand to lose.
Does renewing reset my five years?
A renewed membership runs from the expiry date of the old one, not from the approval date, so
filing early does not cost you time.
Is the renewal process different for children?
Minors renew the same way through their own TTP account, and the same conditional-approval
interview rules apply. If a whole family is renewing, each person needs their own appointment.
We watch every enrollment center 24/7 and text you the instant an earlier interview slot opens near you. Most users get one in days rather than months.
Get Alerts · $25