Having the freedom to travel is one of the great pleasures in life. And in this age of computerization, there are several ways to make the necessary processes to travel even easier.
Online Passport Renewals
After, shall we say, quite a while (*cough* YEARS *cough*), the State Department has finally made online passport renewals a regular, permanent thing. It’s only been “no longer a pilot program” for a little less than a month, but the feedback has been out of this world.
Global Entry
Those with Global Entry know how much time it can save you when entering the United States. Nowadays, the program isn’t just for U.S. citizens; people from over 20 other countries can potentially be approved for Global Entry, which can expedite their time in queues when entering the U.S., as well.
Heads up!
If you already had Global Entry and renewed your passport online, be aware that as great as “electronic everything” is, not every piece of the puzzle fits into place yet.
Global Entry members know their GE membership is tied to their passport number. Even before the State Dep’t offered online passport renewals, the rule of thumb was when you got your new passport, and with it, a new passport number, it didn’t automatically get changed in your Global Entry profile; you had to change it manually. That took some extra steps, including logging in to your Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) account and updating the information in your profile. Not a big deal.
One would think that with everything being electronic, the “changing of the passport number” would happen automatically, right?
A reader recently wrote to tell us this important fact: it doesn’t.
Here’s what they said:
Guess what? If you renewed your passport online and your old passport still had validity, you might get a red flag on your account when going through customs.
I was leaving MIA through the GE line and the Customs person stopped me. She asked if I had any issues with my passport. I said that no, I hadn’t. She then asked if I had another US passport and I said no but that I had recently renewed online. She then said the issue would be because of that since my old passport doesn’t expire until December 2024. She said to update my GE profile and it should remove the flag.
So there ya go. Even if you renew your passport online/electronically, you still have to update your Global Entry manually. The two systems, although both electronic, apparently still don’t talk to each other.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
3 comments
Of course they don’t talk to each other. Passports are issued by State while GE is managed by DHS CBP.
…which are both government entities. And we’re not even talking state vs federal gov’t. You can’t me tell it couldn’t be done if they wanted to. 😉
Thank you for this article.. My home address was outdated on the TTP program page as well since I moved around the time I got a renewed passport. Interestingly, I didn’t have any issues coming home from an overseas trip last month with my old passport info still attached to the Global Entry card. Maybe because it was already expired by that time? I did also renew by mail.