US-authorities recently announced that Australian travellers will be able to enrol in the Global Entry Program from 2025 onwards. Travellers enrolled in this programme can pass immigration in the USA considerably faster. Therefore, the programme is mostly meant for people who travel to the United States multiple times per year. Travellers are still required to apply for an ESTA.

Run-up to Australia's participation in Global Entry

The governments of the USA and Australia have been talking about the Global Entry Program for years now. The original plan was to start a test period in 2020 already, but the covid pandemic caused delays. The plans were resurrected in 2022. However, the elections in Australia and the subsequent appointment of a new government put the plans on hold again. Not long thereafter, in August 2024, the Australian minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, announced that a breakthrough had been reached. She revealed that Australia will enter the first phase of the Global Entry Program in January 2025. The programme should be available for all Australians by the end of 2025.

Slow introduction of Global Entry

The Global Entry Program will become available to Australians in two phases. The first phase will start in January 2025. Initially, only 1000 travellers will be eligible for the programme. This includes only Australians who travelled to the USA at least five times in the past 12 months. Eligible travellers may submit an application on the website of the US-immigration service. Afterwards, they will be invited to an interview at the US consulate or embassy. The traveller will be told after the interview whether they will be allowed to travel to the USA under the Global Entry Program. It has not yet been announced when the second phase will start. However, the Global Entry Program is expected to become available to all Australians by the end of 2025.

Applying for the Global Entry Program costs USD 100. Applicants must always pay this cost, regardless of whether the application is accepted or not. It can take multiple weeks or months for an application to be processed. Therefore, you are advised to submit the application far in advance of the planned trip to the USA, if you want to make use of the advantages of the Global Entry Program. Keep in mind that Global Entry is in no way connected to the ESTA. This means that travellers also need to apply for an ESTA to be allowed to travel to the United States.

The ESTA application

The Global Entry Program is especially useful for travellers who will travel to the USA regularly in the upcoming years. This usually applies to business travellers who travel to the USA for work. Travellers who visit the USA for tourism or to visit family are in most cases better off using only the ESTA . Applying for the ESTA only takes a few minutes because travellers do not need to complete a complicated application process. It is not necessary to schedule an appointment at a US mission. Also, the processing time of an ESTA-application is 3 days on average, compared to several weeks for enrolling for the Global Entry Program.

Global Entry for other nationalities

At this time, nationals of 15 countries are eligible for the Global Entry Program, including the United Kingdom. The following table contains all countries participating in the Global Entry Program.