I recently wrote about how long it took for me to renew my passport and from what I’m hearing, some people are experiencing some major delays. If your passport is expiring this year, I would recommend you start the renewal process sooner than later. Fortunately for me, it only took two months to renew my passport but others have reported turn-around times closer to the three-month mark. And if you have Global Entry, you need to update your Trusted Traveler Program profile with your new passport number as well, which can take some time.
As a reminder, when you renew your U.S. passport, you will be issued a new passport number. I don’t know why they do this as it would be much easier to just keep the same passport number but they don’t and it’s super annoying. Fortunately, the Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) portal, which manages your Global Entry and TSA PreCheck profiles, allows you to update your Global Entry profile with your new passport number, with some exceptions.
If you are simply updating your new passport number, issuance, and expiration dates, then you can do so directly under the “update documents” tab on the right-hand side of the screen (after you log in). However, if you need to update your name, then you will need to do so at a Global Entry enrollment center. But here’s the catch. If you just recently renewed your passport, then the system won’t recognize your new passport number for at least a few weeks. It’s weird; I know. After I renewed my passport, I tried updating it on the TTP website multiple times but it kept giving me an error and saying that I needed to update my information at an enrollment center. However, I just gave it about a month, went back into the system and was able to update it online with no other problems.
Now, if you need to travel soon or have a name change, then you will need to visit a Global Entry enrollment center. However, to update your passport information, you DO NOT NEED an appointment. I know Global Entry appointments have been a pain in the butt to get so that’s the one saving grace. You just need to call your local enrollment center to make sure they are available for walk-ins and then show up. Here’s a link to all the Global Entry enrollment centers, their hours and phone numbers.
At any rate, this was a quick post to just remind you to update your Global Entry profile with your new passport number and to not freak out if it won’t let you do it immediately. Just give it a few weeks. I hope this info helps someone out there.
Thanks for reading!
