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Get a Global Entry card for $100 and ease international travel
If you travel often, you’ve likely run into several frustrating aspects of international travel. One, of course, is using a passport to get in and out of the country. Not only is the simple act of obtaining a passport typically frustrating, but so is actively using it to either enter your destination country or returning home.
Case in point? The ridiculously long lines you somehow get ushered into every time you land in the U.S. They’re frustrating to deal with, and no one wants to have to sit in long lines.
We’ve got a solution for you. In our experience, there are two ways to avoid getting in a line with 400 other people when you land back in the US: the Mobile Passport app and Global Entry Cards. Either can get you up and out of lines much quicker and with less hassle.
Mobile Passport
Enter in your passport details, answer a few questions, and when you land back in the U.S, tap Submit. You’ll get a QR code to expedite processing.
At Customs and Border Control, look for a sign that says, “Mobile Passport.” That line will be a lot shorter than any other line! The free version works fine unless you travel extremely often, and in that case, you may decide that the paid version of the app works best for you since it offers a wealth of additional features.
Related: Are you still using a driver’s license? Better get this soon!
Global Entry Cards
Previously, the Mobile Passport app was a good fit for this purpose, but now, you can use Global Entry cards instead. You’re required to go to the airport a few months before your trip for an interview. You can schedule the interview online. It takes about 30 minutes. This is the best. It’s $100 for five years and includes TSA precheck whenever you fly.
With Global Entry, when you land back in the USA, you go to a kiosk, scan your passport, it takes a pic and you talk to a Customs agent. It only actually takes about 5 minutes to complete, and then you’re done.
Can travel really be that simple? As long as you take the proper precautions ahead of time, then absolutely. With one of these options, you’ll be able to breeze through lines as if you were some sort of celebrity, leaving you to enjoy your time at your destination or at the very least feel a bit less stressed about heading there and back in the first place.
Bonus: How to protect your devices when you travel
When Kim and her team travel, especially out of the country, they use a virtual private network (VPN). There are two reasons you want to use a VPN. One, if you use public Wi-Fi (at the airport, hotels, cafes or anywhere), the VPN is a secure layer between you and your device. It protects you from hackers and malware.
The second advantage of using a VPN when you travel out of the country is you can stream and access content that might be blocked by internet service providers in other countries.
Kim recommends ExpressVPN, which is not only a sponsor of Komando.com but is also the easiest VPN Kim says she has ever used. Visit ExpressVPN.com/kim for a special deal she negotiated just for her listeners and readers.
Tags: hackers, internet, malware, Wi-Fi
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