BajaNomad

Sentri expiring - easy to renew?

Doug/Vamonos - 9-16-2014 at 04:57 PM

Hi. My sentri pass expires in a couple months. Anyone with experience on how to renew it? Did you have to drive down for another interview, or can it all be accomplished online? Thanks.

skipowell - 9-16-2014 at 05:10 PM

Apply right away. It takes a few months to get approved. I just got another car and made the mistake of applying for a new car approval. Found out they are taking 3- 6 months to get approved now. The bummer for me is that my Sentri expires in March and I can't apply for my renewal that until my car is approved. Apparently you can only have one application going at a time. should have done the renewal and added the car at that time. Ughh. Talked to to the people at the Otay office, they said both renewals and adding cars take between 3-6 months

Doug/Vamonos - 9-16-2014 at 08:37 PM

Wow! Very glad I asked. Thanks for the input. I'll go online tomorrow and check it out. Can't live without my sentri.

Doug/Vamonos - 9-18-2014 at 02:45 PM

In case anyone is interested, I went online to GOES and there is a link to renew your Sentri. With a login and password you can access your account and update info and submit the renewal application. Cost is $25. So now they take a couple weeks to review it and then it looks like I will need to schedule an appointment and drive down for another interview. It looks like I don't have to re-register my truck since it is already approved. Just had to update the license number. So far, so good.

DanO - 9-18-2014 at 03:03 PM

If a renewal appointment isn't available until after the expiration date, I recommend you not try to cross NB using SENTRI with your expired card during the interim period. I was in that situation a couple of years ago and called the SENTRI office in advance to ask if I could still cross with the card. They said yes and told me to just to tell the CBP at the SENTRI gate that I had a pending renewal appointment, and show them the written confirmation of the appointment. Wrong, of course (and probably dumb of me to believe it). They pulled me into secondary, yanked my card, and refused to answer whether this would impact my renewal. At the renewal appointment, the SENTRI guy doing the interview just rolled his eyes when I told him this story.

SENTRI RENEWAL

bajaguy - 9-18-2014 at 03:08 PM

I believe that you can start the renewal process up to a year before the card expires