TTPRADAROn 2026-09-04, TTPRadar scanned the CBP Trusted Traveler Programs scheduler across 114 Global Entry enrollment centers. Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska both showed same-day interview availability, tying them for the shortest wait in the entire country.
They shared that top spot with six other centers: Calexico and Los Angeles International in California, and Fort Lauderdale, Miami International, PortMiami, and Tampa in Florida. Alaska is the outlier on that list: every other center tied for first is a major California or Florida hub.
What the scan found
Of the 114 centers checked, 92 had some open availability, and the national median wait was 3 days. That median hides a wide spread. At one end, same-day slots in eight centers including the two Alaska ones. At the other, Salt Lake City International Airport was booked out 160 days, the longest wait in the scan.
Eagle Pass, Texas was next worst at 102 days, followed by Del Rio, Texas (59 days), Springfield-Branson, Missouri (55 days), Phoenix Sky Harbor (52 days), San Francisco (48 days), Cleveland (47 days), and Brownsville, Texas (46 days). Most of the longest waits sit at major hub airports (Phoenix, San Francisco, Cleveland) or busy border crossings (Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Brownsville), though Springfield-Branson breaks that pattern despite being a much smaller airport. You can check current numbers across all centers on the live Global Entry wait times page.
Why Anchorage and Fairbanks are wide open
CBP doesn't restrict who can book at a given enrollment center. The scheduler lists every Global Entry enrollment center nationwide, and any conditionally approved applicant can book an opening at any of them, not just the one closest to home. That's the same mechanic that lets a Cleveland applicant book in Detroit instead of waiting out a local backlog.
Anchorage and Fairbanks are small centers, and Alaska is reached mainly by air rather than road from the rest of the country. TTPRadar's data can't confirm why their calendars stay open, but the likely explanation is straightforward: low local demand against a fixed interview schedule, the same pattern that shows up across the rest of the scan, where high-traffic hubs and border centers back up and small, low-traffic centers don't.
Slot availability moves daily as applicants cancel or reschedule elsewhere in the system. A same-day opening on 2026-09-04 is a snapshot of that day's scheduler, not a standing guarantee that Anchorage or Fairbanks will always be open.
Who should actually consider this
Booking a Global Entry interview in Alaska only makes sense for people who can get there. That's a short list: Alaska residents, travelers with an unrelated trip to Anchorage or Fairbanks already planned, or someone weighing a dedicated flight against months of waiting at their home center. For most applicants, the cost and time of getting to Alaska will outweigh the time saved on the interview itself.
It's also worth checking whether your conditional approval qualifies for Enrollment on Arrival, which lets some applicants complete the interview at select international airports on a return trip into the US instead of booking a standalone appointment. Neither Anchorage nor Fairbanks is confirmed as an Enrollment on Arrival site, so this only helps if you're already flying internationally through an airport that offers it.
If you do go the standalone appointment route, remember that Global Entry still requires an in-person interview at whichever enrollment center you book, so factor in the actual travel, not just the scheduler date. You can browse the full list of centers TTPRadar tracks on the enrollment centers page.
Tracking openings like this one
The Alaska opening is a good example of why checking a single center's page occasionally isn't a reliable strategy. Availability shifts daily, and the centers with the shortest waits today, wherever they are, won't necessarily be the same next week.
TTPRadar runs scheduled scans like the one behind this post and can flag it when a center you're watching opens up. If you'd rather not check the scheduler manually, free browser-based alerts cover a basic setup, or see how TTPRadar's alert service works for the full picture.