Short answer: When someone cancels a Global Entry interview (or no-shows), that slot is returned to CBP’s scheduler and becomes available to anyone. There’s no “batch release” or fixed schedule—slots reappear as soon as the cancellation is processed, often within minutes or seconds. Because demand is high, those slots are usually taken just as fast. Understanding this helps you see why manual checking is hit-or-miss and why appointment alerts (which watch the scheduler 24/7) give you a real edge.
There’s No Scheduled “Release” of Slots
CBP doesn’t post big blocks of new appointments on a set day or time. Almost all “new” slots you see are cancelled slots that have been put back into the pool. So the system is event-driven: someone cancels → slot goes back → someone else books it. That can happen at 3 AM or 3 PM, any day.
What Actually Happens When Someone Cancels
- Applicant cancels or reschedules via the Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP) site, or doesn’t show up and the center marks them as a no-show.
- CBP’s system marks that time slot as available again.
- The slot appears on the public scheduler—often within minutes, sometimes within seconds, depending on system updates.
- Whoever books it first gets it. Everyone else sees “no appointments available” again.
So “how cancellations actually work” = they go back into the pool in near real time. There’s no 24–48 hour delay as a rule; that was an old FAQ guess. In practice, slots show up and disappear very quickly. For more on why they disappear so fast, see Why Do Global Entry Interview Slots Get Cancelled—And When Do They Reopen? and our blog on why appointments disappear in 60 seconds.
Why This Makes Manual Checking Hard
If you refresh the scheduler a few times a day, you’re only seeing a tiny slice of availability. Slots open and close around the clock. By the time you check, someone else (or an alert-driven user) has often already taken the slot. So “understanding the mechanics” means: the only way to consistently catch openings is to either check very frequently yourself or use a service that monitors the scheduler continuously and notifies you the moment something opens at your chosen centers. Tools like GE Finder do the latter—they watch the official scheduler and email you when an appointment becomes available, so you don’t have to guess when to look.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do Global Entry cancellations get released to the public?
When an appointment is cancelled (or the applicant no-shows), that slot is returned to the pool and becomes available on the official CBP scheduler. It usually appears within minutes—sometimes seconds—not on a fixed 24–48 hour delay.
Why do I never see any appointments when I check?
Slots are scarce and get taken quickly. If you only check a few times a day, you’re likely checking when nothing has just opened. Monitoring the scheduler 24/7 (via an alert service) or checking very frequently increases your chance of seeing and grabbing a slot.
✅ Key Takeaway
Cancelled slots go back into the pool as soon as the system processes the cancellation—no fixed schedule. They’re often taken within seconds. To catch one, use appointment alerts or check the scheduler very frequently.