Warner: To customs, I have an honest face to travel

Maru Vargas of Irvine uses a Global Entry kiosk at John Wayne Airport for the first Tuesday time after a brief trip to visit her son, who is studying in Mexico. She says the process was pretty easy and made transitioning fron flight to her vehicle much quicker than usual. Vargas says she flies internationally about six times each year. JOSHUA SUDOCK, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The long-awaited envelope finally popped into my mailbox last month. I tore it open and came face-to-face with a picture of what looked like a drunken transient having a stroke.

It was me.

The laminated card with a worse-than-any-driver's-license photo was the last step in my months-long application to be added to the Customs and Border Protection agency's Trusted Traveler list. It promises to speed frequent travelers who don't pose a threat to security (no matter how ugly their photo) through the customs process when returning from a foreign country.

What little remained of my vanity was a small price to pay for a legal way to cut the queue.

Though many travelers haven't heard of the Global Entry program until recently, it has more than 1.5 million approved "trusted travelers" who can breeze through 44 airports in the U.S. on their way home from overseas.

Instead of standing in one of those snaking lines upon arrival from a 12-hour flight at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, in the future I would do an end run to what looks like an ATM with a glowing green mouth. It's a scanner where I would place four fingers while looking at a camera eye. I would then electronically answer the customs questions everyone else does on paper. If all goes well, I would step past the sweating, seething throng, get my bags and pass unbothered through customs.

Not only that, but I could use the card at 40 airports that use the Pre-Check security screening system for domestic flights. No more taking off my shoes and belt or wrestling my laptop out of the carry-on.

I started the process late one Sunday night, after delaying until after the busy winter holidays. The first part is all through the Global Online Enrollment System. I filled out an application and used a credit card to pay the $100 processing fee.

I was instructed to check my email for a message confirming the initial background check had raised no red flags. I was told to take the next step: Talking to The Man. I called up to schedule an interview with the Transportation Security Administration. The program is popular, so the first available date was two months away.

And the interview would be at Los Angeles International Airport, inside the Tom Bradley Terminal. Into the belly of the beast.

Finally, the day arrived. I had to set aside a whole day for the 3 p.m. appointment. I put on a sport coat and nice shoes, trying to look as upstanding as possible. It took me a little less than two hours to drive from Santa Ana to Los Angeles. I arrived right on time for my appointment and was ushered to a desk in a small L-shaped room with about four other interviewees.

I handed my passport and driver's license to the TSA guy. He looked at both, handed me back the driver's license and scanned my passport into a machine. Then it was time for the "biometric information" portion of the interview. I was politely asked to look into a camera and a picture was taken. I had to put the four fingers of my left hand onto a scanner, then the four fingers of my right hand. Next I had to have both thumbs scanned side-by-side, and the agent helpfully suggested it was easier to do standing than sitting.

There were also many short questions:

Where do you travel?

Why do you travel?

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