Yesterday I began the
steps to perform the 5-year renewal of my TWIC. I have the following to report:
Positives:
1. Both TSA HelpDesk
personnel that I spoke with were extremely courteous, apologetic about the
wait, and seemed to be informed about the process.
2. I received email notification about the
transaction within minutes of its completion.
Negatives:
1. I was unable to use the website to pre-enroll,
as directed by the TSA TWIC FAQs. When I entered my personal information, I was
moved onto a screen that informed me that I already have a TWIC and needed to
enter a UserID and password. I could not recall whatever it was that I had
selected 5 years ago. I attempted to use
both the “forgot UserID” function and the “forgot password” function. Clicking
on these links led to a screen in which I was required to enter the answer to
two challenge questions. The screen would not accept my answers, although I
know they were correct. I tried mis-spelling
combinations and even that was unsuccessful. I also got an error message once
as I was moving between screens. There is no moving forward from the challenge
question screen so I was stuck. The option to use the website to pre-enroll was
now closed to me.
2. I then called the HelpDesk and experienced a
combined wait on hold of one hour. When
an agent came on the line, she advised me that you cannot enroll for a 5-year
renewal via the website. She stated, “We
need to help you with that.” She asked
me if I had ever contacted the HelpDesk before. I had, and she pulled up a case
number and my card information. She said I would need to remember the case
number as she was going to transfer me to another agent for payment and he
would need the number. There was a
second lengthy wait and another agent came on the line and to take my ID
and payment information. This agent stated that the
only way to renew the card for 5 years was to walk into an enrollment center, but
that he could renew my TWIC for 3 years under the EED program. I did opt for
the 3 year EED although I disagree with its basic premise because it excludes
the background checks. Later I asked the agent for clarification about the procedure
for renewing for 5-years and he stated that you can pre-enroll online but it is
just as quick to walk into the enrollment center. I told him about the problems
I was having with the website. He was
apologetic but stated that the website was a different branch of the program.
So I basically got two answers as to whether one can use the website for the
5-year renewal: “yes” and “no”.
3. It appears to me from
my experience that you cannot use the HelpDesk for the 5-year renewal, and that
the website is experiencing problems so you cannot pre-enroll via the website. This
leaves open the question: is possible that TSA is funneling many renewal
requests into the EED option? This would greatly speed up and streamline the renewal process but it defeats the purpose
of the card. We need at least an
every-five-year snapshot of the backgrounds of the people who are being granted
unescorted access to the secure areas of regulated facilities and vessels.
