A few days ago I walked into a CBP interview location that was booked up for the rest of the year, (in pilot uniform) and the officer was incredibly nice and just took care of it then.

He said that they are going to a process that you apply on line the normal way, but instead of the regular interview there will be a different procedure. The first time you are coming back into the country they will process you as a regular person but that will also act as your interview and you will then be fully enrolled in the system. No idea when that will be effective.