Are you planning on travelling overseas? If so, your trip will require careful planning. You’ll want to make sure you take into consideration local laws and customs, medical care, recommended vaccinations, and even the customs in the country that you are visiting.
If you’re female, disabled, or a member of the LGBTI community, you “may face additional challenges when abroad,” says the Department of State. So, you want to do your research well in advance.
Here are some to tips to help you prepare for your trip abroad:
- Go to travel.state.gov and do some research on your destination country.
- Learn about the local customs in the country you’re visiting.
- Learn about the available medical care in the country you’re visiting.
- Check regularly for any travel warnings or travel alerts for the country you’ll be visiting.
- Find out if the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or the World Health Organization recommend any particular vaccines for the place you are visiting.
- Get financially prepared for the trip. Before your leave the U.S., contact your bank and credit card company and let them know you’ll be using your accounts and cards in a foreign country. Otherwise, they could suspect fraud and freeze the accounts.
- Read up on the country’s exchange rate, and obtain some of the foreign currency before you leave.
- Obtain the contact information for the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate in the destination country. Bring the information with you on your trip.
Get Your Required Documents Early
Give yourself plenty of time to renew your old passport, or apply for a new one. If you already have a passport, it needs to have at least two blank pages and it must be valid for at least six months after you return to the United States. If not, you may not be allowed to enter certain countries.
Depending on where you are going, you may be required to obtain a visa ahead of time. You can contact our immigration firm for more details. Lastly, be sure to have two photocopies of all of your travel documents in case something goes wrong. We recommend leaving one of the copies with a trusted friend or relative, and bring the other copy with you in case your originals are lost or stolen.
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