Wedding Blog
One of the items on my checklist that I took care of this weekend was registering our honeymoon travels with the US State Department. Although I’ve never registered my travels before, since we are headed to Indonesia, I thought it might be a good idea to do it this time.
Basically, you just provide the State Department with your contact information when you are traveling, so that if there were some emergency, they would be able to contact you. And it’s really easy, since you can do it online. Took about 5 minutes or so, and now I know that if something awful should happen, it’ll be a little bit easier for the government to find me.
Has anyone else registered their travel with the State Department?
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I have done it before - when I went to Kenya last year. I thought it was good because I was going to such a remote place. I definately would have done it for indonesia too. We are going to the Caribbean for our honeymoon, so i don’t think we will do it for that.
We did this as well! When we traveled to Southern Italy for our friends’ wedding - we registered! It made us feel so much better because if something happened to us - they can access our itinerary immediately!
I have never heard of this - but I’m glad I know now. We’re going to Greece, which isn’t really a hot-bed of chaos, but it will be nice knowing that if for some weird reason something happened, people who could help would know where we were!
Nope. Big Brother scares me. I am convinced it is so they can put you on a “list”. Oh look who went to Kenya, why would they go there etc.. Maybe i am paranoid.
hahaha…I work for the State Department and I promise you no one looks at where you go or puts your name on a list of people who’ve gone to weird countries. That list would be massive plus none of us has time for that.
The list is automated and your name drops off after your exit date has passed (the date you entered). Besides if we wanted to find out where you’ve been that’d be waaay easier…we just check with DHS for entry/exit records. Big Brother is there no matter what, so you might as well register for safety reasons.
Anyway, I can’t stress enough how important this is. Even in “safe” countries. Like when Paris was having race riots all last year…the embassy could send out an email with areas to avoid.
There may also be things going on in a country you aren’t even aware of and that won’t get played on CNN international …like planned political protests or strikes that you should stay away from
But it’s also really important should some disaster happen like the Tsunami…we’ll know exactly where to look for you and how to help your family find you. Or in Lebanon when we needed to find and evacuate American citizens. Not to mention if you get mugged, kidnapped, passport stolen, flip out on your meds, etc.
It’s so much easier for us to help you or contact your family if we already have the info up front. I can’t tell you the number of unsuspecting Americans I’ve had to help get out jail, get medical help, get home with no money, clothe, feed, etc.
We can help you no matter what but we save valuable time when we already know how to find you and your family.
This is great info. I didn’t even know this was an option! I had a friend who was overseas during the tsunami and her family had a hard time finding/getting in touch with her. Good idea, thanks for sharing!
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Ms. Dahlia, Detroit/Cleveland
Age and Occupation: 24, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, IT System Administrator
Engagement Date: December 31, 2006
Wedding Date: May 2008
Blogging Since: September 19, 2007
Venue: United Methodist Cathedral & historic downtown hotel in Cleveland
About Me: I enjoy cooking, dancing and swimming. I am a geek and apply game theory to my everyday life. Winter is my favorite time of year, especially when spent curled up with good coffee and a book by Madeleine L'Engle.
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