AFS Student Travel

Approved Travel Other Travel Guidelines Belo Tours Outside USA Canada/Mexico Natural Family Visits

AFS USA realizes that while we are not a travel organization, opportunities will arise for a hosted student to travel outside of their host community. AFS USA has set up guidelines for this type of travel to ensure participant safety and also maintain the integrity of the AFS programs. If an AFS participant travels without complying with the AFS USA travel guidelines, the action can be considered grounds for an early return to the home country.

Approved Travel

The following types of travel are approved by AFS USA and do not need a travel waiver:

1. Travel with the host family. Travel with host siblings (and not host parents) is allowed if the host sibling is over 25, or over 21 with Area Team approval.

2. Travel with a fully registered AFS volunteer from that student's area/chapter, who is over 25 (21-24 years old with Area Team approval).

3. Travel with another AFS host family from the student's area/chapter.

4. Travel with school, such as band, choir, sporting events and field trips. Some school trips, such as band or chorus trip out of state, do not require a travel waiver but a Senior Class trip and school club trips require one. (Check with AFS Travel & Logistics Volunteer to see if a waiver is required)

5. Travel on an AFS sponsored trip (organized by Area Team or local Chapter).

Notify your AFS liaison or the Area Team Travel & Logistics Volunteer of travel plans and give the volunteer accurate contact info on how the student can be reached in case of emergency.

Other Travel

Any other travel (for example, visiting another AFSer who lives outside of the World Flags Area or traveling with a friend's family) is considered independent travel by AFS and requires a signed travel waiver from the natural family. The travel waiver acts as a permission form from the natural family and releases AFS from liability during the AFSer's trip.

Steps for Approval of Other Travel:

1. Get permission from the host family. If host family says "No," the travel plans should go no further. If "Yes," then go to step 2.

2. Get permission from a World Flags Area Travel & Logistics Volunteer. If the volunteer says "No," the travel plans should go no further. If "Yes," then go to step 3.

3. Get permission from AFS USA (Regional Travel & Logistics Coordinator). The AFS regional office will review the travel waiver requests and reserves the right to deny permission for independent travel at any point in this timeline.

4. A travel waiver needs to be requested by the natural family through AFS in the home country. The signed waiver will then be sent to the AFS regional office. The Local area team volunteer will email the Regional Travel / Logistics coordinators to alert them to student's independent travel plans and whether they are approved by the host family and volunteers.

5. Once the permissions are obtained and the signed travel waiver is received by the regional AFS office, the Area Team volunteer will be emailed with notification of the arrival of the signed Travel Waiver. At this point, travel is officially approved by AFS.

6. Once travel is officially approved, students are free to finalize their plans and purchase their tickets.

Important Travel Guidelines to keep in mind:

The following conditions can cause a student's independent travel plans to be rejected:

*Travel interferes with school.

*Travel interferes with attendance at required AFS events, such as required orientations.

*Travel interferes with host family plans, especially during holidays

*Travel interferes with adaptation and / or integration.

*Travel exceeds 10 days.

*Student is having adjustment or school issues.

*There are no adults who will be housing/responsible for the student at the destination.

*If there are only teenage drivers for a distance of more than 1-2 hours (contact the regional office for more information).

*Travel includes unchaperoned Greyhound/Amtrak trips of more than 3 hours.

*AFS students are not allowed to visit friends/relatives who live outside the USA.

*Since students don't celebrate Thanksgiving at home, it is not uncommon for AFSers to try to plan trips during that long weekend. Students should remain with their host family for that holiday.

Belo Tours

Belo Tours offers several trips to AFSers throughout the spring. These are not AFS sponsored trips and they DO require a waiver. Students must follow ALL travel guidelines when planning to participate in a Belo Trip.

Please take note:

Questions to ask yourself about allowing students to participate on a Belo trip are:

a. Will they be missing school? This year, the policy has changed a bit. If host family, natural family, school, and volunteers all agree that a student should miss school, they can miss 2 or 3 days of school to participate in these trips. They cannot miss an entire week. HOWEVER, if the volunteers in your area or chapter do not feel that a student should be missing school, the student can not miss school. There is quite a bit of confusion about this, so please call or email John Kirchberg at 920-885-3051 / jkirchberg@wildblue.net, if you have any questions.

b. Do volunteers/liaisons/host family approve of these travel plans? As with any independent travel requests, the support coordinator (or travel/waiver coordinator, if you have one), liaison and host family must approve of travel.

c. Does the student have a history of support issues? If the answer is YES, then the student may not move forward with the travel request.

(Note: travel can exceed 10 days for the summer trips.)

Special Notes for Travel Out of the USA

There are times where an AFS student will have the opportunity to travel outside of the USA. For this travel, a permission form would be sent to the natural family for signature. Also, the following steps must be taken.

1. Contact the consulate for the destination country to determine if the AFS student will need a visa. Do this early, as some consulates require students to show up in person to get the visa.

2. The DS-2019 form must be sent to the AFS regional office to be signed. This signature is to verify to immigration that the AFS student is in good standing and the J-1 visa sponsored by AFS is still valid. This form should be sent to the regional office either by registered mail or FedEx (something with a tracking number). Host families and students are responsible for any tourist visas and/or documentation that may be required. More information can be found in the Host Family Handbook.

How to travel with an AFS student to Canada or Mexico

1. An Area Team volunteer should be notified of the travel and approve it, either in writing or verbally, and the local volunteer also needs the itinerary in order to be able to find this student in case of emergency. AFS has very clear, and somewhat restrictive, travel policies. Your local AFS volunteers will be able to help you know if you’ve got everything in order.

2. Does student have a Multiple Entry Visa? Look in their Passport, usually on the page with the picture. Under “Entries,” there should be an “M.” Without this “M,” the student potentially cannot get back into the U.S. To get a multiple entry visa would require them talking with their consulate to see what has to be done. AFS has nothing to do with this.

3. Is your student from a country that requires not only a passport but also a visa from Canada or Mexico? For Canada, go to this web site to find out countries that do or do not need a special visa: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.html

If the student needs a visa, follow the Canadian process. The student may need to appear in person at the consulate. (it will take some time and $100+ dollars). Plan ahead on this one. For Mexico, go to The Consulate General of Mexico http://www.consulmexny.org/eng/visas_fmt.htm and find the country of origin to see if you need visas along with the passport. Plan ahead on this one, too.

4. Natural parent(s) need to request a travel form (Affidavit of Child) from their local AFS, sign it and return it to their local AFS, who will mail or fax it to
AFS Great Lakes Region,
2356 University Ave. W., Suite 424,
St. Paul, MN 55114,
or fax it to the same address at fax # 651-647-6628.
This says that the natural parents approve of the stated travel.

Click here to download an Affidavit of Child that can be used for travel outside of the US.

Click here to download a Travel Authorization form that some families have used to grant authorization for a longer time period to a host family who makes frequent trips across the border.

5. The form (DS2019), that should be with the student's passport, needs to be mailed to Barbara Telser-Gadow at the above listed AFS Great Lakes Region address with the dates of travel (your itinerary). She will sign the DS2019 releasing the student for travel and return, in essence saying that the student is in good standing with AFS. This will be mailed back to the host family and should be kept with the passport. Allow a few weeks for this to happen. Plan early for traveling.

6. In the words of an AFS staff person, “I know that all this documentation is not always needed at the border, but when it is needed and a student doesn’t have it, things can get ugly. I’ve heard of students being detained at the border overnight while waiting to get clearance to return to the U.S. It’s best to have the documentation, just in case.”

Natural Family Visits

Occasionally, natural families want to come to the host community to visit their son or daughter during their AFS experience. AFS strongly disapproves of natural family visits during the program, as they can be quite disruptive to adjustment and integration. According to the Participation Agreement that all AFS students sign, relatives and friends are not to visit unless the student has obtained prior consent from the volunteers in the hosting country. AFS students hosted in the US are not allowed to make/receive visits to relatives or family friends until they have been in the US for 5 months (or in the last month of the program for semester students). Please refer to the Participant Travel policy for more details about this aspect of the travel policy. If a student wants to travel with their natural family in the host country, a travel waiver is required.

Permission from AFS-USA is required before any tickets should be purchased. Travel guidelines apply to all AFS students regardless of age or graduation status. AFS students should not be pursuing independent travel during the first several months of the program.
For further questions please contact:

John Kirchberg – AFS World Flags Travel & Logistics Volunteer
920 885-3051
jkirchberg@wildblue.net

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