Travel Warning & Consular Information Sheet for Countries
of the World
What Are Travel Warnings, Consular Information Sheets & Public
Announcements?
Travel Warnings are issued when the
State Department decides, based on all relevant information,
to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country.
Countries where avoidance of travel is recommended will have
Travel Warnings as well as Consular Information Sheets.
Public Announcements are a means to
disseminate information about terrorist threats and other relatively
short-term and/or trans-national conditions posing significant
risks to the security of American travelers. They are made any
time there is a perceived threat and usually have Americans
as a particular target group. In the past, Public Announcements
have been issued to deal with short-term coups, bomb threats
to airlines, violence by terrorists and anniversary dates of
specific terrorist events.
Consular Information Sheets are available
for every country of the world. They include such information
as location of the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in the subject
country, unusual immigration practices, health conditions, minor
political disturbances, unusual currency and entry regulations,
crime and security information, and drug penalties. If an unstable
condition exists in a country that is not severe enough to warrant
a Travel Warning, a description of the condition(s) may be included
under an optional section entitled "Safety/Security." On limited
occasions, we also restate in this section any U.S. Embassy
advice given to official employees. Consular Information Sheets
generally do not include advice, but present information in
a factual manner so the traveler can make his or her own decisions
concerning travel to a particular country.
