General Travel Information
If you leave your program site you must complete a travel registration form.
Country-specific Information: In addition to materials provided by St. Lawrence University or the program sponsor, students are encouraged to consult the web site of the US State Department. The State Department maintains information for every country of the world including information such as the location of the U.S. embassy or consulate in the host country, health conditions, local politics, currency restrictions and entry regulations, immigration practices, crime and security information, and drug penalties. You should also consider aspects of your unique identity, and how they may intersect with and be perceived by your host culture.
Passport: You must have a valid passport to participate in any of the St. Lawrence University abroad programs. Only the U.S. Department of State has the authority to issue United States passports. Click on the previous link to find out more about applying for a passport and download the application.
Visa: Visas are documents that allow individuals to stay in a country for a specific length of time. Generally, you must have a visa to enter a foreign country. The type of visa you must have is defined by immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel. You will receive information about applying for a visa after you are accepted into the program. Please follow the visa process and time-line very carefully to insure that you receive your visa in a timely manner.
Immunizations: Students planning to study off-campus should consult with their physician/counselor about individual medical and counseling needs and the specific requirements of the site of their proposed study. St. Lawrence Health and Counseling Services receive the names of all students accepted to study off-campus and can offer advice to individual students upon request, but cannot certify that all medical and counseling needs can be met in all off-campus study sites. Off-Campus study often entails health risks and challenges that a student might not encounter on-campus and it is the individual student’s responsibility to be aware of and take steps to address these concerns.
For information in regards to immunizations, please consult the general off campus study orientation manual, your family physician or the Health Center. Students participating on programs where specific immunizations are required will receive additional information during orientation sessions.
Additional Travelers’ Health Information such as recommended travel vaccinations and disease outbreaks for specific destinations is available through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) web page.
Travel Abroad Tips: The State Department offers some general safety tips for traveling abroad. In addition, there are several excellent travel guides that you should read in preparation for your program abroad, such as Lonely Planet. Another excellent resource is the series of Culture Shock! books published by Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company.
Currency Converter: To have a better sense of how much things cost in your host country, you should know how much the local currency is worth compared to the U.S. dollar.
Insurance: St. Lawrence requires that all study abroad students have health insurance that covers them internationally and includes repatriation. If your health insurance does not include international insurance coverage, there are many companies that offer such insurance specifically for students studying abroad. The St. Lawrence student policy provides the required coverage or you can do a search for short-term policies online by utilizing the search term, “insurance for study abroad students.” If you need a place to start, a few companies that provide this type of short-term international coverage include: Trawick and HTH Worldwide.
Please be aware that some countries require students to enroll in their national health insurance plan in order to obtain a student visa; including Australia, Japan, New Zealand. Students on programs in Austria, Italy and Spain will be required to have the St. Lawrence University student policy or a short-term study abroad policy for visa purposes. ISEP participants must carry national insurance of the host country or ISEP insurance coverage – depending on the program site. Kenya program participants are required to purchase the Kenyan health insurance coverage upon their arrival in Kenya. Students are responsible for the costs of any and all required policies.
More information on travel and health insurance is available on the CIIS website.
Security Issues. Travel Advisories includes information the Department of State wants you to consider before traveling to that country/as you plan your travels, and they may be issued by the U.S. State Department for the entire country or for regions within countries. All countries are listed at a Travel Advisory level between Level 1 and Level 4. Advisories may reference ongoing situations such as political instability, civil war, crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks, or short-term events, such as elections, strikes, demonstrations, health alerts like an outbreak of H1N1 or COVID-19, or evidence of an elevated risk of terrorist attacks.