State Department issues holiday travel advice abroad

Let's talk about the holidays because we are getting closer and closer and that means people are going to be traveling for Thanksgiving and Christmas and that means some people are going to be traveling overseas. But before you pack your bags, there are a few things you need to check to help keep your travel plans on track. State Department Deputy Spokesman Luke Ortega is joining us live with what you need to know. Luke, I appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Tyler, it's my pleasure. Thank you. So let's talk about this. Some people will be going maybe a couple miles to visit family, other people going across state lines, other people are going to get on a plane and probably fly six, eight hours, maybe go down to a beach destination during the winter or going maybe to Europe or Asia or something like that. What do people need to know if they are planning a getaway for the holidays when it comes to their passport? Certainly. So first of all, at the State Department, our top priority is, of course, the safety, the protection of American citizens. And that certainly means Americans who are abroad, whether that's just for the holidays, tourism, living there, that's always going to be our top priority. Like you mentioned, the most critical and first step is always going to be the question of. Passports. This is a big priority for us at the State Department. Last year, we issued more than 27 million passports. That's more than ever, and we've been able to get them out the door faster than ever. The critical thing for people to understand who are planning to travel abroad is to take a look at your passport. Make sure that it hasn't expired yet. Make sure that you've got at least six months left of validity on that passport before you travel. Otherwise, you can run into some challenges there. We've worked to make our system to renew your passport faster than ever. We've cut the wait times from six to eight weeks down to four to six weeks. We've cut down the process of filling it out. It used to take like 40 minutes, and now it just takes 10. You can do it all online. We're giving people back a half hour of their life. And so if your passport is going to expire in the next 12 months or it's already expired, you can go online and renew it there, and it's quick and it's easy. Any concerns, though? We are so close. If Thanksgiving is the time they're going to go overseas and if their passport has, say, five months on it, are they going to be able to get the passport quick enough? I mean, obviously, there's the expedited option, but even with that, is that going to be quick enough? So the way that we work to make sure that people are taken care of if they have these urgent travel needs is that people can make a appointment at a passport center or a passport agency. We got just short of 30 of those around the country. People can find information. If you're looking for a passport agency or a center, we got a great service for folks. It's called America.gov. America.gov is this federal government-wide initiative. It uses super intelligence. And We are all behind this, so if you just go to america.gov right now and say, hey, I live in Atlanta and I need to know where the closest passport agency is, this is going to help you know where you need to go. So this is a great new tool for folks who need to get access to that information. And Luke, while I have you, I have to talk about this. Obviously, we are seeing some interesting times overseas. Obviously, the war with Iran. If people are traveling to different destinations, how can they check to make sure that they're safe? Because the State Department has a fantastic tool on their website for all the different travel advisories. And obviously, you guys recommend people look at them to make sure that they have all the information they need before they head to somewhere. Absolutely. So this is another great opportunity to do two things. So first of all, before you travel, use that America.gov tool that I mentioned. Just go right to it. Type in I'm traveling to France. Is it safe? And what you're going to do is you're going to get all of this information coming to you directly from the State Department. This is all official information. That's all that America.gov uses. And that's going to bring you our travel advisories, all the alerts that we put out for whatever the country might be. It's going to come to you directly and it's going to be trustworthy information. And one thing it's going to tell you to do, and this is so critical if you're traveling overseas, you need to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. STEP is what we call it. When you enroll in this, that is going to allow our embassies, our consulates, our diplomats who are looking out for Americans in these foreign countries, they're going to be able to send you information from on the ground, up-to-date information. If something's happening and we learn about it that you need to know about, that's how you get it, directly into your inbox, right to your cell phone. So STEP is a really important tool for people who are traveling abroad. If you're going as a part of a group, the whole group can be registered in it or you can do it yourself. But it's a great way to make sure that you have all the information at your fingertips to make safe decisions while you're abroad. Luke Ortega, Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. I appreciate your time this afternoon to break all of this down, all good information for folks who are planning to head overseas for the holidays ahead. Luke, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tyler. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you.