International Travel Registry
Get ready for takeoff with MyTrips
University launches new, required process for international travel registry
Key messages
• One of Washington University’s top priorities is the health, safety, and security of our students, faculty, and staff. This priority takes on even greater importance when members of our community travel outside the United States.
• In the past two years, anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 members of the university community have traveled outside of the country. In that time, there have been at least 11 natural disasters or security emergencies around the world in which members of the WashU community have been in close proximity to the disaster or conflict.
• Currently, only a small percentage of our travelers take advantage of the university’s international travel registry, which is in place to better assist our faculty, staff, and students in emergencies or times of crisis.
• To help ensure safety and wellbeing when traveling internationally, we are initiating a new policy and system for registering international travel. Effective March 15, registration for university-related international travel will be required of all students and all benefits-eligible faculty, residents, staff, residents, clinical fellows, and post-doctoral researchers traveling outside the United States for university purposes.
• MyTrips and related support services will continue to be provided by our longtime partner, International SOS (ISOS), the world’s largest medical and travel security services firm. ISOS specializes in medical assistance, travel security advice and information, health care, and evacuation and repatriation services.
• MyTrips will require travelers to create a one-time traveler profile at mytrips.wustl.edu and then register the details of each trip through the system.
• The university’s International Travel Oversight Committee (ITOC) has been working on this policy for the past year. The Center for Experiential Learning served as a pilot for the new policy and process last fall.
Who Must Register their Travel
In accordance with the university’s international travel policy, you are required to register your complete itinerary and contact information if you are:
- an undergraduate student participating in university-sponsored program or experience abroad
- a graduate or professional student traveling on university-funded or university-related business, field study, research, conference attendance, internship or study abroad program
- a student traveling, for any academic or other WashU-associated purpose, to a high-risk location where the ITOC has determined that a signed waiver is required
- a faculty or staff member, or a student, leading a group that includes students