Monitoring worldwide security levels

Our stateside and on-site teams closely monitor U.S. State Department (DOS) Travel Advisories and Country Specific Risk Indicators at all times. We also regularly review reports by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO), as well as information provided by trusted security analysis services, local governments and media outlets.

The U.S. Department of State provides guidance for U.S citizens to understand important travel security information. The DOS has issued an advisory level for every country in the world. The DOS issues an advisory level for every country in the world to keep U.S. citizens informed of potential risks.

In addition to its advisory level, the DOS provides specific information on any risk indicators affecting each country and specific advice on what travelers can do before they leave and once abroad to provide for their own safety. We encourage all students and their families to review the DOS country specific information for their program country and any countries where students intend to travel independently while abroad. This information can be found on the Travel.State.Gov website.

If the U.S. State Department issues an official Alert for an one of our program locations, and the message includes an official State Department recommendation that all U.S. citizens evacuate the country, our standard course of action will be to cancel the program and proceed with evacuation procedures. If the program has not yet started, our standard course of action will be to suspend the program. Exceptions can be made if the language in the Alert gives our management clear reason to believe that the warning is the result of dangers that exist in areas well outside of the city/cities where our program is operating. If we do suspend a program, we will work with students to transfer them to another program. During this process, we will ask students to obtain written approval from their home institution.

There are a wide variety of criteria that we use to determine whether or not to restrict travel to a specific region. The restriction may be based on an ongoing situation which poses an immediate threat to our participants, significant regions of the country that are dangerous for our participants, the lack of services for US citizens, or other factors.
This list of restricted locations is continually updated based on our direct observation, US Department of State recommendation, Overseas Security Advisory Council, WHO reports, and expert consultation. We reserve the right to add countries/regions to this list, without notice.

All our students are made aware of the regions that have travel restrictions when they sign our Code of Conduct which states that they will abide by all travel restrictions established by WorldStrides. It is the student's responsibility to be aware of the most current travel restrictions, which can always be accessed on our website. Violation of any travel restriction is cause for automatic dismissal from the program, and participants will be required to return to the U.S. immediately.

, In order to maintain the highest level of safety for our participants, we have restricted independent travel to certain areas of the world. Our participants are not allowed to independently enter or travel within the following regions during the participation of a program without express permission.

Last Updated: 10/13/2023

Afghanistan
Algeria*
Armenia*
Azerbaijan*
Bangladesh*
Belarus
Benin*
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon*
Central African Republic
Chad
Colombia*
Côte d’Ivoire
Cuba
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ecuador*
Egypt*
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Guatemala

Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana*
Haiti
Honduras
India*
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jamaica*
Kenya*
Lebanon
Libya
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico*
Moldova
Mozambique*
Myanmar (Burma)
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria

North Korea
Pakistan
Panama*
Papua New Guinea
Philippines*
Republic of the Congo
Russia
Saudi Arabia*
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Syria
The Gaza Strip and West Bank
Tunisia*
Turkey*
Trinidad & Tobago
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates*
Venezuela
Yemen

* For travel within or to these countries/regions, before finalizing any travel plans, students should submit their travel itinerary to their Resident Director at least two weeks in advance of their intended travel dates. Students may be asked to provide additional information. WorldStrides reserves the right to prohibit travel within or to these countries/regions. Please contact us for more information if you are planning to visit any location outside of your host country while participating on an WorldStrides program.