Register Your Visit?

Hi,

The U.S. State Dept. has a place on their website to %26quot;Register Your Visit%26quot; with the U.S. Embassy----

Is this a good idea? Or just a silly formality?

Thanks in advance.......

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Adventuregirl9 , do you have any family or friends back home in the States who will know where you are, you know, have a copy of your itinerary for example, or names of your hotels?? Yes? Then why would you need to register?

Registering your visit would be wise if you travelled to Cameroon, so when the rebels overthrow the government in a coup, the Embassy can contact you and have you evacutated out ,, LOL ,,

OK%26lt; sorry, joking aside. No one would normally register their visit to PARIS ,, LOL, unless they had no one here to know if they didn%26#39;t come home!

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I have to admit, this is the first time I%26#39;ve even heard of the concept - you must really be doing research for this trip! Joan is right, I wouldn%26#39;t bother with this so long as there are people who know who you are and where you are.

It is, however, a good idea to leave an itinerary and at least a few phone numbers and addresses of your accommodations (e.g., hotel or apartment contact) with a couple of people at home so that if someone really had to try to reach you there would be a reasonable chance of that being possible. Then, having given the phone numbers, etc., you can be sure that it will never be needed (like carrying an umbrella to make sure it won%26#39;t rain!) I don%26#39;t recall whether you already have a hotel or apartment lined up, but one thing you might want to watch for is that some apartments (e.g., some of the ones on Vacation in Paris) have free telephone calls to North America (I assume through Skype or a similar computer-based VOIP system). That can be very reassuring for someone whose family worries about them, etc.

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As noted above, you should certainly leave the details--EXACT place name(s), address(s) %26amp; telephone numbers, travel dates, flight numbers, etc--with family and/or employment contact(s) if there is something pressing on the agenda at home or office and whomever has lost the coin-toss and got stuck collecting you at the airport upon your return--but registerring your visit with the US D-o-S is probably over-kill (and most likely only get lost in the mass of other US visitors to Paris and France). It%26#39;s also a good idea to make TWO(2)sets of photocopies of your passports%26#39; information pages, airline flight information, BOTH sides of any credit cards you will be carrying and any other travel documents or vouchers, etc.. Carry one set with you and leave the other at home with whomever is watering the cat and letting out the houseplants. Should unexpected %26#39;disater%26#39; strike or all of the wheels come off of your wagon at once; it%26#39;s a lot easier to fill out lost/replacement request forms if you have access to all of the %26#39;numbers%26#39; that will be required for all of the little boxes on all of those forms..and ease/speed the process. Some people scan, copy %26amp; paste this information into e-mails to themselves...but I%26#39;m just paranoid enough not to want this sort of information just %26#39;lying around%26#39; in cyberspace.

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Okay, so maybe I am overanalyzing things a bit...

......Comes from me working with law enforcement officers on a daily basis, I guess...Always the ever-so-careful citizen!!!

Thank you...

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I know that whenever I book a flight to Europe, my airline (usually American Airlines) asks me for contact info for while I am away.

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