High-risk travel approval checklist
What to ask for before approving travel to a country the US State Department rates Level 3 "Reconsider travel" or Level 4 "Do not travel". Written for NGOs, universities and companies whose people have to go anyway: aid work, research, journalism, client projects.
Today 24 countries carry a Level 4 advisory and 26 carry Level 3. See the Level 4 list and the Level 3 list, read from the State Department's feed every six hours, last checked 11/03/2026, 12:09 AM ET.
This checklist is general guidance, not legal or security advice. What your organization owes its people depends on the law where it operates and on the work they do: take advice, and adapt the checklist to your own risk policy.
What each level means
- Level 1: Exercise normal precautions The lowest advisory level for safety and security risk. There is some risk in any international travel.
- Level 2: Exercise increased caution There are heightened risks to safety and security. The advisory names them.
- Level 3: Reconsider travel There are serious risks to safety and security, and travellers should avoid going.
- Level 4: Do not travel The highest level: a greater likelihood of life-threatening risks, and the US government may be very limited in the help it can give.
Who approves, and what they need, at each level
A starting point that many organizations use in some form. Adjust the roles to your own structure.
| Level | Who approves | What the approver needs |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1: Exercise normal precautions | The usual approver for the trip. | Your standard travel process. |
| Level 2: Exercise increased caution | The usual approver, who has read the advisory. | The traveller reads the advisory; the risks it names are covered in the briefing. |
| Level 3: Reconsider travel | A manager plus whoever owns travel risk, such as a security focal point or a risk committee. | A written justification and risk assessment, the full itinerary, a check-in plan, and insurance confirmed for the destination. |
| Level 4: Do not travel | Senior leadership, on the advice of whoever owns travel risk, recorded in writing. | Everything for Level 3, plus specialist security advice, a plan for leaving the country, confirmed evacuation cover, and pre-departure security training. |
Before approval
- List every country the trip touches, including connections and overland legs, and the advisory level of each. A connection through a Level 3 country is part of the trip.
In TripDesk365: Each booking lists every country it lands in beyond the first, connections included, with its State Department level and a link to the advisory. - Read the advisory itself, not only the level. It names the risks and often the regions to avoid, which may matter more than the country's number.
- Check the advice of the traveller's own government too, if they hold another passport, and of the country where your organization is based if it is not the United States.
- Write down why the trip is needed now, in person, and what was considered instead: a remote meeting, a local partner, a later date.
- Get the full itinerary: flights, where the traveller is staying each night, how they move between places, and who meets them.
- Agree a communication plan: who the traveller checks in with, how often, by what means, and what happens when a check-in is missed.
- Confirm insurance in writing for this destination and these activities, including medical evacuation. Some policies exclude countries at the highest advisory levels, so check rather than assume.
- Brief the traveller on the specific risks, and on what to do in an emergency. For Level 4 travel, many organizations require security training before departure.
- Ask, in confidence, whether anything about the traveller changes the risk: a medical condition, their nationality, or how local laws treat who they are.
- Record who approved the trip, at what level, on what date, and under which advisory level.
After approval, during and after the trip
- Watch for a level change between approval and departure. A trip approved under Level 2 that will travel under Level 3 needs approving again.
In TripDesk365: Staff who turn on browser alerts are told when the State Department raises the level of a country with trips landing in the next 60 days. - Keep a current list of who is in or heading to a high-risk country, and share it with your assistance or security provider.
In TripDesk365: A travel map shows flights departing, in the air or just landed, coloured by advisory level, with live positions where flight data has them; the register exports a roster by departure date. - Debrief after the trip: what happened, what the risk assessment missed, and what to change for the next one.
Levels and their meanings: the US State Department's travel advisories. The approval matrix is editorial, not a requirement of any law or regulation.
Running field programmes or faculty travel? See how TripDesk365 works for nonprofits and NGOs and for universities, or work through our wider duty of care checklist.
See your high-risk trips in one place
Send us a few upcoming trips before the demo, and we will show you every destination's level, the connections that cross a Level 3 country, and the map.