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Fact sheet: 2022 national travel and tourism strategy, office of public affairs.

The 2022 National Travel and Tourism Strategy was released on June 6, 2022, by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo on behalf of the Tourism Policy Council (TPC). The new strategy focuses the full efforts of the federal government to promote the United States as a premier destination grounded in the breadth and diversity of our communities, and to foster a sector that drives economic growth, creates good jobs, and bolsters conservation and sustainability. Drawing on engagement and capabilities from across the federal government, the strategy aims to support broad-based economic growth in travel and tourism across the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia.

The federal government will work to implement the strategy under the leadership of the TPC and in partnership with the private sector, aiming toward an ambitious five-year goal of increasing American jobs by attracting and welcoming 90 million international visitors, who we estimate will spend $279 billion, annually by 2027.

The new National Travel and Tourism Strategy supports growth and competitiveness for an industry that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, generated $1.9 trillion in economic output and supported 9.5 million American jobs. Also, in 2019, nearly 80 million international travelers visited the United States and contributed nearly $240 billion to the U.S. economy, making the United States the global leader in revenue from international travel and tourism. As the top services export for the United States that year, travel and tourism generated a $53.4 billion trade surplus and supported 1 million jobs in the United States.

The strategy follows a four-point approach:

• Promoting the United States as a Travel Destination Goal : Leverage existing programs and assets to promote the United States to international visitors and broaden marketing efforts to encourage visitation to underserved communities.
• Facilitating Travel to and Within the United States Goal : Reduce barriers to trade in travel services and make it safer and more efficient for visitors to enter and travel within the United States.
• Ensuring Diverse, Inclusive, and Accessible Tourism Experiences Goal : Extend the benefits of travel and tourism by supporting the development of diverse tourism products, focusing on under-served communities and populations. Address the financial and workplace needs of travel and tourism businesses, supporting destination communities as they grow their tourism economies. Deliver world-class experiences and customer service at federal lands and waters that showcase the nation’s assets while protecting them for future generations.
• Fostering Resilient and Sustainable Travel and Tourism Goal : Reduce travel and tourism’s contributions to climate change and build a travel and tourism sector that is resilient to natural disasters, public health threats, and the impacts of climate change. Build a sustainable sector that integrates protecting natural resources, supporting the tourism economy, and ensuring equitable development.

Travel and Tourism Fast Facts

• The travel and tourism industry supported 9.5 million American jobs through $1.9 trillion of economic activity in 2019. In fact, 1 in every 20 jobs in the United States was either directly or indirectly supported by travel and tourism. These jobs can be found in industries like lodging, food services, arts, entertainment, recreation, transportation, and education.
• Travel and tourism was the top services export for the United States in 2019, generating a $53.4 billion trade surplus.
• The travel and tourism industry was one of the U.S. business sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent health and travel restrictions, with travel exports decreasing nearly 65% from 2019 to 2020. 
• The decline in travel and tourism contributed heavily to unemployment; leisure and hospitality lost 8.2 million jobs between February and April 2020 alone, accounting for 37% of the decline in overall nonfarm employment during that time. 
• By 2021, the rollout of vaccines and lifting of international and domestic restrictions allowed travel and tourism to begin its recovery. International arrivals to the United States grew to 22.1 million in 2021, up from 19.2 million in 2020. Spending by international visitors also grew, reaching $81.0 billion, or 34 percent of 2019’s total.

More about the Tourism Policy Council and the 2022 National Travel and Tourism Strategy

Created by Congress and chaired by Secretary Raimondo, the Tourism Policy Council (TPC) is the interagency council charged with coordinating national policies and programs relating to travel and tourism. At the direction of Secretary Raimondo, the TPC created a new five-year strategy to focus U.S. government efforts in support of the travel and tourism sector which has been deeply and disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full strategy here

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ADIS/I-94 Arrivals Program

The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) manages the ADIS/I-94 visitor arrivals program in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The I-94 provides a count of visitor arrivals to the United States (with stays of 1-night or more and visiting under certain visa types) to calculate U.S. travel and tourism volume exports.

I-94s are processed to determine U.S. visitation from overseas (all modes) and Mexico air and sea travelers. To understand the magnitude of the filtering that is involved in processing I-94 raw data, in 2020 DHS/CBP provided NTTO with 547,047,790 ADIS/I-94 raw records of which only 8,684,990 records represented travel from overseas countries (all modes) and Mexico air and sea.    This program consists of three parts to report international arrivals to the United States: DHS/CBP ADIS/I-94 arrivals data, which non-U.S. citizens from overseas countries and Mexico (traveling by air and sea) must complete an I-94 record to enter the United States; Statistics Canada’s International Travel Survey; and Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía/INEGI (Banco de Mexico) monthly Mexican resident arrivals data. Mexican visitors to the United States within the 25-mile (40 kilometer) frontier zone are not included.

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Knowledge Article

How to renew Trusted Traveler Program (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, or FAST) membership

• Log in to the TTP website (click  https://ttp.dhs.gov ).
• If you don't have a login.gov account, you will be directed to login.gov to create an account first then you will be prompted to setup your TTP account profile. On the profile page, you will need to associate the account with your PASSID (membership number). See the back of your Trusted Traveler card or your approval letter.
• From your Dashboard, select the  Renew  button on your Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST program membership section.
• You must declare your citizenship (if you are a US Citizen, you declare "U.S.").
• Select the program that you wish to renew. You may select to renew another program for which you are eligible. However, remember that depending on the program you choose, your benefits may change. On the next page, acknowledge the program requirements.
• Follow the guidelines provided on the Membership Renewal page.
• When you have updated all information in the application, on the Final Review page, click  Confirm and Continue  in each section. At the bottom of the page, click  Save and Continue .
• On the Certify page, answer Yes or No to "Do you certify?"
• Select  Next . The Purchase Summary page will display.
• Fees are for application processing and are non-refundable. Check the box under the total application fee to agree and proceed. 
• Select  Pay Now . The online payment page displays.
• After payment, you will be returned to your TTP Dashboard.

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Trip approvals in business travel: what they are and why they’re important

When it comes time to approve trips, there’s a lot to keep in mind. That’s why we’re giving you a hand in understanding what they’re all about.

By Jessica Freedman

February 9, 2024

Trip approvals are an important but complex part of business travel. Having a comprehensive travel policy that allows your company to live up to its duty of care is fundamental to keep the control in your hands. Making the trip approval process as smooth as possible starts with creating a clear travel policy in which stakeholders know what to expect, and are clear on what is allowed and what isn’t allowed when it comes to business travel. Then by centralizing all this data in one place, you can be sure to not miss a beat.

We will look at the importance of trip approvals in business travel and how having the right travel management platform will help you manage and optimize business travel. We will also give you some tools to ensure that the whole process is streamlined. Before we get started it’s important to have in mind the following concepts: trip approval, duty of care and travel tracking, all of which are interrelated and help to improve the business travel experience.

What is trip approval?

Trip approval or pre-trip approval refers to approving elements of a business trip such as hotel reservations, flights, car rentals or trains prior to an employee being able to book their business trip. It’s a way businesses can keep their corporate travel policy under control, ensuring that a manager or supervisor has reviewed the travel policy and that each element of the trip is allowed as stipulated by the company’s guidelines. Trip approval is key for businesses to be able to enforce their policies, avoid overspending and keep travelers from going to high-risk destinations. 

What is duty of care?

Duty of care is about ensuring the safety or well-being of others. Employers have a duty of care to their employees to be sure they are happy, safe, and healthy when traveling and when at work in general. Trip approvals help managers and CEOs live up to their duty of care. Read more about duty of care.  

What is travel tracking?

Travel tracking or itinerary tracking is a way of monitoring travelers to make sure they arrived safely, which in turn helps companies live up to their duty of care. A corporate travel tracker is often built into a travel management platform allowing you to access a live traveler map so you can know where your employees are in the world and that they have made it safely to their destination. It’s a great way to keep in control and ensure that you fulfill your duty of care as an employer.

Managing the business travel approval process

The key to managing the business travel approval process is to find ways to stay in control and keep your travel spend on target. A great way to do this is by setting up a seamless travel approval process, which will keep travelers safe, keep them from traveling to risky destinations and ensure that you are able to keep an eye on how much your team is spending on flights, hotels, car rental and trains. 

Of course with the approval process comes some risks. For example, an employee may submit a trip for approval and then the price may go up, or the trip might expire before a manager can approve the request. With a travel management platform, the approval process can be easy.

When you automate your travel policy , you can also set up the process to suit you best with things like pre-trip green light, allowing travelers to ask for approval before they actually book. Travelers just need to enter information such as destination, dates, trip purpose, travelers and additional notes before submitting for approval. This way they can create trips from already approved requests.

How to stay in control of business travel

So now that you know the three most important elements of staying in control of your business travel program, let’s take a look at the 4 keys to staying in control.

1. Adapt the approval process to your company’s size

The business travel approval process can vary depending on the size and structure of your enterprise . Whether you’re an HR professional, an office manager , or from the finance department you will play a different role in the approval process, and also depending on how your company is set up. 

In a small company the process will generally be quite informal. In fact, it may just be the founder and a few employees who each represent a department but with no managers. In this case either the founder or the person in charge of finances might be in charge of approving trips. In a medium-sized company the office manager or HR department may set up the approval process, putting line managers in charge of approving their direct reportees trips.

The key is to adapt the approval process to your company’s size, involving as few people as possible to avoid any roadblocks. Once you’ve designated approvers, be sure that they all know and understand the travel policy. Definitely consider having pre-approval to avoid prices going up before someone has a chance to ok your trip.

2. Set up your approval process

Of course when setting up your approval process, it’s important to have a goal in mind, and to make sure to streamline the process. Think about how much you would like to spend on travel overall and designate a budget, and don’t forget to set up things like green light approval, which is like a pre-approval that makes it so travelers are pre-approved before they book.. Be sure to have a clear travel policy that makes it clear what is allowed and what isn’t. Don’t have a travel policy yet? Download now . 

Once you have your budget and travel policy designated, it’s time to make some decisions:  

• Who’s in charge of booking business travel?
• What does the process of getting a trip approved look like?
• Who will be the approvers?
• Who is responsible for creating the travel budget (this will often depend on the size of your company)?
• What’s the time frame for approving trips (ideally you would set up green-light approval so that people are pre-approved for their trips and they don’t have to risk missing the approval time limit)?
• Who is allowed to travel business class and who isn’t?
• What hotel star ratings are allowed?
• Will you allow or prevent refundable or non-refundable reservations?
• Will you allow employees to pay extra to select seats?
• What will your price cap be?

Finished answering all these questions? Then it’s time to move onto the next step.

3. Educate about the protocol

Whether you have a 3 person company or a 300 person company, protocols are clear to ensure that everything is clearly laid out and that there is nothing that slips through the cracks. It’s important that each person knows their role in the approval process, and that if an employee needs to ask for approval, how it works. If you have a travel management platform like GetGoing then you can automate the whole process, which brings us to the next step. 

4. Set up approval process in your travel management platform

Small and medium enterprises, or any sized company for that matter, will benefit from having a clear business travel process and this is where a travel management platform comes into play. Being organized when it comes to business travel is about having a clear procedure and managing everything in one place. 

Once you’ve decided who the stakeholders are, have created a travel policy, educated your staff about the protocol, it’s time to set up your approval process in the travel management platform. In GetGoing this can be configured easily by anyone with admin access to the platform. It’s a question of minutes before you’ll be able to get going with your business travel plans.

How GetGoing can help with the trip approval process

With GetGoing the approval process is a piece of cake. Simply set the business rules by automating your travel policy so that all bookings follow your travel policy. You can set up approvers in the backend and configure the green light approval, which allows travelers to ask for trip approval prior to booking so you don’t have to risk change of fares while waiting for approval. This is especially helpful in small companies where multitasking is a must. After all, you don’t want to be caught with your employee’s ticket price going up or by having passed the 12 hour limit for approval, as in both cases the trip will be canceled. 

Plus, with GetGoing you can automate trip approval flows, making the whole process easier. Navigate to the policy page within the app and you can set up this feature so that travel admins have the last say in keeping travelers safe and at the same time ensuring that the travel policy is upheld. 

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Creating the perfect travel request approval process.

Sajit Chacko

Unfortunately, a persistent problem facing many with such aspirations is that they often find themselves in situations where the trips become a tiresome burden with exponentially higher costs than expected. 

Why is this, you wonder? Simply put, the chaotic, frustrating, and challenging task of working with outdated spreadsheet-based systems makes business travel nightmarish every step of the way. 

This problem is especially true for the archaic travel approval process, which makes trips unmanageable and unfeasible. We are here to tell the readers they don’t need to be.

This article will explore the travel request approval process, the challenges organizations face using older processes, and how creating a clear, automated workflow can help overcome these challenges. By the end of this article, you will understand why creating an ideal travel request approval workflow is essential to succeed in today’s competitive business environment.

What is a travel request approval process?

A travel request approval process is a series of actions that an employee or traveler follows to acquire management consent to implement a trip. 

This process typically begins with the employee filling out a travel request form outlining the trip’s details, including the destination, purpose, dates, and estimated expenses. 

The employee then forwards the request to the assigned administrative authorities and stakeholders through outdated methods of communication, such as email, for review. The review process involves managers and admins checking compliance with travel policies, estimating trip feasibility, verifying budget availability, and obtaining approvals from the other relevant organizational stakeholders. 

Based on such considerations, the request is either sanctioned or denied. Once approved, the employee can purchase flight tickets, reserve accommodations, and perform other necessary tasks to carry out the trip.

Why do you need a travel request approval workflow?

A travel request approval workflow is an excellent way to simplify the outdated, inefficient, and problematic process that most businesses continue to follow even today. A streamlined workflow ensures compliance with the corporate travel policy, improves planning efficiency, regulates costs, enhances communication, and increases security. 

Moreover, implementing one further ensures that travel expenses are quickly approved, transparent, and well-planned. 

Here are some of the real-world problems several businesses face which necessitate a systematic travel request approval workflow.

Limited control over expenses

Proper internal controls make it easier for businesses to track trip expenses, maintain compliance, and impose spending constraints. The main problem behind the manual travel request process is that it fails to establish such controls for employee expenses, causing widespread policy non-compliance and overspending. 

The situation worsens when too many stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process. When this happens, it becomes a challenge to manage or keep track of the approved expenses, often resulting in travelers exceeding their allotted budgets. 

On the other hand, a travel request approval workflow provides travelers with a framework that helps them stay compliant and within their budgetary limitations throughout the travel process. 

The ideal workflow should enhance the business’s expense controls while leaving no room for misinformation or miscommunication. Even when the business trip involves multiple travelers, an excellent workflow allows consistent policy compliance and expense transparency between the travelers and their respective departmental heads, managers, and admins.

Key information doesn’t reach the right people

When using manual systems, employees regularly encounter numerous roadblocks between them and acquiring the necessary travel permissions. This situation is especially true when requests are sent to an unnecessarily large number of stakeholders regardless of their role or relevance in the travel request process. 

There are bound to be information gaps, miscommunication, errors, and delays when this occurs. And critical information sometimes does not reach crucial decision-makers on time, considerably slowing down the process. 

Moreover, manual systems make it nearly impossible for travelers to make quick, time-sensitive decisions that could drive down trip costs. 

Instead, an automated travel request workflow system can guarantee that critical travel proposals and information is sent only to those with the utmost relevance to the nature of the proposal. 

This way, essential stakeholders are routinely kept informed and updated on the decision-making process. Such a level of transparency dramatically improves communication and reduces the risk of misunderstandings. 

By assigning priority levels to requests, you also ensure that administrators get instantly notified and attend to critical requests without delays. 

Manual processes are inefficient

Implementing and managing business trips through manual processes is a tedious task with several redundancies that causes delays and human error. 

Here, the time it takes for the itinerary, travel costs, trip expenses, and relevant justifications to be approved generally takes several days or weeks to get accepted. By this time, trip costs may dramatically escalate. 

On the other hand, an automated travel request approval workflow can significantly reduce the time to process such requests from days to mere minutes. Additionally, since the requests only reach the relevant stakeholders, there will be no misinformation and confusion, ensuring enhanced compliance. 

An added advantage to an automated travel request system is mobile functionality that allows requests to be sent directly to the mobile device of the relevant authority, along with automated expense reports. 

How to create the ideal travel request approval workflow

Let us walk through the steps you must take to create the perfect travel request approval workflow.

1. Understand what you want to achieve 

A good practice before you design a travel request approval workflow is first to analyze your current processes and the challenges you face with them. This analysis helps you identify problematic errors, redundancies, inefficiencies, and other significant issues in your workflow. 

Once you identify these issues, you will better understand what components need to be cut, reworked, excluded, and improved. This way, you can eliminate any problems disrupting your travel implementation process and feasibility. 

When you have ample information on what’s wrong, you can envision how your new travel request approval workflow should be and what it must help you achieve. 

A noteworthy recommendation is to automate, rework, and improve your existing systems rather than a complete system rehaul. Enhancing and automating existing systems facilitates familiarity, resulting in lesser adoption resistance from your employees. 

The ultimate goal should be to plan a workflow that dramatically improves time management, efficiency, transparency, and visibility when filling, submitting, and handling travel requests.

2. Consult all relevant business travel stakeholders

Manual processes generally require the proposal to be approved by administrators, managers, C-suites, finance teams, and the HR department before its implementation. Each of these departments has team members, further expanding the proposal’s organizational exposure. 

The first step to creating a workflow perfect for your unique business requirements is identifying the stakeholders relevant to the travel-decision making process. A good practice is to restrict the number of administrators charged with viewing and scrutinizing the requests and their contents to the lowest number possible. 

Modern automated systems provide stakeholders with excellent internal controls on expenses and approvals while increasing their overall visibility. In such a system, there is no need to involve more than a few stakeholders. 

The number of administrators entirely depends on the organization’s size. Smaller organizations may need lesser administrators and decision-makers involved in the travel request approval process. On the other hand, larger organizations generally have more travelers than SMEs and a higher volume of requests and expenses that require administrative attention. 

Factor in these considerations and decide the optimal number of stakeholders to review trip requests. Remember, the number should be manageable for the administrator or manager.

3. Map out the travel request approval workflow

The next stage is automating and mapping the proposals’ flow for your new travel request approval workflow. Ideally, this should involve requests to flow through stakeholders relevant to trip planning and with expertise in improving the trip’s productivity. 

This map should specify each member’s role in the newly automated process.

4. Setup a single management tool for easy access

The first thing you should do for your new workflow is to restructure your processes to eliminate redundancies from the previous systems, including redundant communication channels or any other aspect that may confuse stakeholders. 

Once you have centralized and organized your business travel approval process, you must increase the corporate travel policy’s visibility to reach all stakeholders. Doing so ensures that all employees are completely aware of the policies, procedures, rules, and limitations. 

The goal of this stage is to ensure that there are no more delays or back-and-forth communications between travel and non-travel stakeholders. A centralized travel management tool such as Tripeur can help businesses effectively achieve this quickly. 

5. Choose which line items to include

Carefully planning and detailing the workflow’s line items allows you to specify to your employees what travel details require mentioning and what is irrelevant. Such a practice guarantees uniformity between all travelers filling out and submitting requests. Everyone involved in trip planning provides managers and administrators with all the relevant details. 

Typical line items to consider in your travel request approval workflow include the trip’s purpose, assignment details, location, duration, and list of participating team members. It is also good practice to detail a breakdown of the estimated costs, including airfare, accommodations, ground transport, meals, and the overall total. 

How detailed you want these forms depend entirely on the level of granular supervision you wish to maintain. 

Specifying that your employees upload receipts online after a transaction is also essential to automate expense reconciliation. This practice eliminates needing to maintain, carry, store, and submit physical receipts. 

An automated system enables businesses to achieve this with ease. Such systems also allow companies to finetune the workflow by adding and removing fields to suit a business’s unique requirements.

6. Communicate the travel request approval process with your employees

For your new travel request approval process to work, it must first be communicated transparently to your stakeholders. Maintain a single uniform communication channel and make it the primary mode of inter-office communications. 

By doing so, you guarantee that your new travel request approval process promptly reaches all relevant parties detailing what is expected of them at every stage of the refined process.

7. Implement a travel request approval workflow and continuously tweak it

Your first attempt at creating a travel request approval workflow may not yield the best results. This is normal, as it is an iterative process with plenty of room for improvement. Perfecting your new approval process requires periodic performance reviews to spot redundancies, missing items, and other erroneous processes to improve your workflow routinely. 

Once you do this, place internal controls for stakeholders and clearly define their access levels. The goal here is to allow access to only the relevant stakeholders for every travel step of the travel process. Also, restrict access to information from stakeholders irrelevant to the approval process.

Once the controls are in place, test the approval process to identify and mitigate any lingering issues. Carefully test and monitor the new approval process for a predefined trial period till you iron out all the kinks. A good recommendation is to automate the system, which is an excellent way to increase your new system’s efficiency and speed tremendously. 

In conclusion, you should be ready to create your travel request approval workflow to improve compliance, control costs, increase efficiency & accuracy, streamline communication, and enhance security. If you need clarification on how to do this, don’t worry. 

You can consult a professional service provider that can do it for you at a fraction of what you would have to spend to implement one in-house. 

Simplify and implement the travel request approval workflow with Tripeur

Think of Tripeur’s platform as the swiss army knife of corporate travel, where every tool you need for corporate travel management is available to you within one platform. Sometimes, no amount of workforce or capital can improve an outdated and broken travel approval system. 

Instead, Tripeur and its expense module helps keeps the finance department in the loop by sending stakeholders automated expenditure alerts and reports through all stages of the travel booking experience. Our travel request approval process will ensure it keeps all relevant stakeholders informed and involved in the decision-making process, improving communication and reducing the risk of misunderstandings.

Better yet, our system supports e-receipts and automated reconciliation to help you create a seamless experience for travelers and other stakeholders. We provide you with all the tools necessary to develop a standardized process for examining if travel expenses align with its policies and regulatory requirements. 

With such a granular level of control, you will only authorize travel requests that comply with your organizational policies.

Our user-friendly software can tremendously simplify and improve your travel proposals system, where every approval will be instantaneously sent to the mobile devices of the right stakeholders. We can help you perpetually fix your corporate travel inefficiencies and simplify and implement travel request approval workflow while significantly lowering costs. 

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No more time wasted on getting the green light.

No more confusion about being in policy.

Welcome to approvals made easy.

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Without a system in place, travel approvals can get messy. Nuances are missed, deadlines are pushed, and travel policy can be completely abandoned.

Our streamlined approval system is fully customized to your travel policy, and our easy-to-use tools give you the ability to seamlessly approve requests.

On any device you can:

• Connect with your online booking tools
• Request travel authorization before booking
• Capture key reporting data
• Easily manage all your pending approvals in one place
• View and approve “my travelers” dashboard with just one click

So whether you’re handling pre- or post-trip approvals for individuals, or across your entire company, we will remove the seemingly endless back-and-forth and make approvals easier than ever before.

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Say goodbye to spend leakage and out of policy bookings.

Our technology fully integrates with your systems to keep your travelers booking within policy, and your budget on track.

Plus, your productivity increases with the ability to easily manage multiple booking requests in different markets.

Does your travel policy need an upgrade?

Put your travel policy to the test with our Global Policy Benchmarking Tool.

Our tool benchmarks travel policies from different customers and industries. See how your current travel policy compares and find out where you can make improvements to take your travel program to the next level.

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Consent letter for children travelling outside Canada

A consent letter demonstrates that a child has permission to travel outside Canada from every parent or guardian who is not accompanying them on the trip.

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When to use a consent letter, how to write a consent letter.

A consent letter should be used for all cross-border travel when a child is travelling:

• with only 1 parent or guardian
• in the care of friends or relatives
• with a group, such as a sports, school, musical or religious group

This includes day trips and travel where a child will be with only 1 parent for part of a trip. For example, a child will leave Canada with both parents but will return with only 1 parent.

A consent letter is not a legal requirement in Canada, but it can simplify travel for Canadian children as it may be requested by immigration authorities when entering or leaving a foreign country or by Canadian officials or airline agents when re-entering Canada.

The person who is accompanying the child should bring the original signed letter rather than a copy. Officials may be less likely to question the authenticity of an original document.

If you are travelling with a child for whom you have always been the sole parent or guardian, you can bring a document that shows you are the child’s only parent or guardian, such as a copy of a long form birth certificate that identifies you as the only parent.

If the other parent is deceased and you have full custody of your child, you should bring a copy of the death certificate of the deceased parent when accompanying the child on a trip.

The definition of a child varies from country to country, so any child under 19 years old should carry a consent letter.

Using a letter of consent outside Canada

Countries have their own entry and exit requirements for children. The consent letter may not be considered sufficient by a country’s immigration authorities and there is no guarantee that they will recognize it. In some countries, your child may be deemed to be one of its citizens if you or the other parent is a citizen of that country. As a “deemed citizen,” your child may be subject to the same entry and exit requirements as other citizens of that country.

For more information, check the entry and exit requirements in the Travel Advice and Advisories for your destination country or contact the nearest embassy or consulate of the destination country before travelling.

Travel Advice and Advisories

Foreign representatives in Canada

Risk of abduction

If there is a risk that the accompanying parent will not bring your child back to Canada, consult a lawyer and proceed with caution before signing a consent letter.

International child abduction

There are no official guidelines for the content and format of a consent letter, but they usually include:

• the name of the child
• the names and contact information of parents or guardians
• the name and relationship of the person who is accompanying the child
• information on where the child is travelling and the duration of the trip

You may use 1 letter or multiple letters depending on the situation:

• If neither parent is accompanying the child, they can both sign 1 letter or they can each sign a separate letter
• Children from the same family who are travelling together may be listed on 1 letter
• Separate letters are recommended for children who will be travelling separately for part of the trip
• Consult a lawyer when writing a letter without specific dates or for frequent cross-border trips

A sample letter and interactive form are available to guide you in writing a consent letter:

• Sample consent letter
• Interactive form for writing a consent letter

You can change the letter to fit your specific situation, but you should try to include as much detail as possible.

The consent letter should be signed by:

• Parents who are married or in a common law relationship who are not accompanying the child travelling outside Canada
• custody of the child
• decision-making responsibility for the child
• guardianship of the child (in Alberta and British Columbia)

A court order or agreement may also specify who does or does not need to sign a consent letter for a child travelling abroad.

If the child is in temporary care: The consent letter should be signed by the appropriate child welfare agency representative granting consent for the child to travel with the accompanying person. If in doubt about who should sign the letter, consult a lawyer.

If one of the parents is deceased: If the child is travelling alone or without the surviving parent, the child should carry a consent letter signed by the surviving parent and a copy of the death certificate of the deceased parent.

Signature of a witness

Any adult may witness the signing of a consent letter. It is strongly recommended that a notary public witness and sign the letter as border officials may be less likely to question its authenticity.

If you are outside of Canada, a consular officer at a Canadian government office may witness the signing of a consent letter ( fees apply ).

• Children and travel
• Travelling with Children brochure  
• International Child Abductions: A guide for affected parents
• Travelling as a dual citizen
• Children travelling to Canada  (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada)

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Tennessee Senate OKs a bill that would make it illegal for adults to help minors seeking abortions

FILE - An abortion-rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally, May 14, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee advanced legislation making it illegal for adults to help minors get an abortion without parental consent. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Wednesday advanced legislation making it illegal for adults to help minors get an abortion without parental consent, sparking objections from Democrats who counter that doing so could result in young victims needing approval from their parents who may have raped them in order to terminate the pregnancies.

The GOP-controlled Senate signed off on the proposal 26-3. The bill is still advancing toward the floor in the House.

“There are people who are in situations and circumstances that we cannot fathom,” said Democratic state Sen. Raumesh Akbari. “If someone is a victim of rape or incest and a teenager, and they want to seek these services, their abusers can determine if they can access them. That’s a step too far.”

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 , anti-abortion advocates have been pushing states to find a way to block pregnant people from crossing state lines to obtain the procedure.

So far, Idaho has been the only state to enact a so-called “ abortion trafficking ” law, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked the law after reproductive rights groups sued to challenge it.

The first-of-its-kind measure made it illegal to obtain abortion pills for a minor or help them leave the state for an abortion without parental knowledge and consent. Legislation has since been introduced this year in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The Tennessee version would make it illegal for an adult who “recruits, harbors, or transports” a pregnant minor within the state to get an abortion without consent from the minor’s parents or guardians. Supporters have touted the bill as a much needed parental rights protection measure, pointing out that abortion rights groups are increasingly distributing information on how to acquire abortions in states with strict bans.

“We’ve decided abortion is only available to save the life of the mother,” said Republican state Sen. Paul Rose. “Unless the parents approve, you cannot take a minor across state lines to get an abortion.”

However, critics counter that the bill does not contain exemptions for minors who may have been raped by their parents or guardians. Instead, the legislation states that the biological father of the pregnant minor may not pursue a civil action if the pregnancy was caused by rape.

Under the Senate version advanced Wednesday, those convicted of breaking the law would be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which would require a nearly one year imprisonment sentence. This differs than the proposal being considered in the GOP-controlled House, where supporters want the penalties to be a Class C felony — which can carry up to a 15-year prison sentence and up to $10,000 in fines.

Tennessee bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy but there are exemptions in cases of molar pregnancies, ectopic pregnancies, and to remove a miscarriage or to save the life of the mother. Notably, doctors must use their “reasonable medical” judgment — a term that some say is too vague and can be challenged by fellow medical officials — in deciding whether providing the procedure can save the life of the pregnant patient or prevent major injury.

A group of women is currently suing to clarify the state’s abortion ban. A court decision is expected soon on whether the lawsuit can continue or if the law can be placed on hold as the legal battle continues.