The Question

This question is posted by ACE on behalf of PN member Abdiwahidi Hussein, IEBC Kenya.

I have been appointed into a task-force to "DEVELOP FOREIGN TRAVEL GUIDELINES" for Kenya's EMB the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. 

This is to request for input from members and preferably copies of documents on foreign travel policy/guidelines for EMBs or other electoral practitioners worldwide. I would appreciate urgent response as the matter is urgent. 

I am requesting input on the Methodologies that can be used to develop the Foreign travel guidelines as well as the key areas (SCOPE) that does justice to the task of Developing a foreign travel guideline or policy. I would appreciate members experiences, advice and insights on this matter. 

Summary of Responses

Practitioners' Network (PN) members addressed the question by suggesting that foreign affairs ministries are better equipped to help develop foreign travel guidelines. Additionally, PN members shared general guidelines for EMBs arranging trips overseas. A summary of the responses follows:

1. Foreign Affairs Ministries/Immigration Offices

• The necessary preparations differ greatly depending on each specific country.
• It is best to look up countries' travel policies by researching material that is developed by larger countries for their nationals who are abroad.
• It is important to suggest that foreign visitors review laws and visa/immigration policies, but also explicitly state that EMB is not responsible for these types of issues. 

2. General Foreign Travel Guidelines

• For colleagues at EMBs with ICT teams, talk to them and see if a website where foreign ministry and immigration services can collectively look up and approve (or disprove) Visas online. Moldova's EMB has a website that was used by a PN member and was highly recommended.
• Know the main objective of the trip and consequently which part of the EMB would benefit most.  
• Field officers are good candidates for foreign travel as their experience should be enriched for the common good of the EMB.
• Be fair in the selection process ( i.e. equal number of males and females, benefits all regions of the country).
• Make sure there are detailed reports by the groups who have traveled and that they are spread and shared with everyone else.
• Improve staff morale by letting a wide array of people to travel and not just the same few every time.

http://www.dhs.gov/how-do-i/find-overseas-travel-alerts 

Contributing Members

• Nelly Ilongo
• Deyanira Galindo
• Horacio Boneo

Travel advice (other than things like remembering to take any medications that you are required to use) is country specific.  The advice is not the same if you travel to Mogadishu than if you travel to Monaco.  It would be quite difficult for an EMB to collect information on most countries.  The reasonable thing to do is to take advantage of the material developed by large countries for their nationals abroad.  See for instance http://www.dhs.gov/how-do-i/find-overseas-travel-alerts or http://aglobalworld.com/international-travel-warnings/travel-warnings.php .  If you search Google “travel to – name of the country” you will find usually a number of webpages with adequate information.

My recommendation is to get in touch with your foreign affairs ministry and if there is a different ministry on immigration, so you need to get together those current laws.

In the other hand, it is very important that you make a statement that each foreign visitor must fulfill the immigration policies of your country and to get by themselves the visa issuance. The EMB shouldn't be responsible in those issues.

An advice is to check with the ICT team to set a registration form on the website which files can be shared and checked out by the foreign affairs ministry and the immigration officials in order that together can approve (or not) the visa. Moldova has an excellent mechanism in this regard that I had to use it for the last November electoral process and it worked out excellent.