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State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs
In 2016, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) had 128.2M valid passports in circulation, provided services that supported 80M trips abroad, and contributed $217.9B to the U.S. economy by issuing 10.9M non-immigran visas. Like most public-private business, CA engages with customers on a daily bases and it’s imperative that we proactively develop and foster those relationships. Since our existence, CA has relied on face-to-face interaction at our embassies and passport facilities, National Passport Information Center hotline, and traffic to our website (www.travel.state.gov) as the means of reaching and communicating with our customers about: travel safety alerts/warnings, applying or renewing passports/visas, country-specific travel information, timely updates on crisis situations, etc. Now, with the expansion of social media our reach has grown tremendously and allowed us to offer quicker, round-the-clock customer service while engaging and educating our domestic and international audiences. The majority of our customers continue to use our website as their main source of getting information, but analytics have shown a spike in growth with digital engagement- social media. In today’s fast pace world, having the means to obtain information faster and conveniently is of great demand. The benefit of emerging new technologies like "AI" would not only offer our customers convenience from every corner of the world, but also assist in decreasing call volume and long wait time visits to our passport facilities (particularly during high peak travel season).
Q: Alexa, does my child need a passport? A: To fly internationally, every U.S. citizen must have a valid U.S. passport. See more information here: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/under-16.html
Q: Alexa, do I need a passport to fly domestically? A: No. According to the Department for Homeland Security, no individual needs to adjust travel plans or rush out to get a new driver’s license or a passport for domestic air travel. Until January 22, 2018, residents of all states will still be able to use a state-issued driver’s license or identification card for domestic air travel.
Q: Alexa, Where can I apply for a passport? A: Based on your location, I’ve found the following acceptance facilities: Look up info from nearest acceptance facilities: https://iafdb.travel.state.gov/ Finds user’s nearest 10 facilities.
Q: Alexa, How much does a US Passport cost? A: The cost of your U.S. passport will depend on the type of passport you request and how quickly you need it. See https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/fees.html for details.
Q: Alexa, How long does it take to get a passport? A: For routine service it takes approximately six weeks to receive a passport from time of application. If you need a passport faster see “Get a Passport in a Hurry” https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/services/expedited.html
The Bureau of Consular Affairs has an online service to more widely share the Department’s Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts. The new Application Programming Interface (API) allows developers to access these particular datasets and integrate them into websites and mobile applications such as tourism guides and online travel agencies. Once a dataset is programmed into a third-party site or application, that platform can then display to consumers Travel Warnings and Alerts pulled directly from Travel.State.Gov. For example, a consumer who purchases a plane ticket through an online travel agency may then, within that same website view the latest security information aboutthe destination country. Making this information more accessible to the traveling public directly supports the critical Department mission of protecting the lives and safety of U.S. citizens overseas.
Developers will be able to access the datasets in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud via travel.state.gov or through Data.Gov link. The State Department will continue to maintain RSS feeds for this information as well. Our APIs are currently available here:
https://cadatacatalog.state.gov/dataset
Point of Contact: Natasha Tekeste-Jackson Tekeste-JacksonNM@state.gov (202)485-6152
- ToDo: Fill out Concept Pages for: DHS, FBI, TSA, USPS
- ToDo: Merge HHS and HHS Ofc. Nactional Coordinator pages
- ToDo: Update Problem Statement, or delete it if the relevant text is in other pages
- ToDo: Update Project Hypothesis, or delete it if the relevant text is in other pages