Endorsing Travel on the DS-2019: Announcement from the USAID RO

Following, is an announcement from the USAID RO from an email sent to all Visa Compliance System R2 Verifiers:

The purpose of this email is to explain the procedures for authorizing the personal or professional travel of USAID-funded Exchange Visitors (EV's) during the term of their U.S. exchange visitor / training event.

It recently came to our attention that the mid-program travel of a USAID EV had been "validated" by someone other than a USAID Responsible or Alternative Responsible Officer. In this instance, an EV who was in the U.S. for a two-year degree-earning program traveled home twice during that two year period. That is fine, and it is usually allowable, except that the box on his DS-2019 with the heading "Travel Validation by Responsible Officer" contained the signature of someone other than a USAID Responsible or Alternate Responsible Officer. In other words, this EV's travel was authorized by someone who did not have the authority to authorize the travel.

Proper travel validation is important in order to facilitate the re-entry of exchange visitors to the U.S. If your USAID-funded participants need to travel home or to another third country for any purpose, and they intend to return to the U.S. to continue their program, their DS-2019 must have the signature of either the Responsible Officer or Alternate Responsible Officer indicating USAID's approval of the travel. The travel endorsement box is located on the lower right hand of the form.

In order to allow for expeditious processing of travel validations we ask that the following steps be taken:

1. Mail to the address below, the original stamped DS-2019 and a letter on your organization's letterhead indicating that the exchange visitor plans to return to the U.S. and is in good academic standing or is fully participating in their program:
   • Edward Pramuk | USAID/ISTI | 1300 Pennsylvania Ave, Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20004
2. Please be sure to include a pre-paid, return-addressed express-mail shipping envelope and label along with the letter above to ensure that we can return the validated DS-2019 in a timely manner.

If you have any questions about travel validation or any other USAID visa compliance issue, please email Edward Pramuk, epramuk@usaid.gov or James McDonald, jmcdonald@usaid.gov.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Jim Nindel