Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)
Whether you’re in northern Thailand on a short trip or living here permanently, we strongly recommend that you sign up with the Department of State’s online Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP).
STEP is a free, U.S. government-provided service for Americans traveling or living in a foreign country. It allows you to record information about your trip or foreign residence. In an emergency or crisis, we will use the information you provide to locate you or pass on critical information.
STEP replaces all previous “registration” systems. You do not have to come to the Consulate to sign up. STEP allows you to update your contact information anytime and anywhere you have an Internet connection. The information you provide is saved on Department of State computers and is protected by the Privacy Act.
SOME TIPS FOR USING STEP
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Please Share. When you create your traveler profile, please provide as much contact information as possible on the “Personal Info” tab. This information is extremely helpful if you are in an emergency, especially information about your relatives. Also, enter your email address. For speed and accuracy of communication, we use email to send messages. If you do not provide an email address, you will not receive our Consulate messages.
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Add a Trip. Once you create your profile, be sure to add a “trip.” (Even if you are a long-term resident in northern Thailand –- click on “add a non-U.S. residence.”) This is how you tell STEP that you are here and for how long. Please provide as much detail as possible about where you are staying. That helps us locate you in an emergency.
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Check the Box. On the “Email List” tab, please check the box that says, “Yes, I would like to receive emails specific to the embassy/consulate regions that I selected for this trip.” If you do not, STEP assumes that you simply want to register your presence and that you do not want to hear from the Consulate. That means you will not receive our messages.
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Check Your Junk Mail. Please check your “junk mail” folder to make sure our messages do not end up there. The spam filters of some email services see our large distribution list and think that we are sending junk mail. If you see our messages in your junk mail folder, please add us to your “safe list.”
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Add Other Trips. If you travel frequently to the rest of Thailand, you may create a separate trip as a frequent traveler to Bangkok. That will allow you to receive Embassy Bangkok’s messages as well. You can do the same for any other places you might travel to, such as China or India.
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Update Yearly. Please keep your STEP enrollment updated. If your contact information is not current, we cannot reach you. We recommend that you check STEP every year, to ensure that everything is up to date. If you cannot remember the last time you updated your enrollment, now is a good time to do it again.
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Password Problems? If you forget your username or password and cannot recover it with the “secret questions” process, simply create a new profile under a different username. We will reconcile the duplicate enrollments.