These guides and checklists will help you travel inside and outside the US. We also offer resources to explore Glendale and Southern California. Stay informed about upcoming activities in our newsletter and follow @GCC_ISO on Instagram!  As always, please do not hesitate to contact us at gcciso@glendale.edu if you need assistance at any time.

Request Your Travel Signature

Travel Guidelines & Travel Do's & Don'ts Advisory

Invitation Letters (invite your friends and family to visit you)

Driving in the US

Explore Glendale

Transportation options

Popular Attractions/Destinations

VisitCalifornia: Official Site

Travel Advisories:

Due to the current focus on illegal immigration, all students should take care to carry proof of your legal status or "legal registration" with you at all times. This means carrying a printed version of your I-94 card and your printed and signed I-20; students on OPT should also have their EAD card. We also strongly recommend that you have a copy of your passport easily accessible in a cloud drive, such as Google Drive or iCloud.  

Visa Revocations: To see if your visa has been revoked, please visit ceac.state.gov. If you have had any interaction with law enforcement that resulted in fingerprinting/an arrest, you should assume your visa has been revoked and not engage in international travel.

• Students from China and Hong Kong: On May 29, the Department of State issued a memo indicating intentions to revoke Chinese visas. The policy surrounding revocations is not clear, and we do not know under what circumstances visas will be revoked. At this time, we are strongly urging against travel for students from these countries. If you intended to engage in international travel, please contact your embassy well before your travel date to ensure that your visa is still valid.

Visa appointments: Social media is being used in the vetting of students for visas. Please review this article for more information.  

Visa Reciprocity Changes: Effective July 2025, citizens from the countries of Angola, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Micronesia,  Niger, Nigeria, Palau, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, & Zimbabwe will only be eligible for single-entry F-1 visas with an expiration date of 3 months after issuance. If you currently hold a valid visa that shows a longer duration and/or multiple entries, then this issuance will continue to be honored. However, these changes mean that anyone with an expired visa who applies for a new visa abroad will need to schedule your visa appointment no earlier than 3 months before your return to the US. You will need to enter the US no later than 3 months after the visa's issuance. A "single-entry" means your visa can only be used once. Any current student with a single-entry notation on the visa who departs the US after entry, will need to apply for a new visa the next time you travel outside of the US.

The countries listed in the Travel Ban section below are currently restricted from issuing F-1 visas at this time but have also had these visa reciprocity changes implemented, except as follows: Laos (6 month limit, multiple entry), Turkmenistan (tiered fee schedules that impact duration/number of entries). 

Travel Ban: On December 4, 2025, reports began surfacing that the travel ban will be expanded to 30+ countries. We do not have a list of possibly affected countries, however, it should be noted that the original country list that was being considered for travel bans in early 2025 included the following countries: Angola; Antigua and Barbuda; Belarus; Benin; Bhutan; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Cote d'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of Congo; Djibouti; Dominica; Ethiopia; Egypt; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Ivory Coast; Kyrgyzstan; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Pakistan; Russia; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; South Sudan; Syria; Tanzania; Tonga; Tuvalu; Uganda; Vanuatu; Zambia; and Zimbabwe. Other countries may be being considered. The only bans that are currently in effect are the ones listed below, but students from these countries with expired visas may wish to take extra caution pending updates to the Presidential Proclamation.

On June 4, 2025, the Trump administration instated a total travel ban that will go into effect as of June 9, 2025, for citizens of Afghanistan, Burma/Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. A partial ban has been placed on tourist (B) and student visa (F/M/J) holders from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela; individuals from these countries may enter the US in other visa categories. This does not affect your visa or your current F-1 status, and the government has clarified that current students with valid visas issued before 6/9/25 will continue to be able to reenter. Should you have a valid visa and decide to engage in travel, you should be prepared for confusion at the border as Customs and Border Protection works to inform all their officers regarding these bans. If you decide to engage in international travel, we encourage you to print and carry the DOS Cable addressing this proclamation in the case that you need to show it to an immigration officer. If your visa has expired, you should not engage in international travel at this time, as student visa issuance is no longer available to citizens of these countries. 

Effective May 12, 2021 the US Embassy in Moscow has stopped issuing F-1 student visas. Any student from Russia with an expired or expiring visa is encouraged to remain in the US. Otherwise, you will now need to go to a 3rd country for visa stamping. The U.S. Department of State has designated the following posts for Russian student processing: Mission Kazakhstan and U.S. embassies Belgrade and Yerevan. Applicants are encouraged to check each post's website for the latest information on services and appointment availability at that specific post. Though these have been designated by the US DOS, it does not mean that you are limited to these posts. Please review our Travel Guidelines document for a discussion of third country national processing