International Travel Registering with State Dept

https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step is the website to start the process. They now use a centralized login (through login.gov) that is also used for other purposes like Social Security. So you may need to go through a process to set up an account.

If you don't want to do that right now or you have issues, you can select "continue as guest" and subscribe to travel messages only without providing details specific to you: https://mytravel.state.gov/s/step/step-create-account

The easiest thing might be to create a login.gov account first, then register and log in to your account. You can do that here: https://login.gov/create-an-account/

Government websites are confusing at the moment, they seem to want to standardize on one way to log in but there are still several versions running at the same time. I'm totally lost at the SS website these days.

.... I'd be curious to know how many Americans do really use STEP (the above-mentioned register) when travelling abroad.

In Europe, we also have this 'feature' -albeit managed individually, each country has its own- but, to my knowledge in most cases it's hardly used, even when travelling to less-than-stable areas of the planet.

Hi, phred…. For Social Security, assuming you have already set up your SSA online in the past, simply go to SSA.gov, and the log-in button will take you to log in at your choice of login.gov or id.me. You need only have one of these set up. After you have authenticated yourself there, you will be dumped back into your SSA online account directly. This works the same for IRS, OPM, and I believe Medicare. And if you are needing to go to more than one of these, I believe it recognizes that for that session you are going and you don’t have to re-verify. (State department reg is out of my loop, but guessing it may be set the same).

I'd be curious to know how many Americans do really use STEP (the
above-mentioned register) when travelling abroad.

I register with STEP before all my trips. It’s been very useful in alerting me to planned protests so I can avoid the areas. Most recently, I was altered to the March 14 protests while I was in Spain.

I'd be curious to know how many Americans do really use STEP (the
above-mentioned register) when travelling abroad.

I also register for every trip. There may be some who argue about the what you might get via the notices (e.g. the "general worldwide caution" that was issued recently) but I would rather get that bit of info than not. When I traveled in SE Asia there was a civil uprising in Thailand and the notifications about protests (very large events affecting tourist areas) were extremely useful. I view the registration as one piece of a rather large package of ways to prepare for an unexpected situation while away. As it's a very long journey to get back home from Europe, I want every tool available that could help with that process.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I am registered! Yay!! Many thanks. Kyle

Kyle, that's great! What do you think you did to make it work this time?

And I agree that accessing the government websites can be a frustrating experience!

Phred, regarding Social Security, the last few times I've been on their website, there has been an announcement saying that you are no longer allowed to use the SSA login that most people have been using for decades. You're must log in with either Login.gov or ID.me. It used to be that you had an option to use any of the 3, but I guess they just finally removed the old SSA login.

If you're curious, Login.gov and ID.me are "... secure, NIST-approved identity verification systems for U.S. government sites. Login.gov is government-run (no biometrics), while ID.me is a private company often using facial recognition. While both are used for SSA/VA, ID.me is currently more universally accepted for stricter requirements like IRS ...".