COVID-19 Resources

AFS offers a large number of destinations for study abroad around the world. AFS exchange programs are currently running or planned to begin in all AFS destinations.

Vaccination regulations are determined by national governments, other local health care authorities and school authorities. AFS is finding that vaccination regulations and requirements are changing and are likely to do so before and during your program. AFS has no control over this, and AFS participants must comply with local regulations in their host communities. It is possible that you may be required to get a vaccine or a booster during your program. Please contact us to learn more, and make sure you are familiar with the vaccination regulations in the countries where you would like to go on your exchange program. If you have not had access to the vaccine in your home country, it may be possible to be vaccinated in your host country. AFS is finding that more and more families and schools are requiring vaccines – if you are unwilling to be vaccinated, this may make placement and school enrollment very difficult.

As we enter 2022, the Omicron variant of COVID is quickly spreading around the world, and countries are changing their regulations in response. In some cases participants cannot enter a host country or enroll in school without proof of vaccination.

Some hosting Partners now wish to require vaccination. Please reach out to us know more about vaccinations requirements for your AFS Exchange experience.

The availability of the vaccine and the eligibility for the vaccine varies from country to country. AFS can help provide information about this for your host country, but it will be up to you to arrange to get the vaccine and to pay for it if there are any associated costs.

AFS is constantly assessing if and when we are able to safely host students in different countries. We are closely monitoring health and travel recommendations from authorities as well as our robust, on-the-ground volunteer network. Please contact AFS in the country where you live to find out the planned start date for your program.

Participant safety and well-being remain our number one priority. As an international network of organizations, AFS is actively re-assessing the conditions on a country-by-country basis. Our global risk management team has established a robust checklist of criteria to clear a country to host and/or send students again. No AFS partner in any country will be able to host students, or send students abroad, unless they meet 100% of the criteria. The criteria include country-specific information related to the current state of the outbreak in each country, government and medical capabilities for dealing with it, immigration and airline restrictions, schools, social/daily life implications, host family capacity, and partner support capabilities among others.

Participant safety and well-being remain our number one priority. As a global network of organizations, AFS is actively re-assessing the conditions on a country-by-country basis, and will continue to do so throughout the duration of the program. We will determine how well AFS can continue to support participants on the program in case of another outbreak, and assess if the program can continue in the best interest of the participants’ safety.

If you feel any symptoms of Covid-19 or any other illness, you should let your host family know immediately. Together with them, you should see a doctor and follow all the health recommendations they give you. You should also keep AFS in the country where you are hosted informed, so they can provide support to you and your family.

Please follow all the medical and safety advice and regulations that apply in your host country. This may include taking precautions related to your own health or remaining in quarantine with your host family. Please notify your AFS contact person and the AFS office in your host country so they can provide support.

Your concerns are completely valid. Please know that AFS has more than 70 years of experience worldwide in operating study abroad programs, as well as a network of experienced professionals in risk management who have successfully guided our participants through various challenges (including evacuating participants from Japan following the 2011 earthquake, from Venezuela and Egypt during political crises, and managing epidemics like H1N1 and SARS, to name a few examples). At the start of the current pandemic in 2020, we safely and rapidly evacuated almost 7,000 AFSers from 90+ countries. We cannot guarantee your safety at any time, but we take your safety as our top priority and have a robust system to monitor and support our participants.

Every young person who goes abroad with AFS has access to a robust support network, able to help young people, including:

• Carefully screened host families who take care of our participants as if they were their own children;
• A network of volunteers in destination countries who provide local support during the stay of AFS participants;
• A global team of trained and prepared risk management professionals who constantly monitors student well-being and safety.

You may reach to any one of us from our team:

Mr. Joseph Kuok +91-9873-188-897 | Manjit Sandhu +91-8586-925-131
Shradha Roy +91-9873-119-541 | Manjula Devi +91-8586-925-038
Nikhil Bhatnagar +91-8586-985-634 | Bharat Kandpal +91-8586-925-136
Bulbul Kashyap +91-8586-925-130 | Chunjanglung Kamei +91-7289-915-879
Vibhooti Maldhari +91-7874-686-466 | Rajat Singh +91-8586-925-134

The AFS office in the host country will work to identify a new family to host your child. It will be important to remember that many people are very afraid of this virus and may be reluctant to host, even if a person is considered “free” of the disease after diagnosis and treatment. AFS will address this situation with the participant’s safety as a top priority.

In general, if a government entity requires such an action, AFS would expect the governmental entity to cover those costs. If this is not the case, AFS will work with you to determine the best way to handle this. Our challenge is that if a participant is in quarantine, it is very difficult for AFS volunteers and staff to provide the in-person support we normally give to our participants, and with privacy laws, AFS may face challenges getting updates from governmental or medical officials. (You the parents may become the primary source of information.).

AFS will look at each case on an individual basis. It is possible that all people living in the household may be put on some sort of ‘in-house’ quarantine and not allowed to leave. It is very possible that other families will not be willing to take in someone who has been exposed to the virus until the person has cleared some sort of quarantine. AFS will work with each situation at the time to determine what is possible given local regulations and availability of families and volunteers.

AFS encourages you to speak to your child’s physician about your concerns so that you can decide whether this is the right time for your child to go on an exchange with AFS. Please keep us informed of your decision and of your child’s condition.

In general, it has been AFS’ experience that governmental entities that make such requirements will cover the expense of the required quarantine. If they do not, once your child is back in the home country, the AFS program has ended and any expenses incurred are your responsibility.

Costs of testing in any of the scenarios above are the responsibility of the sending family. Any medical tests or inoculations required to board a plane, get a visa or enter school are the responsibility of the parents.

If AFS must take such actions, the hotel expense will be covered by AFS and AFS will provide an adult volunteer or staff member to regularly monitor and support the participant.

The host family covers the cost of their own treatment. AFS does NOT provide any medical coverage for host families.

In any situation, AFS strives to make good return arrangements. However, if there are no flights available, or if airports are closed, AFS may not be able to return your child home in the timeframe you would hope for. In this crisis, AFS has worked with governmental authorities and some special flights for evacuation have been made available to AFS participants, however, we cannot guarantee such possibilities in the future. We were able to move a large amount of participants home in a short amount of time, and yet, we recognize that border closings and cancelled flights are factors that are out of our control.

During the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, air ambulance companies that provide medical evacuation services suspended this work. The highly contagious nature of the COVID-19 created requirements that personnel working on such flights would be required to go into 14-day quarantines after one flight. Therefore, AFS does not believe it is likely that medical evacuations for someone suffering from COVID-19 will be available. We also recognize that medical evacuations for any reason have been made much more complex due to the nature of the COVID-19 virus.