General Lab Information

Electronic Country Clearance (ECC) Instructions

For Foreign Travel on Behalf of the United States Support Program (USSP)

Background

Contractors and National Laboratory personnel funded by the USSP for travel to Vienna, Austria for work at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA ) or to other foreign destinations for USSP=related business are required to submit Foreign Travel Management System (FTMS) forms along with an approved travel authorization, and to obtain an electronic country clearance (eCC) from the Department of Energy (DOE). This page explains the steps to be taken in getting foreign travel approved, and in preparing the eCC. Teresa Montuori of ISPO is the contact for all related eCC matters, and maintains the below procedure in order to assist Contractors and National Laboratory Coordinators with obtaining electronic country clearance for USSP-funded foreign travel.

Procedure

  1. The foreign travel approval request MUST be submitted 45 days prior to departure.
  2. Before beginning the eCC request process, the Contractor or Laboratory should notify the assigned ISPO Task Monitor (see list below) about the planned travel so that ISPO can confirm that it has been approved by the USSP government sponsors, the Subgroup on Safeguards Technical Support (SSTS). If the travel has not yet been approved, ISPO will contact the SSTS to get their determination. Once ISPO verifies that the travel has received approval, then ISPO (for Contractors) or the Laboratory can begin processing the travel and eCC request.
  3. Each traveler must have an active Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Guest ID before any travel authorization can be initiated. If the traveler has never had a BNL Guest ID number before, they should register here: https://www.bnl.gov/guv/gis.php
  4. Once the travel has been approved, either ISPO (for Contractors) or the traveler's home Laboratory's personnel responsible for processing foreign travel will enter the trip information into the DOE Foreign Travel Management System (FTMS). Some items to note regarding the FTMS forms:
    • In section II, list all the names of other personnel that will also be on this trip (this should match the names on the eCC).
    • In section III, include the following statement with the Justification for the trip: “Funding for this travel has been approved by the SSTS under USSP task #______”. (The USSP task number is available from the traveler or the assigned ISPO Task Monitor.)
    • Include Teresa Montuori, Debra Basozmen, and the assigned ISPO Task Monitor (Brookhaven National Laboratory) in the “notify-local” routing, and Bobby Carter (NA24) as Programmatic RPSO-approver. (see #4 below)
    • If Counter Threat Awareness Training (CTAT) Training is required for the trip, please note the date of completion, and attach the certificate in the appropriate section. For additional information on CTAT training, please visit: https://fsitraining.state.gov/home/7480/. This training must be retaken after 6 years.
    • Traveler must complete Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) registration at this site: https://step.state.gov/. Date of completion should be noted in section I.
    • When traveling to Austria, the traveler's passport MUST be valid for six months AFTER your departure date.
    • For all travel to the IAEA, in the Destination drop-down choose the destination country as “Austria, UNVIE Vienna".
    • For the Agency/Section/Other item choose IAEA.
  5. Submit the eCC request, adding the following list of carbon-copy (cc) recipients using a semicolon (;) after each email address: Kevin Veal, Demetrius Davis, Adam Piceno, Santiago Aguilar, Bobby Carter, Katherine Bachner, Teresa Montuori, Ray Diaz

    Kevin.Veal@nnsa.doe.gov; davisdn@state.gov; adam.x.piceno.ctr@mail.mil; Santiago.Aguilar@nrc.gov; bobby.carter@hq.doe.gov; BachnerKM@state.gov; tmontuori@bnl.gov; diazr@bnl.gov
    After copying, use (Ctrl-V) to paste the text above into your (cc) email field.

    Add the assigned ISPO Task Monitor from the list below (for assistance on assigned Task Monitors, please contact your POTAS Coordinator):

    1. Joe Carbonaro, carbonar@bnl.gov
    2. Susan Pepper, pepper@bnl.gov
    3. Steve Amundson, samundson@bnl.gov
    4. Kim Gilligan, kgilligan@bnl.gov
    5. Josh Tackentien, tackentien@bnl.gov

    This list will distribute the eCC to the Subgroup on Safeguards Technical Support (SSTS), ISPO, and the U.S. Mission Vienna.

  6. The approval process will be as follows:
    1. BNL or the traveler's Laboratory will notify the ISPO Liaison Officer, Katherine Bachner, that the trip has been approved for the traveler(s).
    2. If the eCC needs to be revised, the Liaison Officer will not approve it and it will be sent back to the originating Laboratory.
    3. The U.S. Mission in Vienna will approve or decline the eCC based on the notification from ISPO.
    4. The approval will be distributed automatically to all the personnel listed as the carbon copied recipients on the eCC

Note: It is expected there will be cases where the laboratories will not submit the eCC properly. However, the system is fail-safe in that the U.S. Mission Vienna will not approve the eCC for a traveler unless they have been informed the SSTS has approved the travel. If the SSTS and ISPO personnel are bypassed in the eCC submittal, the ISPO Liaison Officer will not approve the travel.

If an emergency occurs, or there are questions, or the Embassy/Post needs additional information on this eCC, please notify Chantal Wilson, NNSA, phone: 202-586-5234; email: chantal.wilson@nnsa.doe.gov and/or Vicki McCoy, NNSA; phone: 301-903-0505; email: vicki.mccoy@nnsa.doe.gov.