Please note, however, that transactions relating to travel for journalistic activity by persons regularly employed in such capacity by a newsgathering organization are exempt from the prohibition. Please note as well that U.S. persons may engage in travel-related transactions for the sole purpose of visiting immediate family members in Iraq, provided that the U.S. persons seeking travel obtain a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The only exceptions to this licensing requirement are for journalistic activity or for U.S. government or United Nations business. In accordance with the Iraqi law, any child whose father is an Iraqi citizen is also considered an Iraqi citizen. Even if the names of children are written in their mother's foreign passport, Iraqi authorities may consider the children Iraqi citizens if the father is Iraqi.
Children require their father's permission to travel.
Women under the age of 45 must travel with an escort, such as her husband, father, or a close male member of the family who has the permission of the husband or father to be an escort for his wife or daughter. The authorities may apply this law to women traveling on foreign passports. Otherwise, when in Iraq, a woman married to an Iraqi and traveling on her foreign passport may be required to produce evidence of her husband's permission to leave the country. There is no U.S. Embassy in Iraq. The U.S. Government is not in a position to accord normal consular protective services to U.S. citizens who, despite the travel warning, are in Iraq.