After hours and on weekends AFS has a 24-hour duty officer system in place. To reach the AFS Duty Officer in case of emergency, call 1-800-237-4636 ext. 9. You will be connected with an answering service, which will take down your information and forward it to the AFS Duty Officer on call at that time. The AFS Duty Officer will then be back in touch with you directly as soon as possible. If you do not get a call back within 15 minutes, please call the answering service again and state clearly that you are calling for the second time. Duty Officers are most often not in an AFS office when on call. Responsibility for responding to emergency calls rotates among AFS staff throughout the country and thus in different time zones.
The Duty Officer is only for emergency situations (ie: hospital, trouble with law, student is in danger) that occur after offices are closed. If it is not an emergency, please contact the Participant Support Staff and leave a message so they can follow up with you during normal business hours.