I am supposed to take my two children to Jamaica during the February school vacation. Before agreeing to the trip, my ex-wife, as is her right under our agreement, requested that I deposit $75,000 into an escrow account with my lawyer and show her proof before the trip. We agreed this would happen each time I take our kids out of the country to ensure she has money to fight for their return if I fail to return (of course I will return).

The other part of our agreement was that I could not travel to a region where there was a travel ban posted on the State Department website. I went on the website and noticed two troubling things – the travel advisory system seems to have changed to a numeric system, and due to the government shutdown, the website says it is not being regularly updated.

I need to buy my tickets, which are expensive and non-refundable. Right now there is no travel ban. Do you think she can argue the new warning system has an impact on my planned trip or that we cannot go because of the government shutdown?

The nice part about the new system is it breaks the warnings down not only by country, but also by region within the country, and the reason for the warning. So while it might be safe to generally travel to a certain country, the State Department has added regions within the country with elevated risk.

As of right now, Jamaica overall has a Level 2 warning, requiring the exercise of increased caution. You can now dig into the advisories and see that the Level 2 warning for Jamaica is due to crime. They go further to tell you which locations in the country are high crime areas. U.S. citizens are advised not to travel to those regions.

The complicating factors for you are the locations of the airports. Both Kingston and Montego Bay, where the international airports are located, are within the designated “do not travel” regions. However, the website says not to travel to certain parts of Kingston and Montego Bay and it goes on to tell you certain neighborhoods, roads and landmarks to avoid. Neither airport is listed.

Because Jamaica is listed as a Level 2 country due to crime as opposed to terrorism or other reasons, it is probably safe to assume there will be no change in that designation between now and February school vacation. I would be more concerned about an inadvertent violation on your part because of limited updates during the government shutdown if the Level 2 designation was due to terrorism.

So, escrow your cash, book your trip and watch the weather. The biggest risk I see is a last-minute snowstorm.