International Travel for Employees

Northwestern strongly recommends booking through one of our preferred travel agencies for all University travel.

Booking Your Trip

• Book with one of Northwestern's contracted travel agencies for benefits like direct billing, discounted fares, and traveler assistance. Please visit our Northwestern Travel Agencies web page for more information.
• United Airlines (our preferred airline) and its affiliates, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Al Nipon Airlines (ANA), offer discounted rates for Northwestern travelers.

Visa and Passport Help

Northwestern has partnered with CIBT through the Big Ten Academic Alliance to provide deeply discounted fees. A direct link to CIBT loaded with BTAA's discounted fees can be found on the Key Travel vendor profile page. Visa services are personal pay and are reimbursable only if they are necessary for travel on behalf of the University.

Resources

Office of Global Safety and Security

Northwestern is concerned about the safety and well-being of its international travelers. To support travelers, the Office of Global Safety and Security's website provides information on travel health, safety and security, including:

International Health Insurance

• Information about BCBS Global Solutions (formerly GeoBlue), which automatically covers most employees traveling abroad on University-affiliated trips. Employees are strongly encouraged to complete a one-time registration to obtain access to overseas resources and expedite claims.
• Advice on maintaining good health abroad including topics such as immunizations, traveling with medications, managing pre-existing conditions, routine care abroad, reimbursement for care, see Travel Health.

Safety and Security

• Sign up for security alerts from Crisis24 and/or the U.S. Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive information from the nearest embassy or consulate about safety issues at your destination.
• Find the 911 equivalent for your destination documented by the U.S. Department of State.

For questions or concerns about international travel health, safety, or security, contact the staff of the Office of Global Safety and Security.

Requirements

Disclosure for High-Risk Travel

• Employees traveling to any of these 23 countries identified by Crisis24 as high-risk must disclose their travel plans to secure evacuation coverage.

Sanctions Compliance

• The Northwestern's Office of Export Controls & International Compliance highly encourages employees traveling to OFAC sanctioned countries to register their travel.

Employees Traveling with Students

• Review comprehensive information on traveling abroad with student groups including mandatory training and incident reporting.

International Communications

International telephone calls may be reimbursed with appropriate documentation and substantiation of the business purpose of the call. See Travel Policy Section III H- Documentation of Expenses.

International phone cards are recognized as a cost-effective way of paying for international business calls.

Recommended reimbursement guidelines for international phone cards with value of:

• $25 or less are reimbursable with no individual call documentation required.
• more than $25 are reimbursable with log of business calls for which the phone card is used, listing the person called, date of call, length of call and business purpose of the call. To meet audit requirements, the phone card usage log should be filed with the original phone card purchase documentation.