Resources
Visitor Travel Reimbursement Procedure

Within 30 days of your return from travel, complete the Visitor’s Expense Report by entering your name, address, phone number, and expenses. Sign and date the form and mail it with your receipts to Northwestern University Biomedical Engineering, 2145 Sheridan Rd E310, Evanston, IL 60208.

Reimbursable Travel Expenses

Northwestern University’s reimbursement policy is based on documentation of reasonable and actual expenses, supported by original itemized receipts. Original itemized receipts must be submitted for all travel expenses. Monthly credit card statements and/or travel agency invoices and statements alone are not acceptable as backup documentation.

The most common travel expenses include the following:

Airfare

Air travel must be at the most reasonable and economical rate. Business class travel is permitted when scheduled flight time, including stopovers and change of planes, is in excess of 12 hours. Use of foreign-based carriers is restricted on sponsored programs. Reasonable and actual add-on airline fees are reimbursable. Such add-on fees include, but are not limited to, checked baggage fees and advance seat selection fees.

Ground Transportation

Taxi fares, including tips, are reimbursable where public transportation is not practical. Shuttle, limousine, or livery service charges, to and from airports and railroad stations plus reasonable tips, are reimbursable, where such costs do not exceed the comparable taxi fare.

Lodging

Travelers must book standard accommodations in reasonably priced, commercial-class hotels and motels.

Meals

Travelers should use reasonably priced restaurants. Tips are reimbursable.

Travel Expenses Not Reimbursable

  1. Airfares, Business class, for travel with scheduled flight time, including stopovers and change of planes, of 12 hours or less
  2. Airfares, First-class
  3. Airline clubs
  4. Airline upgrades
  5. Books, magazines, or newspapers for personal use
  6. Child-care, babysitting, house-sitting, pet-sitting/kennel charges
  7. Costs incurred by traveler's failure to cancel transportation or hotel reservations in a timely fashion
  8. Laundry and dry-cleaning
  9. Passports, vaccinations, and visas, when not required as a specific and necessary condition of the travel assignment
  10. Personal entertainment expenses including in-flight movies, headsets, health club facilities, hotel pay-per-view movies, in-theater movies, social activities, and related incidental costs
  11. Personal grooming products including soap, shampoo, and over the counter medicines
  12. Travel accident insurance premiums and/or purchase of additional travel insurance (with the exception of international health insurance)
  13. Other expenses not directly related to the performance of the travel assignment

Additional Information

In addition to the list above, the following travel-related items are not allowable as a direct cost on a sponsored program:

  1. Airfares, Business class - Business class travel is reimbursable only with advance written approval of the sponsor and when the scheduled flight time, including stopovers and change of planes, is in excess of 12 hours.
  2. Alcohol