The Global Travel Office (GTO) was created in 2013 to support the outbound immigration of Duke’s faculty, staff and students as well as to continue to oversee the University's Global Travel Registry, administer the Provost's Travel Policy and Restricted Regions List. The office plays an integral role in identifying travelers in an affected region following catastrophes and assists when travelers have personal emergencies/injuries. Through communication, coordination of external providers and partnering with internal offices here at Duke, travelers who find themselves in an emergency situation while they are abroad are connected to resources to get them what they need to stay out of harm's way and, if deemed necessary, this can include evacuation.
GTO provides support to Duke's Faculty and Staff in the realm of travel documentation. Whether it's passports, proof of insurance needed to enter or work in another country, entry visas or comprehensive immigration support for expatriates and their accompanying dependents who take on long-term (>3-months) assignment abroad, GTO guides individuals through the steps and alleviate the administrative burden. GTO staff engage directly with Embassies and Consulates of the nations Duke travelers visit. By centralizing the visa processing, we gain volume leverage which in turn enables us to negotiate and trouble-shoot with Embassy/Consulate staff. A typical traveler handling their own travel documentation would not necessarily be able to do this, nor would they know what host nation’s governments are looking for and wish to see from foreign nationals planning to visit their lands.
the GTO offers its services at no additional cost and charges back to the traveler only those expenses required for the issuance of travel documentation, such as consular application or visa fees, shipping costs, and third-party expediting agency service fees.
The GTO operates under the assumption that:
- Approval for the international travel has been secured in advance from the appropriate Supervisor, Dean/Director or Management Center within the traveler’s school, unit, or department.
- Travel to destinations that have comprehensive embargoes or targeted sanction programs imposed by the U.S. government has been cleared by the Duke University Office of Export Controls.
- GTO will be reimbursed expenses for obtaining travel documentation by the traveler or the traveler’s school, unit or department. In most cases, the traveler provides the GTO staff member providing them support with a Duke Cost Object (“fund code” or WBS element) for the expense. If a grant is the source of funds for payment, the GTO assumes that the traveler has verified the grant allows for these types of expense.
Please contact the GTO, within the Office of Experiential Education, at globaltravel@duke.edu if you encounter difficulty in accessing the travel registry or if you have travel related questions.
For Principal Investigators and Research Support Staff: if you would like help ascertaining what the entry requirements costs will be for the countries in which you have planned travel for research activity (so that it can be included when writing grant proposals), please do not hesitate to reach out. Entry requirements can include visas (entry or exit); work, research or residency permits as well as vaccinations of certain diseases. Remember: Duke is a very diverse faculty, staff and students with many nationalities. So, while there may not costs for traveling under a U.S. passport, there could be costs for other nationalities of students, staff and faculty. Please email globaltravel@duke.edu for help in identifying costs for your target nations.