PREPARING YOUR TRIP

As soon as you know of a travel you will make on CERN business, you must fill in the EDH Travel form (TRVL), including for missions in the local area.

Only once your travel request has been approved by your hierarchy, you must:

• Mark your absence in EDH
• Update your profile in the Online Booking Tool (OBT) on the Egencia website
• Download Egencia application to your phone (e-learning available here)

Transport must be booked on the Egencia website: your flights, trains and/or rental cars

• For transport booking on Egencia: you will see a red flag on the flights that are considered as out of policy. If you choose to book it, please add a justification in the dedicated comment section and it will be sent to your Travel Manager for approval or escalated.
• Accommodation can be booked through Egencia (preferable) or on your own.
  • If you opt to book your accommodation on your own, proof of payment must be provided, and reimbursement will be made on the basis of real costs up to a maximum amount corresponding to 60% of the Daily Travel Allowance (DTA).
  • For accommodation booked through Egencia: you will see a red flag on the accommodation that is considered as out of policy. If you choose to book it, please add a justification in the dedicated comment section on Egencia. Your request will be sent to the Travel Manager for approval.
• Regarding conference fees payment, there are two options:
  • You can either send the conference/event invoice to the IR Admin Secretariat and they will create the payment request,
  • Or pay the fees yourself and get reimbursed upon your return, provided that you attach the receipt/invoice and proof of payment to your travel claim.

Please note that public transport must be used whenever possible. The use of taxi should be limited to duly justified cases (e.g. no suitable public transport, bulky equipment to carry, strenuous travel conditions etc).

The use of private vehicle must be justified in the Demande de mission/Travel request. If the use of a private vehicle is duly justified and authorized, the traveler will be reimbursed an amount equivalent to the most cost-effective means of public transport (parking fees, fuel and motorway tolls are not reimbursed).

The roles and responsibilities of the traveler, travel arranger, travel manager, travel coordinator, group leader, and budget holder are detailed on the Duty Travel Coordination page.

If your destination country requires a VISA, please refer to CIBT

If you need a visa to travel to Russia, please follow the admin eGuide procedure.

Certain formalities must be completed for trips to Australia, Canada, United Kingdom or the United States. For more details:

• ETA for the UK
• ETA for Australia
• ETA for Canada
• ESTA for the United States

Please remember to take your UNIQA card with you. More information is available on the CHIS pages

Assistance before and during an official travel:

CERN has partnered with a specialized travel assistance company, International SOS (ISOS), to provide medical and security assistance to its members of personnel traveling for official purposes. You can find the details of their services and practical information on the corresponding admin eGuide page.

Cancellation

In case your trip is cancelled but expenses were already incurred and cannot be refunded (transport, registration, etc.), please do not reject or cancel the EDH TRVL. When the document returns to you, please contact the IR Admin Secretariat for instructions

REIMBURSEMENT CLAIM - Claims for reimbursement of duty-travel expenses, and any necessary supporting documents, shall be submitted within six months of the last day of duty travel

When you return from your trip, you will receive a notification from EDH to confirm your itinerary. Please note that all the questions need to be answered carefully: itinerary, meals, hotel nights and other expenses, etc. If the accommodation was booked by you, you are requested to attach a scan of your hotel invoice to your Travel request. For transport by train, please make sure to attach your train tickets to the travel claim.

NB: The same rules apply for lecturers invited by CERN. See "Reimbursement formalities" for additional information.

Regarding Local Duty Travel, please refer to the Travel guidelines for outreach activities in the local area (More information under “Nota Bene – Kind Reminder”)

Private stay / Personal choices

If travelers plan to add a private stay to their duty travel or to make their own travel arrangements (e.g. private vehicle) for private reasons, the traveler searches, prior to the travel, for a comparative lowest price public transport journey in the online booking tool or website, create a print screen of the price and attach it to the Demande de mission / Travel request (TRVL) form. Any additional expenses resulting from a personal choice must be deducted from the final reimbursement under the section “Other expenses” by adding a minus position."

For external training (including the local area), a travel request must be created. 

Useful links

Duty travel procedure

Duty Travel Coordination

EDH Travel

cff.ch

Assistance related to official travel

CIBT - Visa requirements

Procedure for requesting a visa for Russia

Travel guidelines for outreach activities in the local area

NOTA BENE – KIND REMINDER

• Duty travel shall, by default, start and end at the duty station except where otherwise authorized
• Unless travel schedules makes it unavoidable, the Organization shall not require travelers to travel between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (local time).
• Where travelers are required to travel on a return journey between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (local time), arriving on a working day (Geneva time), they are entitled to a recovery period equal to one half working day upon arrival.
• Where travelers are required to travel on a return journey between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (local time) over a Saturday night, or undertake any one-way journey of a duration of greater than 12 hours, they are entitled to a recovery period equal to one half working day within the next working day.
• In cases where the transportation time to the destination of duty travel is less than or equal to six hours, the duty travel period should typically begin and end within half a calendar day of the event for which the duty travel occurs. When the transportation time is greater than six hours, the applicable period is 36 hours.
• Local duty travel (within 50 km from CERN): The Organization shall cover transport and other expenses necessarily incurred when the cumulative amount exceeds 10 CHF. No DTA is paid in respect of local duty travel.