Travel Memo
Travel to Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East/North Africa and South/Central Asia
IIE will email you detailed instructions for submitting the Travel Request Form once all the required documents have been submitted and cleared in the IIE Participant Portal.
Grantee flights are coordinated by the Fulbright program’s approved travel agency, American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), which will bill IIE directly for the costs of your tickets. This process helps accomplish several goals for the program, including compliance with the Fly America Act. We also hope that consistent use of the identified travel agency will provide you a streamlined, less stressful way to handle air ticketing for the grant. If you have any questions or concerns about the process, please contact the IIE Program Manager for your region at FulbrightStudentAdvisingAF@iie.org for the Africa region, FulbrightStudentAdvisingMENA@iie.org for the MENA region, or FulbrightStudentAdvisingSCA@iie.org for the South and Central Asia region.
Please note the following:
- You should book your flights four to six weeks prior to the start of your grant.
Booking can only be made for economy class round-trip tickets on a U.S. carrier, as indicated by the Fly America/Open Skies Guidelines. The use of frequent flyer miles/points or personal funds to upgrade the issued economy class ticket may not be accommodated by GBT. - Grant funding provides a “Settling-in Allowance” that is designed to help cover costs associated with excess baggage and settling in your host country.
- You may need to update your itinerary during the grant period, subject to fare rules. All changes will have to be approved by IIE and must adhere to the travel policy and budget limit. Changes should only be made for compelling personal or program related reasons. Any costs that are not pre-approved or go over the travel budget will be your responsibility.
- You may need to set a placeholder date as the return date if an airline does not allow for booking return flights too far in advance. It is your responsibility to update the return flights as soon as possible upon settling down in your host country, and/or once the airline allows it, in order to avoid any additional fees.
- Any deviation from these parameters must be approved in advance by the IIE Program Manager.