Travel Considerations

University personnel often travel abroad as part of their ongoing scholarly efforts. While international travel is generally free of export concerns under most circumstances, several factors that may cause it to be restricted by export controls. It is important to consider the following in order to protect your research, yourself, and the university:

Where are you going?

Travel to most countries is not restricted or prohibited; however, the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) broadly regulates and restricts interactions with embargoed countries. These restrictions vary depending on the country and change frequently depending on our economic and political relations.

What are you taking with you?

Faculty, staff and students traveling abroad who may have any equipment, technology, computers or personal devices with information, data or technology subject to export controls should first contact the IT Support Center at 202-994-4948 or email [email protected] for information and support. Please include the country of destination, any specific requirements in terms of application or systems access and the purpose of the visit.

Additional advice is provided by GW Information Technology’s Guidelines to Mobile Device Security Abroad (PDF).

What are you doing and who will you interact with?

If teaching abroad, limit your content to that of a catalog course; if you are presenting or sharing data and information, limit to only that which is published or qualifies for the fundamental research exclusion (FRE) . The same applies when collaborating overseas and sharing information with your foreign collaborators.

Who you interact with overseas also plays an important role in export compliance. You may request a Restricted Parties Screening (RPS) on people and associated entities you plan to interact with to ensure they are not listed on any U.S. government-issued blocked or denied parties lists. RPS requests may be made by emailing the Office of Research Integrity at [email protected].