Reimbursing Passport Fees

Does your company reimburse employees for the cost of passport applications and fees? The trip to the foreign location is a business necessity. Others in the office have paid for their passports personally in the past. However, one employee has specifically requested reimbursement and indicated that he would not use the passport for any personal reason.

Anonymous

Response:

If a passport is likely to be required for travel on the job, then yes, we pay for it, even though it can be used personally. Passport-page additions and visas are always paid by the company.

I don't know that we have a policy for this cost in our European or Asia/PAC subsidiaries. I wouldn't have a problem with payment, though. The difference is that Europeans and others typically have a passport as a matter of course because multinational travel has been a part of their lives.

Bill Koch (Bill.Koch@ddiworld.com )

Response:

We have reimbursed passport fees if they are paid for in response to a business trip. We don’t reimburse fees for someone already holding a passport who had acquired it earlier for personal use. If we need them to go, we’ll pay for the passport and expediting fees (if necessary) if they don’t have the documentation. We will also reimburse any medical fees stemming from expenses like vaccinations or medications, visa fees, stamp taxes, and so on, related to the trip.

Rick Danning (rick.danning@metaltek.com )

Response:

Before I retired, the company policy that I established was that any employee required to do foreign travel, even if only for one trip (including conferences or meetings of business-related organizations) would be fully reimbursed for passport costs (and foreign driver’s permits). If family members were required (or by usual practice did) travel as well, we covered their costs, too. This was true even if they already had passports and there were no restrictions on other uses of the passport.

Ken Mader (kenmader@eastlink.ca )

Response:

It has been common practice at every company that I have ever worked for to reimburse employees for passport fees (one passport only – sorry, dual citizens), visa fees, and inoculations that were not covered by company medical insurance. If the employee was required to take a trip on company business, this applied either to a new passport or a renewal. Some companies may limit reimbursement to people who travel a lot (by their definition). Most view it as a combined job necessity and small perk.

Leo Vannoni (leo.vannoni@gmail.com )