Business travel incorporates travelling to another country for a one-off, or short-term trip business trip (e.g. to attend an overseas conference or attend a meeting with overseas colleagues).

  • If the proposed activities fall within the guidelines for permissible activities in that location: your Line Manager can approve business travel. Please consult the relevant Staff Travel guidance for further information and ensure all necessary arrangements are in place prior to travel.
  • The undertaking of your day-to-day duties is not permissible without first obtaining the appropriate Right to Work permission in that destination.

If you are in any doubt about whether your request is business travel or overseas working, or what might be considered permissible activities, please contact the International Mobility Team.

Examples of business travel vs overseas working

Business travel Overseas working
Attending business meetings or discussions, including representing their home employer in meeting with third party  On the job training; adjustment to a new job (integration into the organisation) 
Attending negotiations Installing or repairing machinery, computer software or equipment, or perform other technical duties 
Hosting or attending project-related presentations  Working with or co-operating with project teams 
Attending seminars or project kick-off meetings  Project work
People management, team meeting, conducting face-to-face interviews (as described below)  Conducting audits
Knowledge transfers Coming to a host country for project work as Project Manager
Meetings and workshops where work is planned, scope is discussed and defined, responsibilities discussed, etc.
  • Project kick-off meeting
  • Brainstorming meetings to get aligned
  • Preparation meetings to define
 Meetings and workshops where people meet to get work delivered such as:
  • Project workshop in execution phase, where documents are created, requirements defined, testing is done, value is created, output is created
  • In their role as project team member, Project Manager, finance manager, sourcing manager etc.
Team meetings with a goal to:
  • Align and collaborate
  • Get to know each other
  • Understand (e.g. team objectives, processes, organisation changes

No output in the sense of a programme is written, a document is created:

  • Any training or seminar where people listen and learn

Any people work:

  • Mid/end of year review
  • Discussion of development plan
  • Objective setting and performance/improvement plan

Meetings to create output:

  • Budget meetings - where budgets are aligned and finalised, discussed
  • Job descriptions are created with hiring manager
  • A Request for Proposal, Service Level Agreement, Statement of Work etc. is created and discussed or finalised
  • Testing is being done, test scripts executed

Associates coming over to a host country to work from there