"B" visitor covers all of the following classifications. Any one of theses classifications or a combination, as indicated, can qualify for honorarium payments and reimbursements.

B-1 visitor for business
B-2 visitor for pleasure
B-1/B-2 visitor for a combined purpose
WB visitor visa waiver for business
WT visitor visa waiver for tourism
WB/WT visitor visa waiver for a combined purpose
One of these notations must appear on the Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record, the small card that is normally stapled into the passport. The I-94 for B-1, B-2 is white; the I-94 for WB, WT is green. The WB or WT allows persons from certain countries to enter the U.S. without getting a visa stamp in the passport. Note that the key document is the I-94, not the visa stamp in the passport. Departments must see and copy the I-94 while the guest is in the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) collects the I-94 at departure and it cannot be retrieved or recreated once the guest has left the U.S.

It is the failure to copy the I-94 that causes most of the difficulty in making payments and reimbursements to these guests.

NOTE: New Visa Waiver Program Passport Requirements as of October, 2005.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reminds visitors that Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries will be required to produce passports with digital photographs by October 26, 2005 . Visitors with valid machine-readable passports issued prior to October 26, 2005 , may continue to travel without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program. Passports issued on or after October 26, 2005 require the digital photo. Visitors who are issued a passport after the October 26, 2005 deadline that does not meet these requirements will be required to obtain a visa stamp in order to travel to the United States . For more information on Visa Waiver Program Passport Requirements, please go to: Homeland Security Web Site.

See Question 13, Tool 2 for Accounts Payable links and a Checklist.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If the foreign national is only being reimbursed for expenses and no honorarium is being paid, it is not necessary for him/her to have a Social Security Number or an ITIN.

Accounts Payable has developed accounting procedures, instructions and forms and posted them on their web site. See below , Question 13, Tool 2, for Accounts Payable links and a Checklist.

If the International Office can help in any way, please call or e-mail us. Remember that if the activity does not include lecturing or teaching, we need to look at that case before the visitor leaves the home country to come to Duke.

You are right. It is never as easy as it looks. Here are where problems can occur.

• This only works for the "B" visitor visa classification. Someone coming from another university in another classification is not eligible. Diplomats, employees of foreign governments, military personnel or others on foreign government representative visas do not qualify. For example, employees of the World Bank or political officers attached to foreign embassies in the U.S. hold visa classes specific to the duties of their posts. They are not permitted to earn additional income through activities such as speaking engagements. Those who hold J-1 status must have permission from the home institution prior to doing the work. Those who hold H-1B status at another school are not eligible for this specific kind of honorarium payment. It is sometimes possible for the H-1B to receive payments or reimbursements, but the process can be much more complicated. Departments need to contact the International Office well in advance to set up H-1B or J-1 visits.
• If we don’t get copies of the Form I-94, we have no evidence that our guests were in an eligible status. This evidence is required under AP procedures to get a check cut and to comply with federal laws and rules.
• If they don’t have Social Security Numbers and the department does not help them file for ITINs at the IRS office, then Duke cannot pay them. Pay would have to be delayed until they could file for a number from the home country, a very long and painful process. See below for "How to Obtain a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)."
• Nine days is the absolute visit limit, no exceptions. Any activity lasting longer than nine days does not qualify.
• The academic butterflies flitting from school to school may exceed their limit of six schools in six months. If Duke is school number seven, then the visit does not qualify and we cannot pay.

Without the B Honorarium rules, the options become much more restrictive.

• B-1/WB status may only be reimbursed for expenses. No honorarium may be paid.
• B-2/WT status cannot be reimbursed for expenses or paid honoraria.
• Those in other visa classes can only be reimbursed or paid according to the specific rules of the visa class. Each one is different.

Here are a few tools to help you:

TOOL 1. Quick formula. Payments and Reimbursements.

Plug in visa class and payment type, then read across:

*IMPORTANT: Even though the declaration form or the SSN or ITIN may not be required for reimbursement only, be sure your department has made its final decision on payment before the guest leaves the U.S. Imagine that your department changes its mind later and decides to pay the guest in addition to reimbursing. If you have not collected the declaration and filed for SSN/ITIN application, then the payment can be delayed for months while you get all of that done and collect the documentation.

TOOL 2. Accounts Payable links and a Checklist

Departmental Procedures for Accounts Payable Purposes.

First, see the instructions and forms on the AP web site.

AP: Payment to Foreign Nationals. Note at the bottom of this document the list of items that the department should send to the alien prior to his/her arrival.

AP: Duke University Certificate of Foreign Status

AP: AP Check Request Form. Note item 4 regarding alien status.

Then follow this checklist of things the department must do when international guests arrive at Duke.

1. Make a photocopy of

__ the identification page of the passport (If Canadian, see A5.)

__ the expiration date page of the passport (may or may not be the same as the ID page)

__ the Form I-94, front and back

2. Help visitors read and complete the declaration form on which they confirm eligibility for payment. For copies of the invitation/declaration form contact the International Office.

3. If the visitors do not have Social Security Numbers, you will have to help them file for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) at the local IRS office. You may contact Jackie Pollmiller at Duke Accounts Payable, 668-5225, for help. Filing for the SSN or ITIN "on-site" will not generate a card immediately. Make certain to have the officer at either agency make a copy of the application for you to present to Accounts Payable to show that you have filed the application. This will allow a check to be cut immediately, but tax will be withheld. If you wait for the card to be issued, a check can be cut at that later time, and tax may not be withheld, depending on the individual’s tax situation.

TOOL 3. Getting SSNs and ITINs.

How to obtain a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)

REMEMBER

Reimbursements do not require the SSN or ITIN.

Payments do require the SSN or ITIN.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) issues Social Security numbers. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs).
The IRS office is located at 3308 Chapel Hill Boulevard (Duke Forest Place). Take NC 751 (Academy Road) from Duke and take the exit heading toward Chapel Hill. As you merge onto Chapel Hill Boulevard, stay in the right lane. You will notice a service road to your right. At the first opportunity, turn right off the boulevard and onto the service road. Keep right and continue along the service road. You will be traveling in the opposite direction from which you just came. At the end of the service road, the red brick Duke Forest Place building will be up the hill to your left. You enter through the second set of glass doors on the left side of the building.

The SSA Office is located at 3004 Tower Boulevard. Take NC 751 (Academy Road) from Duke and take the exit heading toward Chapel Hill. As you merge onto Chapel Hill Boulevard, stay in the right lane. Go to the second stop light, Tower Blvd., and turn right. Take this road past the large University Tower building on your left. Just before the road dead ends at Pickett Road, the Social Security Office is in the brick building to your left.
Time and distance: about 9 minutes and about 4 miles.

Click here to see map

Social Security Administration. Telephone: 541-5443

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

SSA web site for application forms

Internal Revenue Service. Telephone: 541-5379

Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and

Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Tax Season Only)

IRS site for application forms, etc.

Scroll down to see "forms" list. Scroll to W-7.

What the Foreign National Will Need:

To apply for an ITIN before arrival, you may contact Jackie Pollmiller (668-5225) for a Form W-7, but the process requires sending original passport OR a copy certified by the issuing agency (e.g., passport office in foreign national’s country or his/her embassy located in the U.S.). If sending a certified copy, process should begin at least six (6) weeks in advance of the foreign national’s visit. For Social Security numbers and ITINs, expect 7-10 days and 6-8 weeks, respectively, before you receive your cards.

NOTE: For foreign nationals who do not have the SSN or ITIN, departments will have to bear the burden of assisting the foreign nationals to obtain one. You are, however, providing a service to them that will assist them in any future visits to the U.S. for which they expect to receive payment. In any written communication with them, you may wish to add a statement such as: "We are pleased to assist you in obtaining a U.S. Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number ITIN, as appropriate to your visa class. Please note that once issued, this will be a permanent number that you may present in any future situations where you receive payment in the United States."

There are several sources of information.

• For payment, reimbursement, Social Security/ITIN forms, and tax questions,contact Jackie Pollmiller in Accounts Payable -- 668-5225.
• For visa questions contact the International Office.
• University Departments contact Paul Bumbalough -- 681-8472 ext. 233
• DUMC and DUHS Departments and Offices contact Catheryn Cotten -- 681-8472 ext. 238