Travel Information

Guidelines for Submitting a Travel Reimbursement Request Form

1. Fill out the Travel Reimbursement Request Form (attached below) and ask your PI to sign it and assign the budget code that will cover your travel expenses.

2. Original receipts are required for all travel expenses. Meals: Even though the ESS department does not require meal receipt submission, you should only claim the amount you actually spent on meals. The UCI Travel Accounting department will request receipts from you for daily meal expenses at or near the cap.

3. Tape down all four sides of a receipt on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper.

4. Do not staple the documents.

5. If receipts are in a currency other than the US dollar, submit bank or credit records showing the expense in USD. You can feel free to white-out any unrelated transactions prior to submission, but if you don't, they will still be whited-out before they are scanned and uploaded to KFS. If expenses were paid in cash, use the OANDA currency converter and use the conversion rate on the day of the individual expense. Print out conversion rates and attach them to the reimbursement form.

6. Turn in a Travel Reimbursement Request Form either to travel@ess.uci.edu or to the mailbox marked "Travel" in the Earth System Science mailroom (Croul Hall 3200).

  • AIRFARE - Submit the eTicket confirmation receipt. This document will include: (a) the flight route; (b) the flight class; (c) the 13-digit eTicket number; (d) the price; and (e) the method of payment.
  • LODGING - Submit an original itemized guest folio showing daily room and tax rates as well as any incidental expenses. Please be aware that you will not receive a guest folio if you use customer checkout services via the in-room television cable. You will need to check out at the front desk and request a copy of the guest folio. If you booked your reservation on hotels.com or expedia.com and paid up front, the hotel will not provide you with a guest folio at the time of check out. If this is the case, submit your credit card statement showing amount charged for hotel stay and the payment confirmation that was emailed to you that lists the amount billed to your credit card, the room and tax rate, and the reservation details.
  • REGISTRATION - Submit an original itemized receipt showing the total price and the method of payment.
  • RENTAL CAR - Submit an original receipt showing "miles in and miles out" and the RA number (rental agreement number). A pre-calculation sheet or rental agreement only form is not considered a receipt.
  • MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT - Submit Google Maps directions showing mileage driven.
  • MEALS - Even though the ESS department does not require meal receipt submission, you should only claim the amount you actually spent on meals. The UCI Travel Accounting department will request receipts from you for daily meal expenses at or near the cap.

7. Per UC travel regulations, reimbursement requests need to be submitted within 45 days of trip end date. If you have missed this deadline, exceptional approval from the Dean of Physical Sciences is needed to reimburse you. Please explain on your travel form why reimbursement request is late.

8. White out all personal information such as home address, credit card number, SSN, employee ID number, and non-travel related transactions on your credit card statement.

Traveling Abroad

  • When traveling abroad on university business, check the latest Foreign Per Diem rates. The maximum lodging rate and the meals and incidentals rate are subject to change.
  • Travel insurance is required.
  • If you will submit receipts in a currency other than the US dollar, submit bank or credit records showing the expense in USD. You can feel free to white-out any unrelated transactions prior to submission, but if you don't, they will still be whited-out before they are scanned and uploaded to KFS. If expenses were paid in cash, use the OANDA currency converter and use the conversion rate on the day of the individual expense. Print out conversion rates and attach them to the reimbursement form.

Required Travel Insurance

Enrolling in travel insurance is mandatory for business trips out of state and to foreign countries and this travel insurance form must be completed each time you travel. When you complete the insurance form, you will be provided with an accident benefit card to use in an emergency while traveling on UC related activities both domestically and abroad. If your trip was booked through Connexxus, you will automatically be enrolled in the travel insurance program and you will receive an informative email; however, please be aware that even though Southwest Air for Connexxus (SWABIZ) is part of the Connexxus program, reservations will not automatically be registered and you will need to register your own trip. Registration is not required for travel within California as coverage is automatic.

Travel Forms and Regulations: 

Mileage Reimbursement

Leave of Absence Form

Travel Reimbursement Form

Entertainment Reimbursement Form

G28 UC Travel Regulations

The Department of Earth System Science acknowledges our presence on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples, who still hold strong cultural, spiritual and physical ties to this region.