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Offices of Research Compliance and Security
Research Policy  /  Data & Facilities  /  Foreign Travel Guidelines

Foreign Travel Guidelines

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide you and your team members with guidance from an export compliance perspective, on preparations that should be made before traveling outside the U.S. to attend a conference or a meeting.  This is particularly important if your project contains aspects that are ITAR controlled (items that have military or space applications) or are subject to dual-use (civil and military applications) controls that are prohibited for export to certain countries without an export license.

Mini Glossary:

  • International Traffic In Arms Regulations (ITAR) - controls military and space application items
  • Dual-Use - civil and military application items
  • Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Export Administration Regulations (EAR) - controls dual-use items
  • Item - Technical data, hardware, or software

Electronic Devices

You should plan to travel with "clean" electronic devices, such as your laptop, smart phone, electronic storage media,  etc.  This means that your electronic devices should not contain any export-controlled information.  Please remember that it is violation of U.S. export regulations to take export-controlled technical data (controlled information) out of the U.S. without a U.S. export control license or applicable exemption, even if you do not share it with anyone while you are abroad.  There are also certain activities such as providing technical assistance to a Foreign Person that may require government approval.

Presentations and Lectures

If you are presenting a paper or an invited lecture, please contact us at least three weeks prior to your departure if you need assistance in reviewing your presentation to ensure that it does not contain any export controlled information.  As a reminder, the "fundamental research exclusion" as defined in the State Department regulations ends at the U.S. border.

Hardware, Software or Technical Data

If you need to take or have shipped to you any export-controlled items (hardware, software or technical data) for your trip, you will need to apply for and be in possession of a valid U.S. export control license or authorization before your travel begins.

Travel Briefing

It is highly recommended that you review the travel precautions contained in the online export compliance awareness training module, "Caltech Export Compliance Awareness".  This training module can be accessed by logging in to your access.caltech account.

Traveler's Responsibilities

It is the traveler's responsibility to ensure that his/her electronic devices and presentations do not contain any export-controlled technical data or other export-controlled information.

For more information please visit the Caltech Export Compliance website.  The Caltech Export Compliance Office will be happy to meet with you if you have any questions, or need any additional information.