1. Preconditions
Entitlement to payment of travel expenses is governed by the provisions of article R V 1.09 of the Staff Rules and Regulations as well as by Administrative Circular No. 30 "Financial benefits on taking up appointment and on termination of contract" (AC30).
The conditions for entitlement to the right to travel on termination of contract are the following:
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Staff members appointed before 1st January 2007 (excluding former local staff members)
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their home station must be outside a radius of 20 km from CERN, and
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they must establish their new place of residence at least 20 km in a straight line from the previous place of residence within two years of contract termination;
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Staff members appointed on or after 1st January 2007 (including former local staff members), fellows, graduates, scientific associates or students
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their home station must be outside a radius of 70 km from CERN, and
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they must establish their new place of residence outside a circle with a radius of 70 km with its centre at CERN within two years of contract termination.
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For staff members and fellows, home station is defined in accordance with Article R II 1.25 of the Staff Rules and Regulations; for graduates (GRAE, GRAF and GRAP) and associated members of the personnel, it is the former place of residence determined upon taking appointment.
N.B. Where the graduate's former place of residence at the time of taking up appointment is within a 70 km radius of the place of appointment and the graduate had previously been employed as an associated member of the personnel for training on a contract that ended within 12 months prior to being employed as a graduate, the former place of residence referred to in § 12(a) is the former place of residence at the time of appointment as an associated member of the personnel for training.
2. Deferral of payment of travel expenses
If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of the personnel and the members of the family, subject to the following conditions:
- the entitlement to travel expenses is deferred until the member of the personnel no longer holds a contract for a working week longer than 20 hours. From that point in time, the journey must be made within two years.
- if the working week is less or equal to 20 hours, the journey must take place within two years of termination of the contract that granted the member of the personnel entitlement to payment of travel expenses.
3. Overview
The conditions applicable to the payment of travel expenses on termination of contract are set out in Administrative Circular No. 30 (AC30), a summary of which is provided in the table below:
| Category | Payment of travel expenses on termination of contract | Payment of travel expenses on termination of contract for family members |
|---|---|---|
| Staff | One-way journey from the former place of residence to the new place of residence, subject to a ceiling corresponding to the cost of a journey from CERN to the home station |
Yes, if the family members take up residence with the member of the personnel within two years after the termination of contract |
| Fellow | ||
| Graduate | One-way journey from the former place of residence to the new place of residence, subject to a ceiling corresponding to the cost of a journey from CERN and the former place of residence determined on taking up appointment | |
| Scientific Associate |
Yes, if:
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| Guest Professor | N/A | |
| Student | ||
| Other associated members of the personnel (at the Director-General's discretion if the preconditions are fulfilled) |
Members of the personnel organise their own travel and travel expenses are paid on a lump sum basis, regardless of the means of transport used.
1. Payment of travel expenses for staff, graduates, scientific associates, guest professors and students
Payment of travel expenses shall be paid upon request by members of the personnel to their departmental secretariat (DAO) upon departure and, at the latest within two years of contract termination.
The payment scheme for travel expenses per country is indexed annually (scale applicable from 01.01.2025).
For children under two years of age, the amount paid corresponds to 50% of the lump sum.
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The HR department establishes whether the person concerned is entitled to travel expenses when the latter's contract is drawn up and departmental secretariats (DAO) may consult this information in HRT (Planning Menu; report: Departure entitlements). N.B. Travel expenses on termination of contract paid since March 2024 are available in this report under the criteria "Trip paid on". It is the responsibility of the departmental secretariat (DAO) to verify that the new place of residence is outside the 20 or 70 km radius, depending on the applicable rule. The following function can be used for this purpose: Calculation of the distance in a straight line from CERN. Departmental secretariats (DAO) check in HRT whether the members of the personnel are eligible for travel and ask for their new place of residence, i.e. the country to which the member of the personnel will actually travel on termination of contract. The lump sum is paid for travel expenses to the home station (for staff members and fellows) and to the place of residence determined upon taking up appointment for other eligible members of the personnel. To proceed with the lump sum payment for the departure trip, the departmental secretariat (DAO) prepares, during the last month of contract, the claim Document de voyage d'arrivée et de départ / Arrival and Departure Travel document (ADFT) in EDH completing and verifying the following information: The departmental secretariat (DAO) provides the following information:
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2. Payment of travel expenses for summer students
Travel expenses (equivalent to a return trip) for summer students are paid as a lump sum upon appointment. This payment is made automatically by the service of Personnel Accounting on the basis of a lump sum for a return trip per country.
3. Specific circumstances
Paragraph 18 of the Administrative Circular No. 30 specifies "In duly justified circumstances, the Head of the Human Resources department may authorise the reimbursement to staff members, fellows and graduates of the real cost incurred for one-way travel upon taking up appointment or on termination of contract, on the basis of the cheapest ticket available using public transport, taking account of the journey time. Requests for such real-cost reimbursement shall be submitted, to the extent possible, no later than 21 calendar days prior to departure and shall be subject to approval prior to travel."
The request must be sent by the member of the personnel, within the required deadline, to HR-Official-travel@cern.ch and accompanied by a justification of the situation and an estimate of the actual transport costs expected for the travel. If authorisation is granted, the member of the personnel and the departmental secretariat (DAO) will be informed. Reimbursement is made in accordance with the travel payment procedure described above; the supplement to the lump sum is paid via a Frais divers / Sundry expenditure (SUN) claim created by the service of HR.
| No revision | Modifications | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suppression of the sentence: "travel expenses on termination of contract are not paid should the member of the personnel resign during his first year of service" following corrigendum of AC 30 (Rev. 2/Corr.) | September 2009 |
| 2 | New lump sum system for arrival and departure travel of students | 01.08.2014 |
| 3 | Application of the new lump sum system to all students, independently on their date of taking up appointment | 01.07.2016 |
| 4 | Suppression delay of submission for the reimbursement requests for the students | 18.04.2017 |
| 5 | Additional information: If the member of the personnel opts to make his own travel arrangements, the Organization will pay the cost of the cheapest form of public transport, taking into account travel time, to the train station, airport or port closest to the place of residence of the member of personnel. | 31.05.2018 |
| 6 | "Return journey" replaced by "one-way journey" in order to avoid confusion. | 24.10.2018 |
| 7 | New memorandum "Payment scheme for student travel (TECH, DOCT, ADMI) - valid from 1st April 2019". | 26.03.2019 |
| 8 | Clarification: If the member of the personnel is awarded a new contract with CERN - without any interruption-, the Organization pays travel expenses on termination of contract once only for the member of personnel and the members of his family. | 09.09.2020 |
| 9 | Revision of the paragraph 1.3 with the use of the payment scheme for students while member of the personnel travels by his own means. | 15.12.2020 |
| 10 | Update of the management of bank details. | 06.08.2021 |
| 11 | Adding the procedure for Volontaires Internationaux | 21.12.2021 |
| 12 | Revision of paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2: Where the student returns to a new place of residence, the applicable lump sum is the one of the country of the new destination but the cost of the departure journey cannot exceed the one of a trip to the place of residence determined upon taking up their duties. | 15.06.2022 |
| 13 | Procedure revised by the service in charge. | 30.09.2024 |
| 14 | Procedure revised by the service in charge following the revision of the AC30. | 17.12.2025 |