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Study Abroad

Meals & Meal Per Diems

For basic information on paying for meals, see the At a Glance table below. For more detailed information on each meal type, scroll past the table and click on the appropriate section.

At a Glance

Meal Type Payer Payment Method Documents/Information Needed
Faculty and Staff Meals (per diem) Study Abroad F&A Workday – direct deposit or check to program staff member Meal per diem amounts listed in your program budget; no receipts necessary
Student Meals Students N/A Students are generally responsible for paying for their own individual meals. However, you may choose to allot funds from the field advance to students for meals. See Student Meals section below for more information.
Group Meals Program Director
or Study Abroad F&A		 Field advance debit card or cash withdrawn from field advance card
or Deposit paid with Study Abroad F&A credit card		 Original itemized receipts included with field advance documentation (must not include alcoholic beverages)
Pre-departure Meals Program Director
or Study Abroad F&A		 Out of Pocket
or
Study Abroad F&A credit card		 Reimbursement Form and itemized receipt(s) to Study Abroad F&A for reimbursement
or Restaurant contact information for direct payment by Study Abroad F&A

Faculty and Staff Meals

Receipts You are not required to retain any receipts for purchases made with your meal per diem
Direct Deposit and UWNetID Meal per diems are ideally deposited directly to the staff member’s personal bank account. Please advise your program staff to set up direct deposit and create a UWNetID as soon as they are appointed by the UW to ensure that they will receive their meal per diem by direct deposit. This applies to any employee who has been newly appointed by the UW, even if they were previously employed by the UW
40% of maximum allowable per diem The Study Abroad office’s policy is to allow up to 40% of the maximum meal per diem for your study abroad location set by the U.S. Department of State
Additional Days
  • Long-term (quarter-long) program leaders can include up to 7 days of additional per diem to the program budget for pre/post program work, if the budget allows.
  • Short-term (summer A, summer B, early fall, and spring break) program leaders can include up to 3 days of additional per diem to the program budget for pre/post program work, if the budget allows.
Incidentals Your meal per diem allowance is intended to pay for your meals and incidentals such as laundry, tips for personal services such as food service and luggage handling, and any exchange fees you incur with personal purchases

Program Staff meal per diems will automatically be processed and paid by SAFA using the meal per diem amounts included in your program budget. Meal per diems are processed through Workday as follows.

Reimbursement Meal per diems for short-term programs are processed as reimbursements

  • You will receive a request for approval from Workday midway through your program
  • Upon approval your per diem will be directly deposited to your personal bank account. If you do not have direct deposit set up, a check will be sent to the Study Abroad office. We will hold your check until you return from your program
  • If receiving a reimbursement rather than an advance will cause a program staff member financial hardship, please contact uwsafa@uw.edu to request that an advance be provided instead
Advance Meal per diems for quarter-long programs are processed as advances

  • You will receive a request for approval from Workday a few weeks before your program begins
  • Upon approval your per diem will be directly deposited to your personal bank account. If you do not have direct deposit set up, a check will be sent to the Study Abroad office. We will hold your check until you return from your program
  • After your program, you will receive a second approval request from Workday. This is to attest that you used all the funds advanced to you and do not have any funds to return. Please approve this request as soon as possible.

Student Meals

Occasionally student meals will be provided by a host or local coordinator and programs often host a few group meals, but students are generally responsible for paying for their own individual meals.

However, you may choose to allot funds from the field advance to students for meals.

  • To do this, fill out a Meal/Activity Allowance Form for each meal with all students’ names and the purpose of the disbursement of cash
  • Disburse the same amount of cash to each student
  • Have each student sign the form next to their name to attest that they received the funds
  • You do NOT need to collect receipts from the students for their purchases with the cash disbursed
  • Enter the total amount disbursed to students as one line item in your Field Advance Reconciliation Spreadsheet, and Include the completed form with your documentation as a receipt for that line item
  • You can upload the completed Field Advance Reconciliation Spreadsheet directly into Expensify to record the group meal

Group Meals

Most study abroad programs include some group meals for all of their program staff and students during their programs. These should be included in your program budget.

Meal per Diem Maximum In order to be paid out of a UW budget, meal expenditures must fall within the maximum allowable meal per diem rates set by the U.S. Department of State, i.e. expenditures should not exceed the maximum for each individual participating in the group meal. This is not usually an issue as maximum per diem amounts tend to be higher than the amount spent by Program Directors, but please keep this in mind
Allowable Expenses
  • Program funds may NOT be used to purchase alcohol
  • Program faculty and staff meals may be included in the group meal payment and do not need to be paid separately
  • Meals for any personal guests of program staff or students can NOT be paid with program funds

Field Advance In most cases group meals are paid for with field advance funds, either with the field advance card being charged directly or with cash withdrawn from the card

  • Please retain an itemized receipt whenever possible to show that no alcohol was purchase
  • Please add any tip you pay your server to the bottom of the receipt. If the meal was paid for by card and the tip paid with cash, please enter these as two separate line items on your Field Advance Reconciliation Spreadsheet or in your Expensify report.
Advance Payment by SAFA If you would like to make a reservation for your group meal that requires a deposit payment, SAFA would be happy to pay the deposit in advance of your program. Please send us an invoice with the amount due and vendor details

Pre-departure Meals

Many study abroad programs choose to have snacks or meals at their pre-departure orientations or meet for their orientations at a restaurant. These should be included in your program budget.

Meal per Diem Maximum In order to be paid out of a UW budget, meal expenditures must fall within the maximum allowable meal per diems set by the U.S. General Services Administration, i.e. expenditures should not exceed the maximum for each individual attending the meal.
Allowable Expenses
  • Program funds may NOT be used to purchase alcohol
  • Meals for any personal guests of program staff or students can NOT be paid with program funds

Payment by SAFA We would be happy to pay directly for your pre-departure meal if you can arrange this with your caterer or restaurant. Please provide us with an invoice or an itemized receipt to pay
Reimbursement If you choose to pay for your pre-departure meal with personal funds, please submit an itemized receipt to SAFA with a completed Reimbursement Request Form and we will reimburse you