For business trips and secondments, travel expenses must be submitted within 6 months of the return date.

1. Fill out the form

The form (also available in English) can be found here:

https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/abt-1/formulare/05dienstreisen

• On page 1, please enter all the details of your trip, as you did when applying for the business trip.
• On page 2, please list all the costs for which you are requesting reimbursement under “Expenses.”
• Please sign the form at the bottom of page 2 in the “Date/Signature of applicant” field and send it to your secretariat for final approval by the cost center owner.

Important information for filling out the form:

• In the “Advance payment/installment” field on page 1 of the application form, please enter either the amount of your installment payment or, if you have not received an installment payment, a “0” or a hyphen. Please do not simply leave the field blank. This way, the travel expenses office will know immediately that there was no installment payment and will not have to check this unnecessarily.
• In the “Means of transport” section on page 2 of the application form, please fill in all the fields that apply to you.
• Please also enter any amounts in foreign currencies in the original currency (do not convert to EUR; this will be done by the central travel expense office).
• Keep all original receipts for 6 months from the date of submission of your travel expense report and scan them. It is sufficient to attach a scan of the report.
• Important: please submit proof of payment (e.g., bank statement) for each invoice (including train tickets) to show that you have actually made the payment.
• If you no longer have a receipt for a specific amount, make a clear note of this under “Explanation of expenses.”
• You do not need to calculate and enter amounts for per diem allowances. This is done by the central travel expense office.

2. Documents to be enclosed

Please enclose the following documents with your travel expense claim:

• Approved business trip application (you will have received this from the business trip office of your department).
• All invoices and corresponding proof of payment
• If applicable, a cost comparison if the trip was combined with a private stay (see FAQ “Business trip combined with private stay”)
• If applicable, an approved request for advance payment (see FAQ “Advance payment”).

3. Format of the application

Please create a single PDF file in the following order:

1. Travel expense report form
2. Approved business trip application
3. Approved application for advance payment, if applicable
4. Invoices and associated proof of payment

4. Submission of the application

Please send the PDF to the department's business travel office at dienstreisen@polsoz.fu-berlin.de. They will review the application and forward it to the central travel expense office and the team responsible for the PolSoz department (Ms. Elisabeth Gruber) at 55@reisekostenstelle.fu-berlin.de. You will then receive the final notification of the reimbursement of your travel expenses from there.