FIU works to maintain an open, welcoming atmosphere where visitors from all over the world can come to learn, collaborate, and perform research. The Office can help facilitate visits from foreign students, faculty, and partners! We assist with required export attestations on visas, help ensure that licenses are either not required or are obtained for the proposed visit/visitor and can help provide guidance on U.S. export-related regulations.
Visitors to General Campus Facilities and Spaces
Prior to inviting a foreign visitor to campus, please consider the following questions:
- Is the visitor from a sanctioned country?
- Is the visitor an employee or agent of a restricted entity? The University uses Visual Compliance (VC) to perform Restricted Party Screening. If you or your department would like access to VC, please contact the Export Office.
- Will the visitor participate in any type of restricted research, or interact with any type of highly controlled equipment, materials, biologics, and/or software?
If you answer “yes” to any of the above questions, please contact the Export Office for assistance.
If your visitor is from a restricted entity, special care must be taken to contact the Export Office as early as possible. All exports to employees and agents of a restricted party require a license, even for transfers that occur in the United States. For assistance developing a plan to host a visitor from a restricted party, please contact the Export Office.
Foreign national visitors require an immigration visa to enter the United States. Under Immigration and Customs regulations, certain visa types require an export control certification prior to submission of the visa. The Export Office works with the FIU Global office to complete these certifications.
Visitors to Sensitive Research Facilities
Some FIU facilities and laboratories perform extensive export-controlled research and/or contain highly controlled equipment or materials. These spaces generally operate under a facility control plan, which outlines spaces that are open to all individuals, and those spaces where access is restricted to only approved individuals.
Directors of Sensitive Research Facilities, as well as facility personnel, are aware that access to the facility is restricted. Visitors to such a facility must be identified and approved in advance by the facility director, their designee, and/or the Export Office prior to the visit. Restricted Party Screening will be performed for all visitors to a Sensitive Facility, and additional investigation (such as a background check) may be required depending on the duration of the visit, facilities accessed, and nature of work performed while at the facility).
Where visitors to a Sensitive Facility are not identified and/or approved in advance (either because the department failed to notify the facility or the delegation showed up impromptu), such visitors will not be allowed to access non-public spaces in the facility.