Letters of Invitation and Itineraries

Letters of Invitation

Letters of invitation are important because they lay out any financial obligations and responsibilities, plus they are often needed by the visitor to obtain a visa. For more information, also see the Arranging the Visit section.

Tips:

• Make sure the visitor’s name is in the culturally correct format.
• State the dates for the visit. If the invitation is to be used to acquire a visa, provide the dates of the visitor’s complete program in the U.S.
• Clarify who will be responsible for the expenses incurred during the visit.
• The invitation should be sent peer-to-peer (e.g., president to president or professor to professor).
• For a visiting scholar/researcher, you should also clarify the terms of the offer and describe clearly the visitor’s work or purpose at the University.

Itineraries

Itineraries should provide:

• Full information about the schedule, such as addresses of meeting locations
• Who (if anyone) will accompany the visitor to/from meetings
• Name/title of who will be in the meeting
• Main contact for the visitor

You may also want to include information about the visitors to prepare the other meeting participants.