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I have an American bank account because I was under a student visa working for a US company last year.

Then I came back to France and continued working for this company through a PEO. (i.e. I'm employed in France by a French company and the US company is one of its clients).

I'm going to make a business trip to the U.S. for meetings (under VWP). The US company wants to reimburse my trip expenses directly on my American bank account.

Is that doable?

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  • Do your French employers have a company policy on business-related expenses? Eg it’s common for the employer to pay the main expenses of your trip (travel, accommodation) direct, and to reimburse you for your incidental expenses (meals, subsistence etc) in accordance with limits defined in the policy. This works eg to avoid bribery & corruption risks for yourself and your employer that can occur where the level of expenses paid by a client is excessive and could influence business decisions.
    – Traveller
    May 17, 2018 at 8:35
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about company policy rather than travel
    – user16259
    May 17, 2018 at 9:09
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    It seems odd to me that a client company would make payments directly to you personally, but not a vwp issue so much as an accounting one.
    – user16259
    May 17, 2018 at 9:40
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    @user16259 the question is whether it is permissible under the terms of the VWP. You seem to know the answer, so why not post an answer instead of voting to close the question?
    – phoog
    May 17, 2018 at 11:54
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    Benefit for US company is that there is a fee for each amount they pay to French employer.
    – blondie
    May 17, 2018 at 13:32

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+50

Yes this is doable if your employer agrees with it, for many years I was employed in China but travelled extensively to the US and as such as had many business expenses in the US

Since I would be there for extended periods my employer made an agreement with our client that they would reimburse my expenses locally in the US directly to me

In the beginning this was done by the client issuing me a check that I went to the bank to cash but later I opened a US bank account and they reimbursed me directly into the account on the last day of every month

Because expense reimbursements are not taxable there are no laws or regulations that hinders this

Having said this, most companies like to keep control of their expenses through policies etc which is harder to enforce in such a setup so you might have resistance from your employer but that’s purely based on business policy and not accounting or any other challenges

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  • What was your status in the US? Were you in the US on a Visa or VWP?
    – Midavalo
    Jul 18, 2019 at 3:45
  • VWP but that should not make a difference for expenses
    – Matt Douhan
    Jul 18, 2019 at 3:59

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