Policies & FAQS

• Registration for the current year may be transferred to a colleague at any time free of charge.
• Registration may be deferred to the following year’s course, free of charge, up until 30 days prior to the first day of the course. Deferment requests received within 30 days of the start of class will incur a $150 USD fee. Registration can only be deferred for one year. During the deferral year, if participation will not occur, a cancellation notice must be submitted 15 days prior to the first day of class and a 50% refund will be given (minus the $150 USD cancellation fee). Cancellation requests received within 15 days of the start of the course will not be eligible for a refund.
• Cancellation requests received up until 30 days prior to first day of the course will be eligible for a full refund minus a $150 USD cancellation fee.
• Cancellation requests received within 30 days of the start of the course will not be eligible for a refund.
• If you have paid and subsequently your visa request is denied, you may transfer your registration to another course at no charge or request a cancellation refund per the same policy above.
• Cancellations for denied visas are handled on a case by case basis and you may need to provide proof of visa denial.

If you require a visa to attend the workshop, please make an appointment with your consulate. HHI is happy to provide a letter of visa support. Please note that we can only do this once payment and registration are complete. Please request the visa support letter from the Program Manager and provide a copy of your passport. 

For visas, please apply for either a B1 or a B2 visitor visa. No student visa is necessary.

PLEASE NOTE that the visa process can take some time and we advise you to make your consulate appointments sooner rather than later. If you have to cancel your registration for visa issues, please contact us once registered.

Please note that travel and accommodation are not included in your course fee. We strongly encourage any guests who are traveling to Cambridge to book their stay as soon as possible. There are numerous hotels in Harvard Square (Cambridge), the greater Cambridge area, Boston, Brookline and other nearby areas that are a short commute away. Following are a few suggestions.

Properties and booking sites:

• Sheraton Commander (Harvard Square, Cambridge)
• Harvard Square Hotel (Harvard Square, Cambridge)
• The Charles Hotel (Harvard Square, Cambridge)
• ESL Townhouses (Boston - shared or private short term rental apartments)
• Tripadvisor.com (our preferred booking engine with user reviews)
• priceline.com (booking engine which offers sales and specials)
• airbnb.com (rooms for rent posted by property owners)
• vrbo.com (apartment and room rentals posted by property owners)

The course capacity is in the range of 25 – 60 participants, based on the workshop. Registration is on a “first come, first served” basis. This means that in order for a seat to be reserved for you, you need to complete registration on our portal, and pay the registration fee in full. We will confirm this with you once receiving your information. If you do not see a link to register, it means the workshop is full. Please note that registration fills up quickly and it is best to start the approval process within your organization’s bureaucracy sooner rather than later.

Please see course home page. Syllabus will be finalized in the course site for registered participants.

Course payment is done in the online registration process. We suggest doing it all at once so that you don’t have to re-create your registration profile. Please consult the course fees and have your payment details ready. Please note we do not allow multiple payments to be made for one registration. You also must pay before you attend. Course payments can be made via credit card only. 

Harvard has increased the security around online credit card payments, so the address you input must match exactly the address that is on record with your bank (including capitalization and punctuation). Please ensure that the addresses match and try initiating the payment again. 

Unfortunately, unless listed on the course webpage, we do not offer any scholarships or discounted rates for our courses. Many participants ask their organization, university, company institution, or personal network to finance the course for them. Please note that it is best to begin requesting funding as soon as possible. For local NGO staff, we recommend asking international NGO partners or other organization partners if they have funding for local staff training.

Please note that HHI Professional Education Workshops are not offered as part of a Harvard degree program. There will be a certificate of participation from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative offered at the end of the course. Please note that in order to obtain the certificate at the end of the course, you must attend all days of the workshop and participate in all of its activities.

If you are looking to save money, Airbnb and ESL Townhouses will have some good, less expensive options! Booking air travel in advance will help to save money as well.  We provide breakfast and lunch, so you will only have to pay for dinner. In Cambridge, good and cheap options for dinner ranges from $10-$20. We encourage participants to have "incidentals" money too, for transportation like subway and bus, and taxi or Uber to and from the airport, among other things.