Payments, cancellation and refunds

This describes how GICIP takes payment for a place on a cohort and what happens to that money if the place is given up. It is written so that somebody deciding whether to apply can see the position before they commit, rather than after.

It is not the programme agreement. That is a separate document, it is signed when a place is offered, and it is what governs between Ernest E. Onuiri and a participant. Where this page and that agreement differ, the agreement is the one that counts. Nothing here replaces it and nothing here is a quote.

Recent cohorts have paid between €5,000 and €6,000 to the programme. The figure is set per cohort and moves with the route, the airfares and the length of the stay, so the programme office quotes each cohort its own rather than publishing a price here.

What that covers:

• Visa processing and travel medical insurance
• International flights, and the flights between cities on the route
• Ground transport throughout
• Accommodation for the whole stay
• Every hosted company visit, tour and excursion on the itinerary

Food is not included and is not paid to the programme. Budget roughly €1,000 on top, held and spent by the participant. Personal spending, anything bought outside the itinerary, and the cost of replacing a passport or documents are the participant's own.

In 4 instalments, across the year before departure. The first falls several months out, because the programme has to commit money on a participant's behalf long before the cohort travels: visa appointments, flights and accommodation are all booked and paid for in advance.

The exact amounts and the window for each one are issued by the programme office to each cohort. They are not the same every year and they are not published here.

The first instalment is a commitment payment. It secures a place and it is not refundable if the participant later withdraws, whatever the reason. It is spent on the work that starts the moment a place is taken: the visa file, the group appointment, and the bookings made against a confirmed headcount.

This is said here, plainly and before anybody applies, rather than in a clause somebody meets after they have paid.

Tell the programme office in writing as early as you can. The earlier a place is given up, the more of what follows can still be recovered.

The first instalment is not returned. Anything paid after that is considered case by case, against what the programme has already committed on that participant's behalf and cannot get back: visa fees, which are never refunded once an appointment is attended; airline tickets, which are refundable only on the airline's own terms; and accommodation deposits, which are usually not refundable at all.

What is left after those commitments is returned. We will tell you what that figure is and how it was reached, rather than simply naming it.

Visas are granted by governments, not by us. A refusal is treated as a withdrawal for the purpose of this page: the commitment payment stands, and the rest is assessed against what has already been committed.

The programme prepares the file, arranges the appointment and supports the interview, and it cannot promise an outcome. Anybody who cannot carry the risk of a refusal should weigh that before paying the first instalment.

If GICIP cancels a cohort outright, every payment made to the programme is returned in full, including the commitment payment. That is the one case where it comes back.

A cohort's itinerary can change without the cohort being cancelled. Host organisations decide for themselves whether and when to receive a group, flights move, and a city can drop off a route. A change of that kind is not a cancellation and does not of itself create a refund.

Write to the programme office. Say who the participant is, which cohort, and when the decision to withdraw was made. We will confirm what has already been committed and what is returnable, and set out the figure before anything is paid back.

This page can change as the programme's arrangements do. The date at the top says when it last moved. A change here does not alter the terms somebody has already signed: a participant is held to the agreement in force when their place was offered.