International Independent Contractors

International Independent Contractors are non-U.S.-based service providers who perform a specific skill outside the usual scope of University activities. Examples of contractor services include, but are not limited to:

• Translators
• Copy Editors
• Local Guides
• On-Site Archival Specialists
• Industry and/or Region-Specific Consultants

Independent Contractors are most often engaged for a project that is limited in length and scope. Contractors are typically paid a fixed rate per project after a deliverable or upon receipt of an invoice for services.

Contractors are not employees of the University and should never represent themselves as such. Moreover, current and former employees cannot be engaged as Independent Contractors.

The criteria for determining whether a service provider may be engaged as an independent contractor varies from country to country, but the following qualities tend to be globally important for an independent contractor determination:

• Control over how, when, and where the work is done
• A business of doing similar work for other clients (also as a contractor)
• Use of own office, other facilities, and equipment
• Payment of own business expenses
• Pay based solely on services rendered (e.g. no hourly wage or vacation pay)
• Defined project or contract end date with specific expected deliverables

School and Center administrators are responsible for making an initial worker classification and submitting the required documentation to the Procurement Contracting team for review before any services begin.

Please review the Overview of the Individual Service Provider (ISP) Classification & Onboarding Process on BENHelps for more information, which includes an ISP Worker Classification Decision Tree to guide your classification process. 

Further guidelines can be found on the Division of Finance Service Provider Classification website linked below.