Procedure adapted to the new regulation of doctoral studies published by the Basque Government, on December 23, 2025 (Chapter V. Mobility among doctoral candidates).

• Incoming stays at UPV/EHU may have a maximum total duration of nine months, per student and doctoral thesis
• It is necessary to present an authorization letter signed by the university of origin to carry out the stay
• Mobilities carried out within the framework of an international mobility program, in addition to these regulations, will be governed by the regulations of that mobility program. Aditionally, they must comply with the Regulations on international student mobility programs of the UPV/EHU
• When the home institution of the doctoral student requests signing an agreement, the provisions of Chapter XIV on Collaboration Agreements with external entities will be followed. In any case, the signing of an agreement does not prevent the subscription of the documents indicated in this section.

--> For any queries, please, contact the administration contact of your doctoral program (find all contacts on this link​​​​).

PhD students already enrolled on a doctoral program of another university and who wish to do a research visit at DOKe (the Doctoral School of University of the Basque Country), must be accepted on a doctoral programme of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). In order to do so, they must follow this procedure:

Step 1: FIND YOUR DOCTORAL PROGRAM AND SUPERVISOR AT UPV/EHU

• Find a doctoral program at University of the Basque Country to host your visit (see the doctoral program list here)
• Find a supervisor for your stay. This must be a member of the teaching staff of the doctoral program that will host you (you can find a list of members of the teaching staff on the doctoral programs' websites).

Step 2: GET A CERTIFICATE OF ACCEPTANCE (SUBMIT APPENDIX I, INSURANCE AND DOCUMENTS)

2.1. The PhD student should send the following to the administrative contact for their PhD programme:

• Passport or other valid identity document (for European doctoral students)
• Documents accrediting the student’s enrolment in the university of origin
• Passport size photograph
• Appendix I (download above), signed by:
  • the incoming PhD student.
  • the EHU supervisor for the research stay
  • the coordinator of the EHU PhD programme.

2.2. The DOKe confirms to the supervisor that the application has been accepted (with a copy to the academic committee of the doctoral programme), after the DOKe representative has signed it.

2.3. After confirmation of acceptance, the doctoral candidate sends the following to the administrative contact for their doctoral programme:

•  Travel insurance policy that covers the entire duration of the stay, and which must include medical care for illness and/or injury, medical transfer and repatriation to the country of origin in the event of illness, injury or death. You can find more information about the insurance "Ibili-EHU" for UPV/EHU students here (only available in Spanish and Basque languages, see guidelines in English on the pdf below). If you need further assistance, please contact one of our Welcome Centre Offices (help centres)
• Civil liability insurance
• European Health Insurance Card (only for visitors from the European Union).

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Step 3: GET YOUR VISITOR'S BADGE (APPENDIX II AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF RECEIPT)

• ​​​​​Send Apendix II to international.doke@ehu.eus (visitor's badge application; download above) electronically signed by:
  • The supervisor of the stay

  • The representative of the research center or faculty where the visiting student will be hosted (this is usually the faculty or research centre of the supervising person and must be signed by the dean or administrator of that center).

• The supervisor submits Appendix II to international.doke@ehu.eus
• DOKe registers the research stay
• DOKe processes the visitor's badge at the security service.
• The doctoral student picks up the card, Appendix I and the information on occupational risk prevention at any of the Doctoral School offices.

NOTE: In some research centres the badge is sent directly to the supervisor of the stay. In these cases, the supervisor sends the acknowledgement of receipt of the visitor's badge and the information on occupational risk prevention to international.doke@ehu.eus.

Step 4: RESEARCH STAY CERTIFICATE

• After completing the research stay, the PhD student requests a certificate (to be signed by his/her supervisor). Download above, sign and submit to doke@ehu.eus.