Many sponsored foreign national employees on work visas travel abroad during the holiday season. It is important for foreign nationals to access form I-94 upon re-admission to the U.S.
The United States Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) automated I-94 Arrival/Departure Record Process has been in effect since April 30, 2013. Since CBP’s launch of the electronic system, many have experienced problems accessing their I-94 Arrival/Departure Record and Travel History from CBP’s website. As such we provide this friendly reminder regarding the I-94 automated Arrival Departure process. Through this process, CBP no longer requires non-immigrants to complete a paper Form I-94 upon arrival to the U.S. by air or sea.
Instead, CBP gathers travelers’ arrival/departure information automatically from their electronic records. As a result of this automated process, a CBP officer will stamp the foreign passport of each arriving non-immigrant traveler showing the date of admission, class of admission, and the date that the authorized admission ends.
An electronic record (i.e., an electronic I-94) for arriving non-immigrants is created upon admission. Additionally, since May 1, 2014 non-immigrants are able to retrieve their travel history from this website for the last five years.
Please keep in mind that at each entry the way the traveler’s name, date of birth and passport number is entered by CBP into their database may vary. For that reason, below please find tips compiled by the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers on how to find an I-94 Arrival/Departure Record and Travel History in the CBP database:
Name
TIP: The name field on http://i94.cbp.dhs.gov is not case-sensitive.
TIP: Try entering the name as listed in the various travel documents:
- passport name
- U.S. visa name
There are two locations for names on passports and U.S. visas:
1. The name field; and
2. The machine-readable zone.
(If the name is different, try both versions)
TIP: Since the electronic I-94 system will initially receive the names of the travelers from the carriers flight manifest, also try the versions of the name that appear on the traveler's:
• Airline ticket
• Boarding pass
TIP: Try entering variations of the names that appear on the travel documents:
• If there are multiple last (or first) names:
- Try entering just one last (or first) name
- Eliminate the space between the names
- Add/remove a hyphen between names
- Abbreviate the last few letters if the names are long. (Note: each name field has a 25-character limit)
Examples:
- Last/Surname Lopez Garcia: try entering Lopezgarcia or just Lopez.
- Last/Surname Fernandes Carvalho de Sousa: try entering Fernandescarvalhodeso.
- Last/Surname Al-Hamdi: try entering Alhamdi or just Hamdi.
First and middle name:
- Try entering both names in the First (Given) Name field with a space – e.g., For first name Claire and middle name Anne, try entering Claire Anne in the First (Given) Name field.
- Try entering just the first and middle initials – e.g., for Claire Anne, try CA or C A.
Only one name:
- If the traveler only has one name, the Department of State may have placed that name in the Last/Surname field and placed the abbreviation FNU (First Name Unknown) in the First/Given name field. Try entering whatever name appears in the machine readable section of the passport and/or visa, including the abbreviation FNU.
Birth date
TIP: Try inverting the month and day. Example: Birth Date July 9, 1980 correctly entered would be 1980 July 09; instead try 1980 September 07.
Passport Number
TIP: When both letters and numbers appear in the passport number, try entering a space after the letter(s). Example: Passport number LA497327: try entering LA 497327.
TIP: Also try the passport booklet number; sometimes the booklet number differs from the number on the biographic page.
TIP: If the valid visa is in an expired passport, try entering the old passport number instead of the new one used for entry.
The travel history located with the most recent electronic I-94 may appear to be incomplete. Because of the way a traveler’s information was entered into the CBP database it is possible that there are other electronic records of the traveler’s entries and departures. Consequently, the traveler may be required to use the above tips to locate such additional electronic records.
