Form I-94 (Arrival/Departure Record)

CBP calls the I-94 an admission record. Travelers no longer fill in a paper form when arriving by air or sea: CBP gathers the information automatically from electronic travel records. You can retrieve it online if you need to prove your status to an employer, school or government agency.

Your visa and your I-94 are different things. The visa in your passport lets you travel to a US port of entry. The I-94 shows the status you were admitted in and the date by which you must leave or extend. Since May 2019, CBP says I-94 numbers have 11 characters: nine digits, a letter, then a digit. Older numeric-only I-94s stay valid until their admit-until date. You can still ask for a paper I-94 during inspection, but CBP handles those requests in secondary inspection.

Almost every foreign national admitted to the US, including doctors on a J-1 or H-1B. ECFMG says a J-1 physician's lawful status is shown by a valid DS-2019 together with an I-94 or I-797. When USCIS changes or extends your status inside the US, it issues the new I-94 itself, on a Form I-797A.

Nurses who arrive as immigrants with a green card visa become permanent residents and do not rely on an I-94 for their status.

1. Go to the official site, i94.cbp.dhs.gov, or the CBP Link app.
2. Choose Get Most Recent I-94 and enter your passport details exactly as they appear on the passport.
3. Print or save it. CBP's FAQ says most travelers can access their most recent admission record if it was issued after 1983.
4. Use View Travel History for arrival and departure dates over the past ten years. CBP says this history is not an official record for legal purposes.

At a land border you can apply and pay for a provisional I-94 online up to seven days ahead. A Federal Register notice for fiscal year 2027 sets the total at $30: a $6 land border fee plus a $24 fee added by the 2025 reconciliation law (HR-1). The fee is not refundable.

• Error by CBP at entry: CBP says there are over 70 Deferred Inspection sites where travelers can have documents reviewed and corrected.
• Error on an I-94 issued by USCIS: contact USCIS about the I-797A.
• Lost or never issued: file Form I-102 with USCIS. The G-1055 fee schedule lists $560 plus a separate $24 Form I-94 fee.

• Watching the visa date instead of the I-94 date. The I-94 governs how long you may stay.
• Land departures not recorded. CBP says departures by land may not be recorded accurately, so keep evidence of leaving.
• Spelling or passport mistakes that do not match your other documents.

DHS has published a rule moving J-1 admission from "duration of status" to a fixed date; see our DS-2019 page.