What Is Form I-94?

By Author: Paul Anderson
Total Articles: 91
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Form I-94 is an Arrival Departure Record that has the information about the date of entry into the United States, class of admission and when the authorized stay expires. Whenever a non-immigrant enters the United States, Form I-94 must be completed at the time of entry into the United States. If entering the U.S. by air or sea, the transport line will give Form I-94 to the non-immigrant and if by land the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials will give a blank I-94 form to the non-immigrant. If I-94 is lost or stolen you must file Replace Arrival Departure Record.

The I-94 form has two sections - the arrival record and the departure record. Both the sections must be completed by the non-immigrant. The upper portion of Form I-94 is the arrival record and has the following information:

Admission Number
Name
Date of birth
Country of Citizenship
Gender
Passport Number
Airline or flight number
Country where you live
City where you boarded
City where the visa was issued
Date ...
... visa was issued
Address while in the United States (Number and Street)
City and State

The bottom part of Form I-94 is the departure record and has the following information:

Departure Number
Name
Date of birth
Country of citizenship

The non-immigrant completes Form I-94 and gives it to the CBP officer along with the passport. During the processing of I-94 form, the CBP officer might ask questions about the purpose of the visit, duration of the visit and residence abroad. If the details that are provided in the I-94 form is accurate and legitimate, the CBP officer stamps the Form I-94 Arrival, Departure Record and the passport and keeps the arrival section of the form for record purposes and gives the passport and departure record to the non-immigrant. Thus the non-immigrant gets an approval to enter the United States in a specific non-immigrant status for an authorized stay.

When the non-immigrant is in the United States, he can apply for change of status or extension of stay by filing Form I-539. If the application for change of status or extension is approved by the USCIS, the non-immigrant will be issued a Approval Notice with a new I-94 card. The I-94 card depicts the new category or the extended status along with the information about when the authorized stay expires.

The admission number and the departure number in the I-94 form will be the same. The departure record must be handed over to the United States CBP officials when the non-immigrant leaves the United States.

If the non-immigrant leaves the U.S. by air, Form I-94 departure record should be handed over into the airline before departure.
If the non-immigrant leaves the U.S. by sea, Form I-94 departure record should be handed over into the shipping line before departure.
If the non-immigrant leaves the U.S. by land, Form I-94 departure record should be handed over to the CBP officer.

The passport and departure record should be carefully preserved during the stay inside the United States. If Form I-94 is lost or stolen, the non-immigrant must request USCIS for replacement by filing Form I-102.