Completing the I-94 Form

For nonimmigrant visitors entering the United States with a visa, there is a requirement to fill a I-94 (white form). This form has two specific perforated sections to it. The visitor or the carrier representative fills out the I-94 upon arrival in the United States. The bottom section for the I-94 is a departure coupon and must be returned to U.S. officials upon exiting the United States.

The information requested on the I-94 includes:

Full Name
Date of Birth
Gender
Country of Birth
Country of Citizenship
Passport Number
Airline and Flight Number
City Where Boarded
Address While in the United States

In addition, there are several fields on the back upper portion designed for immigration related issues such as alien number, student number, and receipt number, which also need to be completed upon arrival to the United States. The back lower portion requests:

Full Name
Birth Date
Country of Citizenshi

At the completion of a primary inspection, a CBP officer affixes an admission stamp to the arrival and departure portions of the completed I-94, the traveler’s passport, the entrant's customs declaration. The officer retains the arrival portion of the form and inserts the departure portion of the I-94 into the traveler’s passport. Current policy guidance provides that the departure coupon must be securely affixed, preferably by stapling the coupon to the traveler’s passport.

The I-94 coupon rides with the passport until the alien boards a conveyance, which provides the entrant an exit out of the United States. At U.S. departure, transportation carriers are supposed to remove the departure coupon, annotate the reverse of the coupon with the facts of the aliens’ departure from the United States, and then return the I-94 coupon (departure portion) to the nearest CBP office.