The quickest way to check your travel history is the CBP I-94 website, which shows non-citizens their U.S. arrivals and departures for the past ten years. Everything beyond that — older records, U.S. citizen history, entries into other countries, or domestic trips — requires piecing together information from several sources: FOIA requests, foreign government portals, airline accounts, credit card statements, and your own phone. No single database holds it all.
Start with the CBP I-94 Website
If you’re an international visitor to the United States, go to i94.cbp.dhs.gov. You’ll need your name exactly as it appears on your travel documents, date of birth, passport number, and country of citizenship. The site returns your arrival and departure records for the past ten years along with your I-94 admission number.1U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Website – Official Site for Travelers Visiting the United States CBP also offers the CBP Link mobile app as an alternative way to retrieve the same information.2U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arrival/Departure Forms – I-94 and I-94W
The tool has clear limits. U.S. citizens, returning permanent residents, and most Canadian citizens visiting the U.S. don’t receive I-94 records, so the lookup won’t work for them.1U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Website – Official Site for Travelers Visiting the United States CBP also notes that some travel history may not appear, so treat the results as a strong starting point rather than a certified complete record.
Filing a FOIA Request with CBP
For records older than ten years, for U.S. citizens, or for anyone who needs more detail than the I-94 site provides, the path is a Freedom of Information Act request to CBP. You submit it through the SecureRelease portal and include your full name, mailing address, date of birth, and either a signed Certification of Identity form or a perjury statement with a notarized signature.3U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act
One firm boundary: CBP has no entry or exit records for anyone arriving or departing before 1982.3U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act Earlier travel isn’t in the system, whatever you file.
Filing itself is free. Individual requesters get the first two hours of search time and 100 pages of duplication at no charge, and if total assessable fees stay under $14, CBP doesn’t charge at all. Submitting a request is treated as agreement to pay up to $25 unless you set a higher ceiling or ask for a fee waiver.4U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FOIA Fee Structure and Waivers
Plan for a long wait. CBP’s average processing time for complex FOIA requests was 127 working days as of 2024, roughly six months.5FOIA.gov. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Simple requests for your own records may move faster, but if you need the history for a citizenship application or a tax filing, start now.
USCIS and State Department Records
Two other U.S. agencies keep records that people often confuse with travel history. Neither is a substitute for CBP.
USCIS holds copies of immigration applications and can produce travel dates you previously reported on those forms. Requests go through its own FOIA portal, separate from CBP’s. For actual I-94 data, border crossing records, or inspection records, USCIS routes requesters to CBP.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Request Records through the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act
The State Department, contrary to common belief, does not keep copies of your passport stamps. Its passport records go back to March 1925 and cover application and issuance history, but they don’t include entry or exit stamps, visas, or residence permits. To request them, write to the Office of Records Management in Sterling, Virginia with your full name, date of birth, a copy of photo ID, and a notarized signature or perjury statement. Regular copies are free; certified copies cost $50. Processing takes 12 to 16 weeks.7Travel.State.Gov. Get Copies of Passport Records
Getting Records from Other Countries
If you’ve traveled internationally, the destination country often keeps its own arrival and departure data. A few major systems:
- Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency issues a Travel History Report through the Access to Information and Privacy portal. Requesting your own records under the Privacy Act is free and takes up to 30 days. You can ask for entries, exits, or both. If you’re applying for Canadian citizenship, IRCC pulls the record for you.8Canada Border Services Agency. Travel History Report
- United Kingdom. A Subject Access Request to UK Visas and Immigration returns your immigration history. The online form is open to people with a UK address; others email the request. A basic request covers all digital immigration records since 2000, including application dates, decisions, and landing cards.9UK Government. Request Copies of Personal Information Held in the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship System
- Australia. The Department of Home Affairs has an online form for International Movement Records, showing the dates you entered and left the country.10Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. Requesting Travel Records – Apply
- European Union. The EU’s Entry/Exit System began operating in October 2025, with full implementation at all external Schengen border crossings expected by April 2026. It records biometric data and travel dates for non-EU nationals. Self-service access for travelers is still being built out alongside the rollout.11European Union. Entry/Exit System (EES)
For countries without a formal request system, your passport stamps remain the simplest documentation. Many other nations process requests under national data protection or freedom of information laws, though timelines vary widely.
Private Records That Fill the Gaps
Border agencies only see border crossings. Domestic trips, specific hotels, and routes come from your own paper trail.
Airlines
Federal rules require airlines to keep passenger name records for only two months.12eCFR. 14 CFR 249.20 – Preservation of Records by Certificated Air Carriers In practice, most major carriers hold booking data in loyalty program systems for years, but there’s no guarantee. Log into your accounts and download what’s available now. Frequent flyer mileage activity often preserves dates and routes longer than the general booking system does.
CBP separately retains airline passenger name records for travel to and from the United States for up to fifteen years, with general access for the first five years before the data moves to restricted dormant status.13U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Passenger Name Record (PNR) These are requestable through the same CBP FOIA process.
Hotels and Booking Platforms
Chain hotels with loyalty programs usually keep years of stay history in your account. Independent properties often don’t. Booking platforms like Expedia and Booking.com store past reservations in your account, and the confirmation email often contains more detail than the hotel’s own records.
Banks and Credit Cards
Financial statements are the hardest travel record to lose. International transaction fees, hotel charges, and airline purchases appear with dates and merchant locations. Most banks keep at least seven years of statements accessible online, with older records available by written request. These won’t pin down exact border crossing dates, but they’re strong evidence of where you were and when.
Phone and Email as Backup
If location services were enabled on your phone, you may already have a detailed record. Google Maps Timeline logs places visited and routes traveled for Android and iPhone users with Google accounts. Export it through your phone’s Location Services settings, or via Google Takeout at takeout.google.com by selecting the location history option.14Google Maps Help. Manage Your Google Maps Timeline The export is a JSON file; third-party tools convert it into readable maps and date lists.
Email is the other underused source. Search your inbox for “booking confirmation,” “itinerary,” or “boarding pass” and years of travel often surface in seconds. Most providers keep messages indefinitely unless you’ve deleted them.
Fixing Errors You Find
Wrong dates, missing entries, or records that appear to belong to someone else all go through the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) at trip.dhs.gov. The system assigns a seven-digit Redress Control Number you can track and include in future airline reservations. DHS TRIP is also the right channel if you’ve been repeatedly flagged for secondary screening or denied boarding.15U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP)
For an incorrect I-94 record specifically — a wrong admission class or departure date — use the correction process on the CBP I-94 website. Bring supporting documentation like boarding passes or passport stamps; correcting an official record takes more than your assertion that it’s wrong.
Why It’s Worth Doing Before You Need It
Most people only look up their travel history when a form demands it. The N-400 naturalization application requires every trip outside the United States during the previous five years, or three years if you’re applying as the spouse of a U.S. citizen.16U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form N-400, Instructions for Application for Naturalization You also need to show at least 913 days of physical presence before filing.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 4 – Physical Presence The IRS substantial presence test, which decides whether a non-citizen counts as a U.S. tax resident, also runs on exact day counts across three years.18Internal Revenue Service. Substantial Presence Test
Wrong dates on an immigration application can be treated as willful misrepresentation, and USCIS can find someone inadmissible for life for misrepresenting a material fact, whether or not the application was ultimately approved.19U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 8, Part J, Chapter 2 – Overview of Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation Reconstructing your history now — while emails still exist, airline accounts are still active, and CBP’s FOIA queue hasn’t grown longer — is the difference between a checkable answer and a guess.