How to Find Your I-94 Number: Website, App, and Fixes

To find your I-94 number, go to i94.cbp.dhs.gov, choose “Get Most Recent I-94/I-95,” and enter your passport country, passport number, name, and date of birth exactly as they appear in your passport’s machine-readable zone.¹ The site returns your 11-character admission number along with your class of admission and how long you’re authorized to stay. The lookup usually takes about two minutes.

Most I-94 records are now created electronically at the port of entry, whether you arrived by air, sea, or land. CBP builds the record from your travel documents during admission, so there is no paper form for you to fill out and nothing to carry away from the inspection booth other than the passport stamp.

Step-by-Step Lookup on the CBP Website

The four fields on the retrieval page look simple, but each one has to match the machine-readable zone of your passport — the two lines of characters at the bottom of your photo page — not the printed text above it. If the printed name and the machine-readable name differ, the machine-readable version wins.

Passport country of issuance: use the country code shown in zone 1 of the machine-readable zone.
Passport number: use the number in zone 2, even if a different number appears elsewhere on the page.
Name: enter surname and first name as they appear in zones 3 and 4. Special characters like tildes and accents aren’t accepted, and chevrons should be replaced with spaces.
Date of birth: enter it exactly as printed in your passport.

A small mismatch is the most common reason a lookup fails. If the system can’t find you, recheck the machine-readable characters rather than retyping what you see printed above them.

Once you submit, your I-94 appears on screen and can be printed as official proof of admission. Records go back to 1983 for most admission classes.¹

Just arrived? Wait a bit. CBP asks travelers to allow 24 to 48 hours after entry for the electronic record to become available.²

Pulling It Up on Your Phone

CBP publishes a mobile app called CBP Link that shows your current I-94 directly on your phone, including your authorized period of stay. You can use the app itself as proof of visitor status.³

If you’re planning a land border or ferry entry, the app also lets you apply for a provisional I-94 in advance, which takes about four minutes and speeds up processing when you arrive.¹ The web site has the same “Apply for Provisional I-94” option.

What the Number Looks Like

Every I-94 admission number is 11 characters long, but the format changed in May 2019. Records issued before that date are all digits. Newer numbers are nine digits, then a letter, then a final digit.⁴ If an online form rejects your number because it expects only digits, that’s likely why. Enter what your record actually shows.

When You’ll Need the Number

Employers, schools, universities, and government agencies all use the I-94 admission number to verify immigration status.² The most frequent use is a new job: on Form I-9, a noncitizen authorized to work can provide the 11-character I-94 admission number as one of the accepted identifiers in Section 1.⁵ The number also appears on USCIS applications such as change-of-status and extension-of-stay requests. Save or print a copy after each entry so you’re not scrambling later.

Check the “Admitted Until” Date, Not Your Visa

The number is only part of what your I-94 tells you. The other critical piece is the “admitted until” date, and this is where visitors most often go wrong.

Your visa expiration date and your I-94 “admitted until” date are two different things. A visa lets you travel to a U.S. port of entry and ask to be admitted; its expiration date is the last day you can present it at the border. It says nothing about how long you can stay once you’re in. That decision belongs to the CBP officer at admission, and it’s the date recorded on your I-94.⁶

Most categories get a specific calendar date. F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors typically see “D/S” instead, meaning duration of status — you may remain as long as you keep meeting the terms of your program, rather than until a fixed day.⁷

Look at the I-94 every time you enter, even on a familiar visa. Officers can and do give shorter stays than travelers expect.

If Something on Your I-94 Is Wrong

CBP officers occasionally record the wrong admission class, misspell a name, or enter an incorrect date. You have two ways to fix it.

In Person

CBP runs deferred inspection sites, most of them at international airports, where officers can review and correct errors on I-94 records, I-94 cards, and passport admission stamps. Any site can help you regardless of where you were originally admitted. Bring your passport, visa, and any supporting documents such as your I-20 or DS-2019. For non-airport locations, CBP asks that you call ahead for an appointment.⁸

Online

If you can’t get to a deferred inspection site, submit the correction through the CBP Information Center’s online form and attach a copy of your I-94, your passport biographical page, your visa, and any admission-related documents.⁹

If You Can’t Retrieve a Record at All

Sometimes the online lookup simply won’t return a record, or you had a paper I-94 that was lost or damaged. In that case, file Form I-102 with USCIS to request a replacement.¹⁰ The filing fee is $560, waived if the replacement is needed because of a DHS error.¹¹ Members of the U.S. armed forces and certain NATO participants qualify for a fee waiver on an initial request.

Include supporting documents with your filing. For a lost I-94, submit a copy of your passport biographical page and the page showing your admission stamp. For a stolen one, add a copy of the police report or a letter explaining why one isn’t available. For a damaged form, attach whatever pieces remain.¹⁰

Processing has been reasonably quick recently: USCIS reports a median processing time of about 1.4 months for Form I-102 in the most recent fiscal year.¹² Times shift, so check current estimates before you file.

If the Lookup Comes Up Empty and You’re Not Sure Why

Not everyone is issued an I-94. The requirement doesn’t apply to U.S. citizens, returning lawful permanent residents, foreign nationals arriving on immigrant visas, or most Canadian citizens visiting or transiting.¹ If you fall into one of those categories, a blank result usually means no record was ever created, not that something went missing.

1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Website – Official Site for Travelers Visiting the United States
2
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arrival/Departure Forms: I-94 and I-94W
3
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Link Mobile Application
4
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94/I-95 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification
6
Travel.State.Gov. What the Visa Expiration Date Means
7
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94 Expiration Dates
8
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Deferred Inspection Sites
9
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Information Correction Form
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-102, Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival-Departure Document
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Historic Processing Times – Case Status Online