Maintaining Your Immigration Documents and Records

It is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and validity of your immigration documents and to keep copies of documents related to your immigration history in a safe place. Beyond maintaining copies of your documents and records, you are also required to always keep the original versions of your current immigration documents on your person.

Passports and U.S. Visas

Make sure that you have paper and electronic copies of your passport identity page(s) and U.S. visa stamp(s); if a passport is lost or stolen, there may not be a way to recover this information later if you have not made your own copies.

Form I-94

The Form I-94 (DHS Arrival/Departure Record) is created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when you enter the United States and is the official record of your entry date and immigration status. The form is generated electronically and can be accessed on the CBP website.

• If you have traveled and made a new entry to the U.S., retrieve your electronic Form I-94 on the CBP website (click on “Get Most Recent I-94”).
• Check the Form I-94 to make sure it does not contain errors.
  • NOTE: For J-1 Exchange Visitors, it is important to ensure the “admit until date” is D/S. If your Form I-94 does not say D/S, contact ISSS immediately.
• Always print out and save every Form I-94, and store it in an organized way.
• Keep the I-94s from previous entries to the U.S. for your records
  • Important: you will not have online access to the Form I-94 for a previous entry once you have traveled again
• Keep other evidence of your travel history for your own records where possible (flight itineraries and tickets, etc.).
• Note that the information noted on the “travel history” section on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website is not always correct and usually cannot be corrected. However, your Form I-94 on the CBP website should always accurately reflect the details of your most recent entry. If this information is not correct, contact ISSS immediately.

After each entry into the United States, please also be sure to submit an Update my Most Recent Form I-94 Information e-form in the ISSS Portal to ensure we have the most up-to-date information.

If you changed status in the U.S., your Form I-94 will be located at the bottom of your I-797 Approval Notice from USCIS.

Save Copies of your Immigration Documents and Records

ISSS recommends that you keep copies of all immigration documents in a binder or similar organizer and store them in a safe place. Also keep electronic copies of all documents, stored and managed on your computer and/or a back-up hard drive in an organized and easily accessible and protected way.

Keep support documentation related to the maintenance of your status (offer letter, J-1 invitation letter, all correspondence/documents received from the USCIS, and copies of petitions, etc.) in a similar manner, maintaining both original/hardcopy and electronic documents as applicable, and keeping them together with other immigration documents so they may be easily located.

Maintain Originals of your Documents and Records on your Person at all times

Federal law requires all non-citizens to carry originals on their person. Photocopies and/or digital images will not suffice. As stated above, all nonimmigrants must maintain the validity of their passports and I-94, see below for the list of additional documents applicable to each visa category:

J-1 Scholars

• DS-2019

H-1B Specialty Occupation, E-3 Australians in Specialty Occupations, O-1 Aliens of Extraordinary Ability, and TN (USMCA Professionals) temporary Workers will need the following:

• I-797 Approval Notice (H-1B and O-1)
  • TN or E-3 scholars who changed status, changed employers, or extended their status from within the U.S., will also have an I-797 approval notice.
• TN:
  • TN Letter of Support
• E-3:
  • Labor Condition Application
  • E-3 Letter of Support, if consular processed

This information is intended to provide general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Depending on your specific situation and immigration history, additional documents may need to be collected and kept, and additional considerations may apply.