I-94 Travel History: How to Get It, Read It, and Use It for H-1B, Tax and Future Green Card Filings
CBP's free travel history tool lists up to ten years of trips, can miss most land crossings and is not an official record. Here is how to read it and when it is not enough.
Part of our guide to the I-94 record.
Your I-94 travel history is the free list of US arrival and departure dates that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows on its official I-94 website under View Travel History. As of November 1, 2026, the site says it covers the past 10 years (up to 100 arrivals and departures), it works only for nonimmigrants, and CBP describes it as "a tool to assist you but not an official record for legal purposes." It is not the same as your I-94 admission record, and it can miss most land crossings. Use it as a starting point, then back it up with your own records.
Status as of 2026-11-01. In effect: the CBP travel-history tool as described above, free to use; the $30 fee to apply for an I-94 at a land border, which CBP's FY2027 notice keeps at $30 from 2026-10-16 (91 FR 62534); and the DHS biometric entry/exit rule (since 2025-12-26). Blocked: the rule that would replace F-1 "duration of status" (D/S) with fixed admission dates, blocked by a federal court since 2026-09-14, with summary judgment briefed and DHS's appeal pending (docket). So F-1 admission records still read "D/S".
What is I-94 travel history?
I-94 travel history is CBP's list of the dates you arrived in and departed from the United States, with the port, assembled from records CBP collects from several sources, including airline passenger lists. It is separate from your I-94 admission record. It helps you reconstruct trips for H-1B recapture, tax day counts and green card forms, but CBP says it is incomplete and not an official legal record.
CBP's FAQ says the history "is intended as a helpful tool for the public and is not an official record for legal purposes." For flights, "The airlines will take care of registering your departure"; for land and sea, "your departure may not be automatically recorded." Treat the list as a fast, free index of your trips, not proof that settles a question by itself.
Is travel history the same as my I-94 record?
No. The site has two different searches. Get Most Recent I-94/I-95 returns your admission record: the I-94 number, your most recent date of entry, the class of admission (F-1, H-1B, H-4) and the admit-until date. View Travel History returns only dates, arrival or departure, and the port of entry or exit.
When an employer completing Form I-9, a DMV, the Social Security office, your DSO or a USCIS form asks for "your I-94," they almost always mean the admission record, not the travel list. For that search, CBP says you must use the passport number linked to the I-94, "regardless of whether the passport has expired"; our guide to downloading your most recent I-94 walks through it. If you changed status inside the US, for example from F-1 STEM OPT to H-1B, your current record is the I-94 at the bottom of your I-797A approval notice until you next leave and re-enter, when CBP creates a new one. CBP says the website may not reflect I-94s issued by USCIS for changes of status or extensions of stay.
Which record answers which question (as of 2026-11)
| Record | Where you get it | What it shows | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most recent I-94 (admission record) | i94.cbp.dhs.gov, Get Most Recent I-94/I-95 | I-94 number, entry date, class of admission, admit-until date (D/S for F-1) | Form I-9, DMV, SSA, USCIS forms, checking your stay end date |
| Travel history | i94.cbp.dhs.gov, View Travel History | Up to 100 arrival and departure dates with ports, past 10 years | Reconstructing trips and day counts |
| I-797A tear-off I-94 | Bottom of a USCIS approval with change or extension of status | New class and stay dates granted by USCIS | Proof of status after a change or extension inside the US |
| CBP FOIA records | SecureRelease portal or FOIA.gov | CBP entry and exit records held on you | Older trips, disputes, green card holders and citizens |
How do you get your I-94 travel history?
It costs nothing on the official site and takes a few minutes.
- Open the official CBP site at i94.cbp.dhs.gov. Ignore lookalike sites that charge to "download" an I-94; CBP's lookup is free.
- Select View Travel History on the home page.
- Enter your first name, last name, date of birth, passport number and country of citizenship exactly as printed on the passport you used to enter the US, including every first and last name it lists, or press the site's "Capture Document" button to read the passport with your camera.
- Review the results table (Row, Date, Type, Location) and check every trip against your own memory, boarding passes and passport stamps.
- Save the page as a PDF and name the file with the date you retrieved it, because the 10-year window keeps rolling forward.
- Repeat the search with each passport you used in the last 10 years if trips you remember are missing.
- Run Get Most Recent I-94/I-95 as well, and save that admission record, since organizations ask for it far more often.
- File a redress if a trip is wrong, choosing one route: the CBP Information Center ("Ask Us a Question," topic "I-94/Traveler Compliance," issue "Issue with my I-94/Travel History") or DHS TRIP.
CBP's FAQ says to pick only one of those routes, "as submitting both may delay results," and that "you must include supporting evidence showing your travel history is incorrect or inaccurate before a review can be conducted." Requests are handled in order of receipt. A wrong class of admission or admit-until date on the I-94 itself is a different problem; our guide to fixing I-94 errors covers those routes.
How do you read the travel history results?
Each row is one event: a date, a type (arrival or departure) and a location (the port). A complete trip abroad shows as a departure followed by an arrival. A departure with no matching arrival, or two arrivals in a row, means something is missing.
Three habits make the list useful:
- Pair the rows into trips. Write each trip as "left on X, returned on Y" in a separate log. Unpaired rows are your to-do list.
- Remember it shows dates, not times. Rules that turn on 24-hour periods need boarding passes or tickets with times.
- Check the port, not just the date. A port you never used is a sign of a data error worth raising early.
How far back does I-94 travel history go?
As of November 1, 2026, CBP's site says it shows "the past 10 years," capped at 100 arrivals and departures. In its FAQ, CBP adds that this includes "any travel conducted on an expired passport."
Common misconception: "The I-94 website only shows five years of travel." Correction: some older guides say five years, but CBP's site text read on 2026-11-01 says 10 years. The window can change, so trust what the site states the day you check, and keep your own PDFs.
Two limits matter more than the number. First, the window rolls: a trip from late 2016 is about to fall off. Second, CBP says "United States Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents cannot retrieve their travel history using the I-94/I-95 website." Once you hold a green card, the site will not show you anything, so save your nonimmigrant-era history while you still can.
Why is a trip missing from my travel history?
CBP lists the gaps itself. The results page says the history "may not reflect: land border arrivals/departures, closed loop cruise arrivals/departures, air carrier reservation updates, and USCIS updates, changes of status, extensions of stay or adjustments of status." It then adds: "If this travel history is not complete, there is no action to take." Our reading: a missing land trip is not an error CBP expects you to fix; it is a gap you fill with your own evidence when a filing needs it.
When a departure that should be there is missing, CBP's FAQ names the most common causes:
- You used a different passport (citizenship) to leave than you used to arrive.
- You used a slightly different variation of your name.
- Your airline misspelled your name or did not list you on the manifest.
- You left by land into Mexico.
- Your cruise line wrongly marked an open-loop or transatlantic cruise as closed-loop.
Land trips need the most care. Nonimmigrants can report a land or sea departure in CBP's CBP Link app ("Departing Traveler," then "Verify My Exit"), which uses a selfie and your phone's location. CBP says to report it only "after you have physically left the United States," at least three miles past the border, and that "the date you use CBP Link Mobile Application to register your departure is the date CBP records you as departing." Use it on the day you leave, not a week later.
CBP's I-94 information page also warns that after a land exit "your departure may not be recorded accurately" and notes you can ask Canadian or Mexican officers for an entry stamp. For an unregistered departure, CBP's FAQ says "Acceptable evidence may include entry stamps in your passport, transportation tickets, pay stubs, or other receipts." The biometric entry/exit rule (in effect since 2025-12-26) lets CBP photograph noncitizens on entry and exit, but CBP's FAQ, read on 2026-11-01, still lists most land crossings among the gaps. Our guide to proving a departure that is missing from your record covers the evidence in detail.
What is travel history used for?
Mostly for counting days. The catch is that each agency counts a "day" differently, so you cannot compute one number and reuse it everywhere.
How the same trip is counted under each rule (as of 2026-11)
| Use | Who counts | What counts | Is travel history enough? | Who to ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-1B recapture | Your employer (petitioner) requests; USCIS decides | Time outside the US "exceeding 24 hours" during an approved H-1B petition; a common conservative convention counts only full calendar days abroad | No. Add passport stamps, I-94s or tickets and a chart | Your employer's immigration attorney |
| Tax residency and Form 8843 | You, on your return | Any part of a day in the US is a day present (IRS); exempt-individual days, such as qualifying F-1 student days, are excluded with Form 8843 | It helps; add boarding passes for border days | A tax professional who handles nonresident returns |
| Green card (I-485) filing | You and your attorney | Not a day count; your entry and status history, including your most recent I-94 | No. Add every I-94, I-797 and visa | Your immigration attorney |
| Naturalization (later) | USCIS | The day you leave and the day you return both count as days present | Not available to green card holders; use your own log or FOIA | An immigration attorney |
| F-1, OPT and SEVIS questions | Your school | Status and travel signatures, not day counts | Only as background | Your DSO |
H-1B recapture
The rule is 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(C): time "physically outside the United States exceeding 24 hours" during the validity of an approved H-1B petition does not count against your six years and "may be recaptured in a subsequent H-1B petition." The regulation puts the burden on the petitioner and names the evidence: "copies of passport stamps, Arrival-Departure Records (Form I-94), or airline tickets, together with a chart." It ends with a warning worth taking seriously: "Based on the evidence provided, USCIS may grant all, part, or none of the recapture period requested."
The regulation does not say how to count the travel days themselves. A widely used conservative convention counts only calendar days spent entirely outside the US; that is practitioner guidance, not regulatory text, and your employer's attorney picks the method. Our H-1B recapture day-count guide walks through the chart, and planning future trips around petition timing is covered in when not to travel on H-1B.
Taxes and Form 8843
The IRS substantial presence test page says "You are treated as present in the U.S. on any day you are physically present in the country, at any time during the day." So your departure day and your return day both count as US days for tax. F-1 students who substantially comply with their status exclude those days as exempt individuals and file Form 8843; the same IRS page warns that "If you do not timely file Form 8843, you cannot exclude the days you were present in the U.S. as an exempt individual." IRS Publication 519 explains that the student exemption generally ends once you have been exempt for any part of five calendar years. Our Form 8843 guide covers who files. Bring your day log to a tax professional rather than deciding residency yourself.
Naturalization, years from now
The USCIS Policy Manual (current as of 2026-10-27) requires applicants under INA 316(a), the general rule for permanent residents, to show at least 30 months (at least 913 days) of physical presence, and says "USCIS will count the day that an applicant departs from the United States and the day he or she returns as days of physical presence within the United States." Because the CBP site will not show a permanent resident's travel, start a personal trip log the day your green card arrives.
Worked example: one traveler, three trips
Suppose you have been on an approved H-1B petition since 2023-10-01. Your travel history shows a departure on 2024-12-14, an arrival on 2025-01-05 and then an arrival on 2026-03-29, two arrivals in a row. Your own records add a drive to Canada on 2025-07-03, returning 2025-07-06, and a flight out on 2026-03-20 that your boarding pass proves but the list does not show.
| Trip | Left | Returned | What the CBP list shows | Full days abroad (conservative convention) | Fix or evidence needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter trip home | 2024-12-14 | 2025-01-05 | Both rows | 21 (Dec 15 to Jan 4) | Boarding passes, passport stamps |
| Drive to Canada | 2025-07-03 | 2025-07-06 | Neither row | 2 (Jul 4 and 5) | Receipts, any entry stamp, CBP Link record if used |
| Spring trip, departure not reported | 2026-03-20 | 2026-03-29 | Arrival only | 8 (Mar 21 to 28) | Boarding pass and stamps; one redress with that evidence |
Under that convention, your employer's attorney could document 31 full days abroad, and USCIS decides how many to grant. For tax year 2025, as an H-1B worker with no exempt days, the same trips leave you outside the US on 6 days (January 1 to 4, July 4 and 5); 2025-01-05, 2025-07-03 and 2025-07-06 count as US days, and 2024-12-14 belongs to tax year 2024. The missing 2026-03-20 departure is the item to act on now, while the boarding pass and card statement are easy to find.
What if you need records older than the website shows?
Request them from CBP under the Freedom of Information Act. CBP's FOIA page says that since January 22, 2026 it no longer accepts paper requests, and that "you must submit your records request through the CBP SecureRelease portal or www.FOIA.gov." Its I-94 FAQ notes that "Travel records are only available from 1982 onward." Describe the records you want (entry and exit records, the date range, every passport number) rather than asking a question, because CBP says "FOIA requests submitted as questions will not be processed."
CBP does not promise a turnaround, so request well before any filing that depends on it. Recapture can be sought at any time before you use up your full six years, which is when trips older than 10 years can start to matter for long-term H-1B workers. Our CBP FOIA travel history guide covers the request itself.
Common mistakes
- Sending the travel list when someone asked for your I-94. HR, the DMV and USCIS want the admission record with your I-94 number and class of admission.
- Treating the list as proof. CBP says it is "not an official record for legal purposes." Pair every trip with independent evidence.
- Counting days one way for everything. Recapture, tax and naturalization each define a day differently.
- Waiting until you need it. The window rolls, and green card holders lose access to the tool entirely.
- Filing two redress requests at once. CBP says using both the Information Center and DHS TRIP may delay results.
- Ignoring an unpaired row. Search again with any older passport, then gather the evidence for a missing departure while it is fresh.
- Guessing at dates when a CBP officer asks about past trips. Check your saved history first; our guide to CBP re-entry questions covers what officers ask. Answer accurately and carry your documents.
Frequently asked questions
How far back does I-94 travel history go?
As of November 1, 2026, CBP's I-94 website says View Travel History shows your US arrivals and departures for the past 10 years, up to 100 entries. Older guides say five years, so trust what the site says on the day you check. For anything older, file a CBP FOIA request, since CBP says its travel records run from 1982 onward.
Is travel history the same as my I-94 record?
No. Your I-94 is the admission record from Get Most Recent I-94/I-95, with your I-94 number, class of admission and admit-until date. Travel history is only a list of arrival and departure dates and ports. When an employer, school, DMV or USCIS asks for your I-94, they almost always mean the admission record.
Why is a trip missing from my travel history?
CBP says the history may not show most land border arrivals and departures, closed-loop cruises, airline reservation updates, or I-94s that USCIS issued for a change or extension of status. A different passport, a name variation or an airline manifest error can also hide a trip. CBP says an incomplete history needs no action, but if it is wrong you can file one redress, through the CBP Information Center or DHS TRIP, with supporting evidence.
Can I use travel history to count days for taxes or H-1B recapture?
Yes, as a starting point, but CBP calls it a tool and not an official record for legal purposes, and each count uses its own rule. The IRS counts any part of a day in the US as a day of presence, while H-1B recapture covers time outside the US exceeding 24 hours, which your employer must request and prove. Back every trip with passport stamps, boarding passes or tickets.
What if I need records older than the website shows?
File a Freedom of Information Act request with CBP through its SecureRelease portal or FOIA.gov, describing the records and dates you need. Green card holders and US citizens must use FOIA for any travel history, because the I-94 website serves nonimmigrants only. CBP does not publish a promised turnaround, so request early.
Sources
- CBP, I-94/I-95 website and FAQ (View Travel History, Get Most Recent I-94/I-95): https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/
- CBP, Arrival/Departure Forms: I-94: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/i-94
- CBP, CBP Link mobile app: https://www.cbp.gov/about/mobile-apps-directory/cbplink
- CBP, Freedom of Information Act: https://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia
- CBP Information Center: https://www.help.cbp.gov/s/questions
- DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP): https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip
- 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(C), H-1B recapture: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-214/section-214.2
- USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 4 (Physical Presence): https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-4
- IRS, Substantial Presence Test: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/substantial-presence-test
- IRS, Form 8843: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf and Publication 519: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p519
- CBP, HR-1 fees, FY2027 inflation adjustments (91 FR 62534): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-01/pdf/2026-20185.pdf
- DHS biometric entry/exit final rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/27/2025-19655/collection-of-biometric-data-from-aliens-upon-entry-to-and-departure-from-the-united-states
- D/S case docket, Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. United States: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74661796/presidents-alliance-on-higher-education-and-immigration-v-united-states/
How we checked this: on November 1, 2026 we read the text of CBP's I-94 website, its FAQ and its travel-history results page, CBP's I-94, CBP Link and FOIA pages, CBP's FY2027 fee notice (91 FR 62534), the eCFR text of 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(iii)(C), the USCIS Policy Manual physical-presence chapter and the IRS substantial presence test page and Publication 519.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice; your own I-94, I-20 and approval notices govern, and a DSO (for F-1, OPT and SEVIS), an immigration attorney (for recapture, petitions and green card filings) or a tax professional should answer questions about your specific case.
Keeping clean travel records is part of keeping your options open. If you are on OPT, STEM OPT or H-1B and want a focused search for employers that sponsor, F1Jobs can help you plan the next step.
Frequently asked questions
How far back does I-94 travel history go?
As of November 1, 2026, CBP's I-94 website says View Travel History shows your US arrivals and departures for the past 10 years, up to 100 entries. Older guides say five years, so trust what the site says on the day you check. For anything older, file a CBP FOIA request, since CBP says its travel records run from 1982 onward.
Is travel history the same as my I-94 record?
No. Your I-94 is the admission record from Get Most Recent I-94/I-95, with your I-94 number, class of admission and admit-until date. Travel history is only a list of arrival and departure dates and ports. When an employer, school, DMV or USCIS asks for your I-94, they almost always mean the admission record.
Why is a trip missing from my travel history?
CBP says the history may not show most land border arrivals and departures, closed-loop cruises, airline reservation updates, or I-94s that USCIS issued for a change or extension of status. A different passport, a name variation or an airline manifest error can also hide a trip. CBP says an incomplete history needs no action, but if it is wrong you can file one redress, through the CBP Information Center or DHS TRIP, with supporting evidence.
Can I use travel history to count days for taxes or H-1B recapture?
Yes, as a starting point, but CBP calls it a tool and not an official record for legal purposes, and each count uses its own rule. The IRS counts any part of a day in the US as a day of presence, while H-1B recapture covers time outside the US exceeding 24 hours, which your employer must request and prove. Back every trip with passport stamps, boarding passes or tickets.
What if I need records older than the website shows?
File a Freedom of Information Act request with CBP through its SecureRelease portal or FOIA.gov, describing the records and dates you need. Green card holders and US citizens must use FOIA for any travel history, because the I-94 website serves nonimmigrants only. CBP does not publish a promised turnaround, so request early.