U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today announced two new compliance features to help Visa Waiver travelers track their period of stay in the United States. The first is a “View Compliance” tab on the right side of the I-94 Departure Record website, https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home. By entering biographic and passport information, Visa Waiver travelers can see how many days they have remaining in their lawful stay. If they have overstayed the period of admission, they can see by how many days they have remained in the U.S. beyond the authorized date.
The second compliance feature is for CBP to send an email to Visa Waiver travelers 10 days before their period of stay expires. The announcement stated that the emails would be sent from Staycompliance-donotreply@cbp.dhs.gov and cautioned travelers to be wary of similar emails from any other email address. Underlying this new feature is the need for Visa Waiver travelers to be willing to provide their email address to CBP. It is not required.
When CBP updated its website in May 2017, it provided only information for overstays. The new features are intended to be more proactive. They are a welcome addition to the tools available to help Visa Waiver travelers ensure that they do not overstay their authorized period of admission. Overstaying a period of admission can have severe, negative consequences and potentially affect a person’s eligibility for travel to the United States.
For background, the Visa Waiver Program allows citizens of designated countries to travel to the United States for business or tourism for up to 90 days without first obtaining a visa from the U.S. consulate or embassy abroad. The I-94 Departure Record is the document that evidences entry to the U.S. and period of authorized stay for persons who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. CBP formerly issued paper I-94 cards and transitioned to the online system in 2013.