United States Travel History: I94 Form and How to Check It Online
There are a couple of different reasons why you would want to know your travel history in the United States, which brings us to the travel history I94 form. You might be a foreigner with a US-based income and are looking to calculate your days of presence for the Substantial Presence Test so you can adequately fill out taxes (either 1040-NR or 1040 tax form based on the SPT score).
Or, you might be a US Green Card holder who wants to make sure you don’t lose it due to certain travel restrictions imposed by the US government on those who own a Green Card.
Another popular reason for checking your travel history is if you’re a US citizen living abroad and want to check your days of presence so you can fill out the Physical Presence Test and file your taxes correctly. There’s also the possibility that you might have a completely different reason and maybe just want to know how to find out if someone has traveled. Whatever the case may be, you’re in the right place.
In this article, we’ll tell you all about the travel history I94 form, where to find it, and how to fill it out to get the desired results. We’ll also mention some other ways you can check your travel history I94 in United States.
Let’s begin!
Travel History I94 Form: Why Do You Need It?
The I-94 form can be used for a number of different reasons, such as:
- Application for a Visa
- Application for a Green Card
- For the Substantial Presence Test (SPT) that is a part of the 1040-NR tax forms
Whatever your exact reason might be, the I-94 form will allow you access to your entire US travel history (days of arrival and departure, as well as the location where those happened).
If you need to check your travel history for the SPT (and later for the 1040-NR tax form), you can use the information from the I-94 form to calculate your days of presence in the US.
What Are Days of Presence?
Days of presence in the US are the number of days a person has spent on US soil. There are many reasons why you would want to calculate days of presence, including:
- FIling of taxes
- Various immigration and residency applications
- Legal proceedings where establishing residency or legal status is important
How to Check My Passport Travel History I94 Form
Instead of checking your passport or email or looking for your plane tickets to figure out the exact dates of your US visit and your US travel history, you can now do it all online via the Travel History I94 form. Getting the I-4 form online is much easier, quicker and more accurate.
But before we tell you about that and the six easy steps to check your travel history in United States, let’s review some basic information to ensure we’re all on the same page.
What Is the Travel History I94 Form?
The I-94 form is an electronic or paper document that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issues to residents and foreigners who travel to or from the United States. The I-94 is a record of all your US departures and arrivals.
What Do I Need to Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form?
To get your travel history records in United States, you need to have the following basic information:
- Your first and last name (i.e., your full name)
- Your date of birth
- Your country of origin (i.e., the country you are a citizen of)
- The number of your passport
Try to prepare this information before starting the steps to access your travel history records in order to make the process easier to complete.
How to Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: 6 Easy Steps
After you’ve gathered all the necessary information, it’s time to fill out the I-94 form. To do that, you should follow the steps:
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 1
To check your United States Travel History Online, you should first visit the US CBP main page.
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 2
Once you’re on the US CBP homepage, the first thing that will pop out is four vertical windows, each with a unique title:
- Visiting the U.S. & Arriving Via a Land Border or Selected Ferry?
- Already Visiting & Need Proof of Visitor Status?
- Need A History Of Your Arrivals & Departures?
- How Much Longer May I Remain in the U.S.?
What you want to do is focus on the third window that says: “Need A History Of Your Arrivals & Departures?”. At the bottom of it, you’ll see a smaller blue window that says “View Travel History”. Click on it.
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 3
Once you’ve clicked the “View Travel History” window, a Terms of Service pop-up will appear on your screen. To proceed to the next step, you’ll have to scroll down to the “I Acknowledge and Agree” window (located in the bottom right corner of the “Terms of Use” pop-up) and click on it.
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 4
After you’ve consented to the Terms of Service, you’ll be automatically moved to a page where you’ll be asked to input your personal information. We’ve mentioned what sort of information you’ll need above, but for the sake of clarity, let’s briefly review it here as well:
- Your full name (first and last name)
- Your date of birth
- Your country of origin (the country you are a citizen of)
- The number of your passport
After you input all the information into appropriate windows and verify that the information you’ve provided is accurate, click on the window that says “next” (located in the bottom right of the screen).
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 5
After clicking next, you’ll be shown your travel history to the US. The results should include:
- Your arrival date to the US and the place of entry
- Your departure date from the US and the place of departure
Fill Out the Travel History I94 Form Online: Step 6
Whatever the exact reason for checking your travel history, make sure to take your time to review it. You don’t want to get some parts of it wrong, especially if you’re looking up this information so you can file for taxes in the US.
Also, if you want to have your travel history on paper (so you can look at it without the need for a computer screen or the internet), just go to the bottom right part of the screen and click on the window that says “print”.
What to Do if You Can’t Access Your Travel History?
In some situations, going through all the above steps will sometimes not produce the desired result — you have access to your entire US travel history. If that happens, there are certain things you can try before you contact the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to try and fix the issue.
The easiest and the first thing you should do is to ensure you’ve entered the correct information. To do that, you should make sure:
- That the spelling of your first and last name in your passports is the same as the spelling you’ve used in the online form
- You input the number of your passport correctly. If one number is off, you won’t be able to get your US travel history. Also, if you’ve changed your passport (i.e., got a new one), your passport number has also changed. If that’s the case, try using the number of a passport you used to travel to the US (your old passport).
- To check whether you entered your country of citizenship or your country of residence (the country you currently live in). If those two are different, try them both before getting in touch with CBP officials.
- You’ve entered your first and middle names correctly. If you don’t get any results, try using one or the other. And if that doesn’t work, try inputting your first and middle names in the window reserved for the first name.
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