For air and sea entry, since May 2013, the electronic Form I-94 is used. Before entering the U.S. by land, you should fill out the paper Form I-94. You should fill it out and present it to the immigration officer at your port of entry. The immigration officer will keep the arrival record and stamp the departure record with certain information. The departure record is also called an I-94 card. The I-94 card will be stapled into your passport. The I-94 card is a very important document, and you must hand it over to the carrier or the CBP officer at the land border when you depart the U.S.
1. Departure Number: A unique number to this I-94 card.
2. Date of entry into the U.S.
3. Class of admission is a visa class, such as H1B, H4, B1, B2, F1, etc.
4. Admitted until: This is the date until which the person can stay in the U.S. If it says “D/S”, which means “Duration of Status”, the person can stay as long as they hold a valid non-immigrant status. This is most relevant for H-, L-, F-, and J-type of visas.
“Date of entry” to “Admitted until” is the authorized duration of stay in the U.S.
The visa stamp expiration date and the I-94 expiration dates are two different things. See Visa vs Authorized Stay Duration.
5. This specifies the Port of Entry (POE), the place where you first entered the United States.
