U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will no longer routinely stamp passports at primary inspection. A Carrier Liaison Program bulletin dated October 1, 2026 (Publishing No. 5680-1026), which AILA posted the same day, says CBP “will cease the routine use of admission stamps during primary processing.” The change was first noticed through an AILA posting and reported by immigration law firms on October 2. For nearly every nonimmigrant traveler, including H-1B workers, F-1 students, L-1 transferees and visitors, the electronic Form I-94 is now the main and often the only proof of a lawful admission.
What the bulletin says. CBP describes the move as part of a wider modernization effort that already includes automated forms, mobile technology and biometric facial matching, and says dropping the stamp cuts primary processing times and operating costs. Stamps are not banned outright. The bulletin says they “may still be used during secondary processing,” and in primary only in limited cases: when processing immigrant visas, or when a traveler specifically asks for one. Travelers can retrieve their admission record, authorized length of stay and five years of arrival history on the official I-94 website or in the CBP Link mobile app. Anyone who cannot retrieve the record should contact their local port of entry.
Why it matters more than it sounds. For years, a passport stamp has been the quick backup when an employer, DMV, bank or school asks for proof of entry. Without it, any error in the electronic record has no paper fallback. CBP’s own bulletin warns airlines that I-94 data comes straight from their Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) transmissions, and notes that travelers rely on that data “for various purposes (e.g., banking, schooling, employment).” A mistyped name, wrong passport number or wrong class of admission entered by an airline can therefore follow a traveler into Form I-9 verification, driver’s license applications and later USCIS filings. Stamp-free primary processing first ran as a pilot at selected airports and land ports beginning in late 2021. This bulletin makes it the default nationwide.
What travelers should do. After every entry, download your I-94 within a day or two and check:
- your name and passport number
- the class of admission (H-1B, F-1, L-1, and so on)
- the admit-until date or “D/S”
H-1B and other petition-based workers should compare the admit-until date with the validity of their approval notice and passport. A shortened I-94 is easiest to fix right away, through a CBP Deferred Inspection office or the port of entry. Keep a PDF of each I-94 together with your travel records. You can still ask the inspecting officer for a stamp, but CBP has not said how often it will grant those requests, so don’t count on getting one. Green card applicants with pending petitions should keep these records as well, because USCIS checks entry history when it adjudicates adjustment of status.
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