United States: Holiday Travel Guidelines for Foreign Nationals

Before you travel abroad this holiday season, make sure to do the following:

Check your passport validity. In general, your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond the expiration of your period of admission to the United States. This is to ensure that you will be able to leave the United States at the end of your stay and proceed to your home country or another country. There are some exceptions to this rule. Many countries have an agreement with the United States under which a passport is deemed valid for an additional six months past its expiration date so that the passport holder can return to his or her country of citizenship.

If you have questions about whether your passport is valid for reentry, contact your designated Fragomen professional or click here for more information.

Check your visa to make sure it’s valid for reentry to the United States. When you come back to the United States after international travel, the visa stamp in your passport must reflect your current nonimmigrant visa status, it must be unexpired, and, if the visa has a limited number of entries, it must have a remaining valid entry available on the intended date of reentry to the United States. Canadian citizens are not generally required to have a valid visa to enter the United States, unless they are E-1 or E-2 nonimmigrants.

Under certain circumstances, if you are making a short trip of 30 days or less to Canada or Mexico and have a valid I-94 arrival record, you can reenter on a previously issued visa even if it has expired. But if you have applied for a new visa while in Canada or Mexico or if you are a citizen or national of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria, you must wait to obtain the new visa in order to reenter the United States.

For additional information on visa requirements, click here.

If you are an adjustment applicant, find out whether you need advance permission to travel before you leave the United States. If you are an applicant for adjustment of status to permanent residence, you may be required to obtain advance permission to travel – known as advance parole – in order to leave the United States while your adjustment application is pending.

If you already have a valid H-1B, H-4, L-1, or L-2 visa, you may be able to reenter the United States on that visa, without the need for advance parole. But family members in H-4 status who have worked in the United States pursuant to an employment authorization document (EAD) issued in connection with their adjustment of status application should be cautious when traveling, and are advised to obtain advance parole before leaving the country.

If you are an adjustment of status applicant, you should contact your Fragomen professional prior to any international travel to determine the impact of travel on all pending applications and your underlying nonimmigrant status.

Is a change or extension of your status pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)? If you are the principal beneficiary of a nonimmigrant visa petition, travel abroad while a Form I-129 petition to extend your nonimmigrant status is pending should not jeopardize your petition. However, travel while a Form I-539 application to extend a nonimmigrant stay is pending could result in denial of the application. If you have either a pending Form I-129 petition or a Form I-539 application requesting a change of status to another nonimmigrant category, you should avoid international travel until it is adjudicated. USCIS will consider the change of status request to be abandoned if you depart the United States while it is pending. Though a Form I-129 nonimmigrant petition could still be approved, you would need to depart the United States, apply for and obtain a new visa, and then reenter in order to take up the new status. If travel during the pendency of a change of status is unavoidable, please consult your Fragomen professional.

If you're planning business or tourist travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program, make sure you comply with program requirements. The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens and nationals of designated countries to enter the United States for up to 90 days of business or tourist travel without a visa, provided that they meet specific registration and passport requirements. If you're planning to travel under the VWP, you will need to submit an application for a valid registration in the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) at least 72 hours before your departure for the United States. Find out more about VWP passport and ESTA requirements here.

If you’re a Chinese national traveling on a ten-year visitor visa, make sure you’re enrolled in the Electronic Visa Update System (EVUS). If you’re not enrolled, make sure to do so at least 72 hours before travel. Failure to enroll could result in a provisional revocation of your visa and delays in your travel plans. Find out more about EVUS enrollment here.

Plan for the possibility of visa issuance delays at U.S. consulates. U.S. consulates overseas are busiest during the travel season. If you will apply for a new visa while abroad, check the relevant consulate or embassy for specific information about appointments, application procedures, and processing times.

If your visa is not valid and you will need to apply for and obtain a new one at a consulate abroad, you should try to secure a visa appointment before you make your travel plans.  Consulates often have longer-than-usual appointment backlogs during the holiday season, which could delay your return to the United States. If you cannot secure an appointment before you depart the United States, you may face extended delays abroad while you await visa issuance.

Plan for possible security clearance delays during the visa application process. If you need to apply for a new visa before returning to the United States, be prepared for the possibility of lengthy wait times or that your application may be flagged for enhanced security checks. The U.S. consulate may require your visa application to undergo additional security screening based on your country of nationality, whether your name is similar to an individual listed in a U.S. government security database, or whether your job or degree is in a high-technology field, among other reasons. Security checks are a regular part of the visa application process, but a subset of applications are identified by the State Department and other agencies for more stringent vetting.

If a security clearance is required, your visa cannot be issued until the clearance has been completed. Because this process is confidential, the consulate will not confirm that a clearance is underway but may indicate that "administrative processing" is under way. Security clearances can take anywhere from a few days to several months. In general, the government will not expedite a security clearance. If you were previously subject to a security check, you are at increased risk for another and should consider that risk, and likely delays, before making travel plans. For more information, click here.

At the U.S. port of entry, be prepared for enhanced security screening procedures. When you return to the United States, you will need to go through the Biometric Data Collection System, a check-in process where your fingerprints, photograph, and travel documents are scanned against U.S. national security and police databases. You may also be subject to intensive questioning about your immigration status, travel history, the purpose of your visit, background, history of arrests or convictions, employment, and other issues. This could include a search of your electronic devices.

It's important to remain patient during the inspection process. Before you travel, check your employer’s procedures for dealing with searches of company-owned phones, laptops, and other devices. During inspection, answer questions to the best of your ability. If you don't understand a question, ask for clarification. If you are detained at the port of entry, you are generally not entitled to have a lawyer present, but you should ask for permission to call Fragomen offices if the need arises. You should explain that contacting Fragomen will allow us in turn to contact your employer if further information is required. For more information about border procedures, click here.

Obtain your Form I-94 arrival record. Once you have been cleared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at an air or sea port of entry, your passport may be stamped to show the date and class of admission, and the expiration date of your authorized stay. Increasingly, however, CBP is phasing out physical entry stamps. Regardless of whether you receive a physical passport stamp, your immigration information and duration of stay will be entered into CBP's online I-94 arrival record system. The expiration date on the I-94 record is very important – it marks the expiration of your eligibility to remain in valid legal status in the United States. Overstaying this date can have serious consequences.

After your arrival in the United States, you must obtain a printout of your online I-94 here. You should send a copy to your Fragomen professional and retain one for your records. Notify your Fragomen professional as soon as possible if you see any errors in your I-94 record.

President-Elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, and has indicated that he may quickly issue a number of executive orders affecting entry to the United States, possibly as early as Inauguration Day. These could take the form of restrictions on entry for nationals of certain countries of concern, as well as greatly enhanced security screening during the visa application process and at U.S. ports of entry for foreign nationals regardless of country of birth or citizenship. Foreign nationals anticipating travel or reentry to the United States on or after January 20 may wish to consider consulting with counsel before finalizing their plans.

Possible entry bans and other restrictions. President-Elect Trump has said that he will bring back travel bans similar to those that he imposed during the opening weeks of his first administration. Though neither the President-Elect nor his advisors have specified the scope of a future travel ban, individuals who were born in or are citizens of the following countries were subject to certain travel bans during the first Trump Administration and could be subject to some form of entry restrictions in the new Administration: Chad, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Yemen. President-Elect Trump has indicated he would consider restrictions against entrants from other countries as well.

More intensive security screening. One of the incoming Administration’s stated goals is extreme vetting of foreign nationals seeking immigration benefits. With respect to travel and visa applications, an extreme vetting policy may mean that, as of January 20, 2025, there could be more intensive and frequent background checks and security screenings for foreign nationals seeking visas at U.S. consulates abroad and during inspections at U.S. borders and ports of entry. At a minimum, extreme vetting could mean longer waits for visas and entry, which can delay an individual’s ability to travel to the United States and to begin or resume employment. It may also result in a higher rate of refusals of entry to the United States.

The impact of potential entry restrictions and security screening on travel planning. Individuals planning international travel and entry or reentry to the United States may want to take the following into considerations to minimize the risk of delays and uncertainty:

• Individuals who are nationals or citizens of countries that could be subject to a travel ban may want to consider returning to the United States before January 20, 2025.
• Individuals who are awaiting the issuance of a U.S. visa on or after January 20, 2025, may encounter additional heightened security screening based on a variety of factors, including country of birth or nationality; their background information, such as arrests or convictions, military service, travel history, education, and other biographic details; whether they are involved in high-technology fields; whether they have a name that is similar to one listed in a security database; or a combination of these. Though these factors can trigger additional security screening at any time, presidential executive orders issued on or soon after January 20, 2025, could further increase the risk of delays.
• Those who are outside the United States and have valid visas issued and in hand prior to January 20, 2025 could be subject to stricter scrutiny at the border if they enter on or after that date and, depending on specific facts and circumstances, refusal of entry. Additional scrutiny could be based on the traveler’s country of birth or citizenship, purpose of their stay in the United States, any arrest or criminal history, travel history, and other factors.

On our firm's website, you will find detailed information on international travel and immigration obligations. For more detail on the immigration actions and policies expected in the new administration, please refer to our client alert here.