The U.S. Entry & Exit

You should enter the United States by presenting your I-20 or DS-2019, your passport, your F-1 or J-1 visa, and your Texas A&M University admission letter. The port-of-entry official should stamp your I-20 or DS-2019.

If you have received I-20 or DS-2019 certificates from more than one school, it is vital that you present the certificate from the school you will attend to the officials at the U.S. port-of-entry. If you obtained your visa using another school's certificate, you should use the Texas A&M certificate if you plan to attend Texas A&M. If you enter the United States on a certificate other than the Texas A&M's certificate, then you jeopardize your student status and will not be eligible for employment and other benefits. Regaining your student status is costly, time consuming and not guaranteed.

• Arriving at a U.S. port of Entry ... What a Student Can Expect by DHS, updated 1/2004 (NOTE: This page does not contain updated information on US-VISIT and NSEERS)

The port-of-entry official will give you an I-94 card that states your visa status and your length of stay. Please refer to the I-94/I-94W page for important information on I-94 card.

All non-immigrant visa holders entering the U.S. All Ports of Entry to the U.S. are subject to the DHS's entry and exit registration program US-VISIT. Students from certain countries are also subject to the special registration program called NSEERS.

Individuals can also be subject to additional screening. Individuals who have been repeatedly identified for additional screening during entry into and exit from a U.S. port of entry or border checkpoint can file an inquiry to have erroneous information corrected in DHS systems:

• DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP)

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) entry and exit registration program known as US-VISIT, impacts all non-immigrant visa holders entering the U.S. All Ports of Entry to the U.S. are supposed to photograph and fingerprint each non-U.S. citizen at the point of document inspection. The inspection process may result in delays.

Please plan your connecting flights carefully to allow extra time.

Since August 20, 2004 all non-immigrant visa holders are required to use a kiosk at the airport and at many land ports to record their departure from the U.S.. This process will verify aliens' identities, and authenticates aliens' travel documents through comparison of biometric identifiers. Right now, both NSEERS and US-VISIT will operate simultaneously, so individuals who are registered in NSEERS may have to be sure and complete two separate processes.

ISS will provide updates in the future regarding US-VISIT as components of the program are implemented.

Students subject to NSEERS must remember to comply with the departure procedure at their port of exit from the U.S. Please keep in mind that upon re-entry the registration process may be brief or could take several hours, depending on the number of people waiting to be processed. Since such a delay may cause you to miss a connecting flight, please schedule your itinerary with this in mind. As already mentioned, you are also subject to the US-VISIT process until DHS clarifies whether it will eliminate some elements of NSEERS.

• Special Registration (NSEERS) latest information from DHS

It is possible for a student's records in SEVIS to be terminated. This means that your status is cancelled for some reason and the Department of Homeland Security is notified that your status has been cancelled as an F or J visa holder. If your SEVIS records have ever been terminated for any reason at all (such as through a reinstatement, change of status from one visa type to another, academic suspension, etc.), even if you are currently in legal student immigration status, your SEVIS records may have a flag in the U.S. consulate's or in the port-of-entry's database. That flag will appear as a security alert with the statement "possible SEVIS violator" because only part of a SEVIS terminated record populates other U.S. federal databases. Unfortunately, that means that not every agency who can see this flag can see the reason your SEVIS record was terminated.

We are uncertain how a federal official may react to seeing this flag with no explanation of the reason your record was terminated. Therefore it is advised that if your record has ever been terminated, you should take a letter from ISS clarifying the reason your records were terminated in the past. If the termination was done at another U.S. school, you may want to contact that school for the clarification letter.

If you have questions about this please contact ISS.

You cannot change to a student status if you enter the United States using a border crossing card or using the visa waiver program. Regulations from DHS state that if you enter the United States on a non-student visa (F-2, B-1/B-2), you are not eligible to begin a course of study until a change of status to F-1 has been approved by DHS or you leave the United States and receive an F-1 visa.