U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is ending the routine use of passport admission stamps during primary inspection. Under an October 1, 2026 Carrier Liaison Program bulletin, most foreign travelers entering the United States will no longer receive an ink entry stamp in their passport. The bulletin makes standard a practice CBP has been piloting since December 2021 at major airports, including Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (IAH).

The change does not alter a traveler’s visa, immigration status, or authorized period of stay. What changes is your paper trail. Without stamps, your passport no longer shows when you came and went, so CBP’s electronic travel history becomes the main record of your trips.

Can You Still Get a Passport Stamp?

In limited cases. Officers may still stamp passports in secondary inspection and for immigrant visa admissions. You can also ask the officer for a stamp, though they are not required to give you one. Asking is worthwhile whenever your entry date may matter for a future filing, such as an H-1B extension or a green card application.

How Do I Make Sure My Departures Are Recorded?

Electronic travel history is useful, but it is not perfect. CBP generally receives departure information from airline and carrier manifests rather than through a routine exit inspection, so a departure can go unrecorded, particularly after land crossings, private travel, or airline-manifest errors. After each trip, pull your travel history from the CBP I-94 website and confirm that both your departure and your return appear. Hold on to your boarding passes until you have checked, and once the trip appears, save a copy of your travel history.

This matters most for H-1B and L-1 workers. Time physically spent outside the United States may be recaptured toward the maximum H-1B or L-1 period of stay, but the employer must request that time in the petition and document each claimed absence. A reliable travel history can also matter for a future visa application, admission, or immigration filing. If a departure is missing, gather proof of the trip right away, while the records are still easy to get:

• Boarding passes for both directions
• Airline receipts or frequent-flyer activity showing the flights were taken
• Foreign entry or exit records, where available
• Hotel bills, foreign card transactions, or other contemporaneous proof of being abroad
• Employer travel and expense records for business trips

A booking confirmation alone is weaker than evidence that the travel actually occurred. Land crossings are harder still: there is no boarding pass or airline record, so hotel bills, card transactions, and other receipts from the other side of the border may be your only proof. When crossing into Canada or Mexico, you can also ask the border officer there to stamp your passport, but they are not required to do so.

Keep Checking Your I-94 After Every Entry

For entries, nothing has really changed. Your electronic I-94 has been the official record of your admission for years, and you should continue to check it after every arrival, just as before. It shows your date of entry, class of admission, and “admit until” date. Retrieve it through the CBP I-94 website or CBP’s mobile app, save a PDF or printout, and compare it with your passport and approval documents to confirm the correct information was entered into the record.

If the record has the wrong name, classification, or expiration date, address it promptly. Admission-record errors may be corrected through the appropriate CBP Deferred Inspection office or port of entry, and it is much easier to fix an error right away than during an extension, change-of-status, or green card filing.

The practical takeaway is simple: without passport stamps, an accurate travel history matters more than ever. After every trip, check that it shows both your departure and your return, and if an error is discovered, correct the record if possible. If not, save your travel documents.

By: Adena Bowman

Adena Bowman is a Senior Associate Attorney at Reddy Neumann Brown PC with over 12 years of experience in U.S. immigration law. She helps clients ranging from small businesses to large multinational corporations bring workers to the U.S. and stay compliant with immigration regulations. She also guides individual clients through employment, investment, and family-based immigration matters. Clients rely on her for clear guidance, strategic planning, and personalized support in navigating complex immigration challenges.