Posts
Jeremy
D. Morley
Does a foreign visitor or resident need to always carry a passport while in the
United States?
The question arises when,
for example, a foreign parent wants to visit a child who lives with the other
parent in the United States and the custodial parent asks that the visiting
parent deposits all passports with an attorney to prevent possible child
abduction.
The issue arises
because Section of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that, “Every
alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and
have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien
registration receipt card issued to him ….”
Thus, a visitor needs
to carry a record of lawful admission, not a passport.
The federal
regulations, 8 CFR. § 264.1(b), identify the prescribed alien registration
documents as including the Form I-94 Arrival-Departure Record, the I-551 “green
card” and the I-766 “EAD card.”
The “I-94” is the usual
record of admission for a visitor. The problem is that the I-94 is now usually
stamped in the passport upon entry, so that it cannot be separately held.
The solution is to
print the I-94 from The Customs and Border Protection website. It then serves as the official record of admission.
Homeland Security
helpfully expressly and clearly states - https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home - that
"A traveler lawfully admitted (or paroled) into
the U.S. may print their lawful record of admission (I-94
form) from this CBP website. If someone requests your admission information,
this is the form you would provide."
Accordingly, it can be
entirely appropriate for a custodial parent in such circumstances to require
that all of the visitors passports be deposited with a court or an attorney
prior to child visitation in order to help prevent international child
abduction, and to explain that the visitor can comply with the law by printing
and maintaining in his or her possession the I-94 printout.
