Office of Immigration Statistics

POLICY DIRECTORATE

The Impact of Counting Changes on 

Nonimmigrant Admissions: An Update

RANDALL MONGER

This report provides an update on trends in I-94 nonimmigrant admissions and the estimated number of individual nonimmigrants admitted to the United States.1

In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 

began an effort to record all land admissions of an I-94 

nonimmigrant; previously, only the initial admission 

was typically recorded.2 This process was completed at 

nearly all pedestrian crossings and vehicular lanes along 

the Southwest and Northern borders by March 2010. 

Increases in admissions after 2005 as reported by OIS 

are partly due to the counting changes.3

 To facilitate the 

interpretation of trends during this period, the number 

of individuals admitted each year, which are largely independent of counting changes, are compared to admissions. Estimates of individuals were created by 

matching admission records on birth date, last name, 

and first three characters of the first name. For comparison, estimates of overall expected admission levels absent counting changes were computed for 2006 

to 2011.4

1 See Mathews, Megan, 2012. The Impact of Counting Changes on Nonimmigrant 

Admissions: Preliminary Findings (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/

publications/ois_ni_individuals_fs.pdf). 

2 Years refer to fiscal years (October 1 to September 30). 

3 See Monger, Randall, 2012. Nonimmigrant Admissions to the United States: 2011

(http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ni_fr_2011.pdf).

4 Specifically, the ratio of admissions to individuals for 2006 to 2011 was assumed 

to be constant and based on the average of annual ratios for 2001 to 2005.

TRENDS

Both the annual number of nonimmigrant admissions 

and estimated number of individuals admitted as nonimmigrants increased from 2001 to 2011. The difference between admissions and individuals increased 

from 2006, remained elevated in 2007 to 2009, and 

grew considerably in 2010 and 2011 (see Figure 1). 

The number of expected admissions (absent counting 

changes) is substantially lower than the number of actual admissions in 2010 and 2011. 

Figure 2 illustrates how trends in admissions and individuals vary by select classes of admission. In general, 

trends in estimated counts of individuals for each category are flatter than trends in admissions—see especially 

NAFTA professional workers (TN), intracompany transferees (L1), workers in specialty occupations (H1B), academic students (F1), and temporary visitors for 

pleasure (B2).

Figure 3 displays how trends in admissions and individuals differ between select countries of citizenship. The 

number of Mexican and Canadian individuals admitted 

remained relatively flat in 2010 and 2011 while admission counts of Mexican and Canadian citizens increased 

substantially. For other leading countries, the difference 

between admissions and individuals increased in 2010 

and 2011 but was much smaller than the difference for 

Mexico and Canada. 

FURTHER STUDY

Analysis underway will evaluate multiple record matching methods used to estimate individuals. A detailed report will examine trends in nonimmigrant admissions 

and individuals admitted by class of admission, country 

of citizenship, port of entry, and other variables. 
2 DHS Office of Immigration Statistics DHS Office of Immigration Statistics
DHS Office of Immigration Statistics DHS Office of Immigration Statistics 3