Office of Immigration Statistics

POLICY DIRECTORATE

The Impact of Counting Changes 

on Nonimmigrant Admissions: 

Preliminary Findings

MEGAN MATHEWS

Interpreting recent trends in I-94 nonimmigrant 

admissions has been complicated by more complete 

recording of entries into the United States. Beginning 

in 2005,1 at selected Southwest border crossings, 

the Department of Homeland Security installed new 

technology to record land admissions previously excluded 

from I-94 data systems; by 2010 this technology was 

installed at nearly all pedestrian crossings and vehicular 

lanes along the Southwest and Northern borders. The 

increase in I-94 nonimmigrant admissions2 after 2005 as 

reported by the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS)3

 is 

partly due to more complete counting. This OIS Fact Sheet 

provides an indication of the impact by displaying trends 

in nonimmigrant admissions compared to trends in the 

number of individuals admitted each year during 2001–

2010. Counts of individuals are largely independent of 

changes in admission counting. Estimates of individuals 

were created by matching admission records on birth 

date, last name, and first 3 characters of the first name. 

For comparison, estimates of overall expected admission 

levels absent changes in counting mechanisms were 

computed for 2006 to 2010.4

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

2 Admissions refer to the number of events (i.e., I-94 nonimmigrant entries into the 

U.S.). More than one entry on the same day is counted as one admission.

3 See U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2011. 

Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2010 (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/

statistics/yearbook/2010/ois_yb_2010.pdf) and Monger, Randall and Megan 

Mathews, 2011. Nonimmigrant Admissions to the United States: 2010 (http://www.

dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ni_fr_2010.pdf).

4 Specifically, the ratio of admissions to individuals for 2006 to 2010 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 individuals increased from 2001 to 2010. The 

difference between admissions and individuals increased 

from 2006, remained elevated in 2007 to 2009, and 

spiked in 2010 (see Figure 1). The number of expected 

admissions (absent counting changes) is substantially lower than the number of actual admissions in 2010. 

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 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 

professional workers (TN), intracompany transferees 

(L1), workers in specialty occupations (H1B), academic 

students (F1), and temporary visitors for pleasure (B2).

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