A passport stamp by USCIS varies depending on what country the person came from, the purpose of the trip, the length of the trip, and what port of entry they went through, and possibly whether they had to pay customs on anything.
The case least likely to have a stamp is a tourist from a country that the US is on really good terms with, like Canada or the UK, who is only staying a short time and has nothing to declare, and is arriving at a big airport with kiosks. They go to the kiosk, get their passport scanned and their fingerprints taken. The machine spits out a bar-coded slip of paper. They head for the exit and hand over the slip as they leave. No stamp in the passport; the document showing how long they can stay is an I-94 in the cloud.
A case where there would be something in the passport would be someone coming to study for months or years. Even if they come from a country we're on good terms with, they have to get a visa in their home country. They visit the embassy or consulate and a visa is printed on a blank page in their passport; it has their picture, name, expiration date of the visa, etc. When they arrive in the US they will have to talk to a CIS agent and an entry stamp may be put in the passport. |
