I. General Document Information
A variety of documents can be used to enter the United States from Canada and Mexico. The
CBP officer at the U.S. port of entry will make the determination as to the validity of the
document(s) presented by the traveler for admission to the United States.
In order to avoid delays, it is prudent for the carrier collecting the document information to
compare the travel document presented by the traveler with the travel document information it is
transmitting to CBP to ensure that the information is correct, the document appears to be valid
for travel to the United States, and the traveler is the person to whom the travel document was
issued. The most common documents that the carrier will likely encounter are passports,
passport cards, permanent resident cards, enhanced driver’s licenses, and visas.
Carriers are encouraged to submit passport information if the traveler has a passport. In the
event that a traveler does not have a passport, another Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -
approved travel document can be submitted in lieu of the passport. Only one document will be
submitted for each traveler.
II. Specific Document Submission Data
Bus APIS submissions will generally include the traveler’s full name, date of birth, gender,
DHS-approved travel document type, number, and country of issuance. All document data
should reflect the information from the travel document biographical page.
The full name consists of last, first, and, if available, middle name, exactly as it is shown on the
travel document. Do not include any letters with diacritical marks (such as ñ, é, or ü) in the
APIS manifest. Instead, substitute common English letters (such as n, e, or u). Only American
Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) letters are acceptable. The only special
characters that can be included in a name are the apostrophe (’) and hyphen (-).
The document type is a one to three character code, alphanumeric only. Do not include any
special characters. Specific codes for each document can be found in Appendix I – Document
Codes and Descriptions.
The document number is the unique number that identifies the document. This is alphanumeric
only. Do not include any special characters or spaces.
The document country of issuance will be submitted as a three-character code. A list of codes
can be found in Appendix II – Country Codes.
SUITABLE FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION
October, 2011 – CBP Bus APIS Document Guidance, Version 1.0
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