CBP PRIVATE AIR APIS GUIDE VERSION 3.0, JANUARY 2015 14
Document Information - The APIS submission for each traveler must include a DHS-
approved travel document when required for travel by law and/or regulation. For APIS
purposes, the travel document data required for entry into the United States is the same travel
document data required for departure from the United States.
The eAPIS web portal affords the user the ability to submit up to two travel documents for
each traveler. For pilots of private aircraft, a travel document used to make entry in to the
United States (i.e., passport, alien registration card, etc.) is required in the first document
field and a pilot’s license is required in the second document field.
There are some rare instances where a traveler may choose to have two travel documents
submitted (most likely an alien registration card number and a passport) on his/her behalf.
When a traveler has an alien registration card number, it must be submitted as the primary
travel document. In any case, a second document entry that is not specifically listed in the
available document types, such as a driver’s license or a state-issued identification card, is not
required and should not be submitted.
There are four common elements associated with document submissions: document
type, document number, document country of issuance, and document expiration date.
1) DHS-Approved Travel Document Type
Examples: Passport, U.S. Permanent Resident Card, U.S. Alien Registration Card
CBP Data Element Validation: Error if missing or invalid.
Acceptable documents may vary between crew document 1, crew document 2,
passenger document 1 and passenger document 2. Please select from the drop-down
list in eAPIS.
In most cases, a second document is not needed for a passenger. Pilots, though,
always require a second document; the pilot’s license.
2) DHS-Approved Travel Document Number
CBP Data Element Validation: Error if missing or invalid. Data must be
alphanumeric – no spaces or special characters (dots, hyphens, number signs, dashes,
slashes, etc.) are permitted.
3) DHS-Approved Travel Document Country of Issuance
CBP Data Element Validation: The value in this field should be the three-character
country code of the country that issued the document. The “Country of Issuance” value is
validated against the table provided in eAPIS.
Example: A United States passport issued by the U.S. Embassy in London, England, is