On Aug. 7, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the Fiscal Year 2017 Entry/Exit Overstay Report (or Overstay Report). Visa Overstay Reports have been requested by Congress in recent fiscal years as a means to encourage development of a barometric Port of Entry visa checking system and to report on overstays that were identified as problematic in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The 2017 Overstay Report calculated a total overstay rate of 1.33 percent, or 701,900 overstay events, versus an overstay rate of 1.25 percent (739,000 overstays) in FY 2016.

More FY 2017 Visa Overstay metrics from the release:

Visa Waiver Program (VWP) Country Overstay Rate This report separates Visa Waiver Program (VWP) country overstay figures from non–VWP country figures. For VWP countries, the FY 2017 Suspected In-Country Overstay rate was 0.51 percent of the 22,472,710 expected departures.

Non-Visa Waiver Program Participant Overstay Rate  For non-VWP countries, the FY 2017 Suspected In-Country Overstay rate is 1.91 percent of the 14,659,249 expected departures.

Student or Exchange Visitor Visa Overstay Rate For nonimmigrants who entered on a student or exchange visitor visa (F, M, or J visa), DHS has determined there were 1,662,369 students and exchange visitors scheduled to complete their program in the United States. However, 4.15 percent stayed beyond the authorized window for departure at the end of their program.

Canada and Mexico Overstay Rates  Unlike other countries, a majority of travelers from Canada and Mexico enter the United States by land. Figures pertaining to Canada and Mexico are presented separately from the other countries due to the fact that air and sea information represent a much smaller portion of the Canadian and Mexican travel population. For Canada, the FY 2017 Suspected In¬-Country Overstay rate for those traveling through air and sea POEs is 1.01 percent of 9,215,158 expected departures. For Mexico, the FY 2017 Suspected In-Country Overstay rate for those traveling through air and sea POEs is 1.63 percent of 2,916,430 expected departures. This represents only travel through air and sea POEs and does not include data on land border crossings. DHS is currently working to improve its monitoring capability for land POEs.

The Overstay Report continues to be an important accountability metric for Congress and has been used as the basis for oversight and new approaches to interior immigration enforcement such as H.R. 6089, the E-bonding for Immigration Integrity Act of 2018