8 CFR 264.1 states that
a valid, unexpired nonimmigrant DHS admission or parole stamp in a foreign passport constitutes evidence of registration
Does that mean that such a stamp also constitutes "a certificate of alien registration or an alien registration receipt card" for the purpose of 8 USC 1304(d) or (e)?
(d) Certificate of alien registration or alien receipt card
Every alien in the United States who has been registered and fingerprinted under the provisions of the Alien Registration Act, 1940, or under the provisions of this chapter shall be issued a certificate of alien registration or an alien registration receipt card in such form and manner and at such time as shall be prescribed under regulations issued by the Attorney General.
(e) Personal possession of registration or receipt card; penalties
Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant to subsection (d). Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.
In particular, it seems unlikely that a stamp in a passport could be an "alien registration receipt card," because it is not a card, but I wonder whether it could be a "certificate" despite the use of the word "evidence" in the regulation.
(This question is intended to help discover whether a nonimmigrant who entered the US under the Visa Waiver Program without having been given a paper I-94 form would be required by INA section 264, encoded at 8 USC 1304, to carry the passport containing the admission stamp.)
More information:
I have just re-read Immigration Law and the Myth of Comprehensive Registration by Nancy Morawetz and Natasha J. Fernandez-Silber, which notes in a footnote that there was formerly a federal regulation relating to the "carry requirement" that said
Carrying and possession of proof of alien registration.
The provisions of section 264(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act shall be applicable to every receipt card, certificate, or other document or paper referred to in this section as constituting evidence of alien registration.
That regulation obviously connects items defined as "evidence of registration" to the statutory requirement to carry any "certificate of registration," but it was repealed in 1960.
