United States, Index to Alien Case Files - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
Index of Alien Case Files housed at the National Archives Regional Office in Kansas City, Missouri. Under the Alien Registration Act of 1940, immigrants in the United States were required to register and be fingerprinted. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)—now the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS)—drew upon the 1940 Alien Registration Form (AR-2) to create Alien Case Files beginning in 1944. Immigrants recorded in these files come from all over the United States. Some files from aliens living in the immigration districts of Guam; Honolulu, Hawaii; Reno, Nevada; and San Francisco, California are housed in the National Archives Regional Office of San Bruno, California and may not be included in this index.

Record Content
These records may contain the following information:


 * Port and date of departure
 * Port and date of entry
 * Name of ship
 * Country of citizenship
 * Name of passenger, including maiden name of women
 * Names of persons accompanying passenger
 * Age, gender, marital status and occupation of passenger
 * Date and place of birth of passenger
 * Address of last permanent residence
 * Name and address of friend or relative at last address
 * Final destination
 * Name and address of friend or relative in U.S.
 * Physical description and distinguishing marks
 * Person who paid for passage
 * Purpose of visit

How to Use the Record
To begin your search, it is helpful to know


 * The full name of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of immigration

If you do not know this information, check the census records after 1900.

Search the Collection
To search the collection fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * This index is a link to the National Archives database at their Regional Office in Kansas City, Missouri.
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

Using the Information
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example, you can use passenger lists to:


 * Learn an immigrant’s place of origin
 * Confirm their date of arrival
 * Learn foreign and “Americanized” names
 * Find records in his or her country of origin such as emigrations, port records, or ship’s manifests.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Remember, this index is a link to the National Archives database at their Regional Office in Kansas City, Missouri.
 * If your ancestor had a common name, be sure to look at all the entries for a name before you decide which is correct.
 * Continue to search the record to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who may have immigrated at the same time.
 * If your ancestor has an uncommon surname, you may want to obtain the record of every person who shares your ancestor’s surname if they lived in the same county or nearby. You may not know how or if they are related, but the information could lead you to more information about your own ancestors.

Unable to Find Your Ancestor?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 * Search the immigration indexes and records of port cities for your ancestor's year of immigration. If you do not know the year of immigration, search federal census records after 1900.

Related Websites

 * National Archives Catalog: Index to Alien Case Files at the National Archives at Kansas City, ca. 1975 - 2012
 * National Archives Catalog: Alien Case Files, 1944 - 2003
 * Alien Files at NARA San Francisco
 * Alien Files at NARA Kansas City

Related Wiki Articles

 * Alien Registration Files
 * United States National Archives (NARA) (National Institute)
 * United States Naturalization and Citizenship

Citations for This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):