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Alien Registration (AR-2) Forms

The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required that all noncitizens entering and living within United States borders register their alien status with the government. Individuals who were unsure of their citizenship status were also required to register even if it was later determined they were a U.S. citizen. The registration process included a questionnaire form and a requirement that fingerprints be taken at the time of registration (certain exclusions applied for diplomats, employees of foreign governments, and children under the age of 14). As Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) received the completed Alien Registration (AR-2) forms, an Alien Registration Number (A-Number) was assigned (ex. A1234567) and an Alien Registration Receipt Card containing this number was mailed to each registrant as proof of registration.

The Alien Registration Program registered over 5.6 million noncitizens between August 1, 1940, and March 31, 1944, when the AR-2 records series closed. Alien Registration continued after April 1, 1944, but on different forms filed in a new series of individual records, Alien Files (A-Files).

The Alien Registration Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) created the original Flexoline Index (Flex) in 1940 to index AR-2 forms.

INS microfilmed the completed AR-2 forms. Most of the original AR-2 forms were subsequently destroyed. However, some original AR-2 forms ended up in A-Files opened under the same A-Number when the subject immigrants had subsequent interactions with INS.

After the microfilm was converted to an electronic format, the AR-2 digital images were managed by INS, later United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as a component of the Microfilm Digitization Application System (MiDAS).

INS utilized multiple iterations of Alien Registration Forms from 1940 to 1944:

  • Alien Registration Form (AR-2)
  • Alien Registration Foreign Service Form (AR-102, completed at consular offices)
  • Alien Registration Seaman Form (AR-102-S)

All iterations of the form are included in the Alien Registration (AR-2) Form series.

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Accordion

AR-2 forms asked for the information listed below. Researchers must remember that registrants may not have provided all information.

Name Physical Description (Race, Height & Weight, Hair & Eye Color) Club, organization, or society memberships
Name at time of entry to the United States Port, date, ship, and class of admission at last arrival in the United States Military service (Country, branch, dates)
Other names used Date of first arrival in the United States Date and number of Declaration of Intention (if filed), and city and State where filed
Address Years lived in the United States Date of Petition for Naturalization (if filed), and city and State where filed
Date of Birth Intended stay in the United States Arrest history
Citizenship/Nationality Usual occupation Fingerprint
Gender Present occupation Signature
Marital Status Present employer, including address Date and place of registration

As Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) received the completed AR-2 forms, an Alien Registration Number (A-Number) was assigned (ex. A1234567) and stamped on the form. Additionally, an Alien Registration Receipt Card containing this number was mailed to each registrant as proof of alien status.

AR-2 forms can document an individual’s presence in the United States during the early 1940s. The Alien Registration Program registered many resident noncitizens between 1940 and 1941 who had been living in the United States for decades. Although AR-2 forms are not official arrival records, the AR-2 form may be the agency’s only record of immigrants who arrived as early as the 1880s. For many others, the AR-2 form may be their only other immigration-related record after their initial immigration arrival record.

Requesting Alien Registration (AR-2) Forms

The following AR-2 forms are available for research from this series:

Alien Registration Number (A-Number) Description
A1000000 to A5980116 Resident noncitizens and Delayed registration, August 1940–March 1944
A6100000 to A6132126 Railroad workers, 1942–1943
A7000000 to A7043999 Children under 14 years of age, resident in United States (not all children were registered), August 1940–March 1944
A7500000 to A7759142 Newly arriving immigrants (Consular registrations), August 1940–March 1944
A9000000 to A9999999 Seaman, August 1940–December 1952

*Note: There are exceptions and gaps in the records

Records for individuals born over 100 years ago: In general, these records do not have access restrictions, and requests for these records do not require a Freedom of Information Act request. Send your request with the information outlined below as an email to cer@nara.gov.

We strongly encourage you to first search the Flexoline Index Data File, which serves as the finding aid to the AR-2 forms, to identify the A-Number and other information to help staff locate the records. The Flexoline Index Data File includes A-Numbers, names, year of birth, country of birth, and place of residence at time of registration for the noncitizens who registered. The Flexoline Index Data File is available online for searching via the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) resource. Please note the Flexoline Index Data File on AAD only contains records of individuals born 1923 and prior.

Records for deceased individuals born fewer than 100 years ago:  In order to release these records without privacy restrictions, NARA requires proof of death. Requests must be submitted under the Freedom of Information Act and must include proof of death for the individual.  Acceptable forms of proof of death include: published obituary, a copy of death certificate, letter from a funeral home, or documentation from another recognized source, such as: Ancestry, Genealogy Bank, Proquest, or the Social Security Death Index. Any proof of death documentation must include the name of the deceased individual, the birth date and the date of death. We cannot release records without proof of death. Please send your FOIA request with the information outlined below and proof of death to cer@nara.gov. 

In order for NARA staff to perform an adequate search of the AR-2 forms, please provide the following information:

  • Name of individual, including possible spelling variations
  • Country of birth of the individual
  • Date of birth or estimated birth year range of the individual
  • A-number of the individual, if known
  • Estimated year when the individual entered the United States, if known
  • The state the individual was living in the 1940s, if known


Please also include the following in your request so that NARA staff can provide options for reproduction: 

  • Your billing address so we can prepare a price quotation
  • Email address so we can provide records via e-delivery where we send you a link so you can download the records
  • Indicate if you require certified copies of the records and include your shipping address

You may obtain copies of the records in PDF format, unless you require a certified copy.

Requests for more than two individuals will take longer to process. We also ask that you please include the individuals' last names in the subject lines to make it easier for us to track your requests.

NARA Reproduction Services Fee
Minimum reproductions order (1 PDF) $20.00
Born-digital files (2–10 PDFs) $17.00 per file
Record certification (Record certification is an add-on service, the cost of which is not used to determine minimum reproduction order fees.) $15.00 per certification

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Accordion

The alien registration processes included multiple Alien Registration Form parts:

  • AR-1: Instruction and specimen form
  • AR-2: Alien registration form
  • AR-2a: Follow sheet for additional data 
  • AR-3: Receipt (or identification) form 
  • AR-3a: Extra receipt form
  • AR-4: Fingerprint form
  • AR-5: Official regulations and fingerprint instructions

Electronic copies of additional form parts can occasionally be found with the electronic AR-2 digital images. The original paper copies of all the AR forms can sometimes be found in Alien Files (A-Files). In many cases the additional form parts are no longer extant.

Alien Registration (AR-2) forms are digitized versions of records on microfilm. Some of the microfilmed records are poor quality in that they may have lines through the image, appear blurry or crooked, or be missing a page. The digitized images NARA staff provide reflect what was on the microfilm. This is the best image NARA can provide.

Although there can be inaccuracies in Alien Registration (AR-2) forms and Flexoline Index (Flex) entries, the records cannot be changed or corrected by NARA staff because they are historic documents that are maintained as they were created by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

NARA staff have identified about 2.5 million Alien Registration Numbers (A-Numbers) (this includes incomplete A-Numbers) listed in the Flexoline Index (Flex) that do not have a corresponding digitized Alien Registration (AR-2) record in the set received from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 

There are a couple of reasons why there might be a Flex entry, but no AR-2 record. First, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) also used Flex for Alien Files (A-files) opened after April 1, 1944. The majority of Flexoline Index entries for individuals with an A-number assigned after April 1944 are likely a reference to an A-file, not a stand alone Alien Registration (AR-2) form. This includes, but is not limited to, A-Numbers that begin with A62 through A69, A71 through A74, and A78 through A8. NARA receives transfers of Alien Files (A-Files) for individuals born over 100 years ago. Also, after the AR-2 record was indexed, it is possible the AR-2 may have been lost or moved to another file so was no longer with the rest of the forms when they were microfilmed. For example, INS may have moved the AR-2 form to the individual's A-file.  

The A-Numbers that begin with A9 and are only six digits (e.g., A912345) or begin with 09 and are seven digits (e.g., A0912345) are for the AR-2 forms completed by foreign government officials in the United States. 

If NARA staff only locate a Flexoline Index entry and not a digitized Alien Registration (AR-2) record, NARA will provide the extract from the Flexoline Index database.

There are several possible reasons why NARA may not locate any alien registration records:

  • The individual you identified did not complete an Alien Registration (AR-2) form or, for unknown reasons, the form was not included with the rest of the forms when they were microfilmed and/or indexed. It is possible the form was moved to a different file so was no longer with the rest of the forms when they were microfilmed. For example, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) may have moved the AR-2 forms to the individual's Alien File (A-File).
  • The Flexoline Index (Flex) contains inaccurate information. Individuals completed the AR-2 forms to the best of their knowledge, but may have misremembered their birthdate, country of birth, or other names they had gone by. In addition, the INS manually indexed the AR-2 forms so typos may have occurred as staff transcribed the information.  
  • There are known gaps in Flex. There are about 1.25 million Alien Registration Numbers (A-Numbers) associated with the AR-2 forms that are not listed in Flex. About a million of those A-Numbers are included in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Master Index, which contains names, year of birth, and A-Numbers. However, NARA has not yet taken custody of nor can search the Master Index at this time.  

Researchers have several options:

  • If you have an A-Number for the individual but did not provide it, resubmit your request to NARA with the A-Number so staff can search by the A-number.
  • Once NARA has taken custody of the Master Index, you may resubmit your request for Alien Registration (AR-2) forms. It will likely be several years before NARA takes custody of the Master Index.  
  • You can submit an Index Search request to the USCIS Genealogy Program. If USCIS is able to provide you with an A-Number, you can resubmit your request to NARA with the A-Number.

NARA does not have the authority to issue a certification of non-existence of a record and can only issue a negative search letter. 

NARA can issue a negative search letter, which states that a member of the reference staff searched a specific index or record series and did not locate a record for the individual requested. Negative search results for a search of National Archives holdings only indicates that a record was not found in the possession of the National Archives, not that it does not exist. Negative search letters are issued in digital format on Research Services letterhead with electronic signature. Negative search letters are signed by the director (or their designee) of the office issuing the letter.

Send your request via email to cer@nara.gov. 

NARA cannot provide a certified negative search letter, staff can only issue a certified copy of a document in its custody (see 44 USC 2116 and 44 USC 3112).
You may request Certification of Non-existence of a Record of Naturalization from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

 

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