The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required every non-citizen in the country to register and be fingerprinted. The duty was never repealed; it sits at sections 261 through 266 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. For most of the last fifty years it was satisfied automatically by the paperwork of ordinary immigration, and nobody thought about it.
Executive Order 14159, signed January 20, 2025, told DHS to enforce it. An interim final rule published March 12, 2025 created a form and an online process for people who had no other way to comply, effective April 11, 2025. The form is G-325R, Biographic Information (Registration). Its purpose, in the government's own estimate, is to reach between 2.2 and 3.2 million people who were never registered, most of whom entered without inspection.
Who is already registered
This is the part to check first, because the answer for most readers is yes. You are registered if you are, or ever were:
- a lawful permanent resident
- admitted as a nonimmigrant with an I-94, even if the admission has since expired
- issued a visa and admitted on it
- paroled into the country, even after the parole ended
- placed in removal proceedings, or given an expedited or reinstated removal order
- issued a work permit
- issued a Border Crossing Card, or admitted through a Trusted Traveler program
- an applicant for a green card or legalization who gave fingerprints, even if the application was denied
If any of those describes you, there is nothing to file. Carry proof of it.
Who is not
People who entered without inspection and hold no document from the list above. Canadians admitted at land borders without an I-94. People whose only contact with USCIS was a filing that does not count as registration, which includes DACA and TPS applications unless a work permit was issued as a result. And children born here to foreign diplomats who did not acquire citizenship at birth.
The rule
Anyone 14 or older who is not registered and remains in the country 30 days or longer must register before the 30 days run out. Parents register children under 14. Anyone who turns 14 in the United States must register and be fingerprinted within 30 days of the birthday, whether or not they were registered as a child; a permanent resident does this by filing Form I-90. The duty attaches to each stay of 30 days or more.
Diplomats, international organization staff and NATO personnel are exempt, as are Canadian-born American Indians entering under INA 289 and members of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas.
The process and the penalties
There is no fee, though the rule reserves the right to impose one. Each registrant needs a personal USCIS online account. After filing, USCIS decides whether to schedule fingerprinting and then posts a registration notice to the account, which serves as proof. Address changes must be reported through the account within 10 days.
Willful failure to register or be fingerprinted is a misdemeanor: a fine of up to $5,000, up to six months in jail, or both. Failure to carry proof, for anyone 18 or older, is a separate misdemeanor with a fine of up to $100 or 30 days. USCIS has said a pending fingerprint appointment is not a willful failure, even past the 30-day mark.
The decision nobody can make for you
Registration confers nothing. It is not a status, does not authorize work, and grants no protection. What it does is deliver a name, an address and a set of fingerprints to an agency whose stated priority is enforcement. For a person without status the choice is between a criminal exposure for not registering and an enforcement exposure for doing so.
That is not a choice this site can make for anyone, and it is not one to make from a form. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights sued to block the rule in March 2025; the district court let it take effect and later declined an injunction, and the appeal is pending in the D.C. Circuit. The rule remains in force.
What to do
- Use the USCIS Alien Registration Requirement Determination Tool before doing anything. Most people with immigration history are already registered.
- If you are registered, carry the evidence: the green card, the I-94 printout, the work permit, the receipt notices.
- If you are not registered and have any exposure, see a licensed attorney or DOJ-accredited representative before filing. The 30-day clock is real, and so are the consequences on both sides of it.
- Keep the address on file current. That obligation is old law too, and it is now being read.