Immigration Updates 2025 – Alien Registration Requirement

Alien Registration Requirement Overview

As of February 25, 2025, any national of a foreign country aged 14 or older who has been in the U.S. for more than 30 days must register online and have their fingerprints taken. They must then carry documentation of their registration with them at all times. Parents are to register any children under the age of 14, and those children must re-register when they reach 14 and be fingerprinted at that time. This is consistent with immigration policy already in place whereby children who are permanent residents must be fingerprinted when they turn 14.

The Alien Registration requirement is actually part of an immigration law dating back to 1952, but in an executive order dated January 20, 2025¹, President Trump announced that enforcement of the regulation requiring noncitizens to register and be fingerprinted would begin again.² The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explains this as a law that has previously been ignored,