Home Office: Aliens Department and successors: Aliens Personal Files, Applications...

HO 405

1900-1996

The files relate to individual foreign citizens (mostly European) who arrived in the UK between 1934 and 1948 and who applied for naturalisation. All files include application for naturalisation with police reports. Some also include initial application for visa or employment permit, change of name or business name and Second World War internment papers. Files were opened when the individual first applied to enter the UK and continue until naturalisation or death.

Files relating to married couples are listed under the name of the husband and the wife's file is attached to the husband's. Spelling of names sometimes varies throughout the files. The name listed is that used on the naturalisation certificate (where issued) or applied for but they are listed only by surname and initial letters with alternative names being noted as 'aka' (also known as) or 'formerly'. All possible variants of a name should be used when a search is being conducted.

A number is allocated to an applicant personally (eg. Adler is A1303) and this is maintained throughout the life of the file series which is variously 'plain', ALP and IMP. The files are now referred to as 'applicants personal files'.

Selection of aliens personal files see HO 382

Duplicate copies of naturalisation certificates (1870-1987) are in HO 334

For naturalisation case papers (1879-1934) see HO 144

For a sample of aliens' registration cards see MEPO 35

ALP and IMP

Public Record(s)

English, German and Italian

• Home Office, Aliens Department (B Department), 1913-1962
• Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Department, 1962-1962

65051 file(s)

Subject to 100 year closure unless otherwise stated

From 2000 Home Office

Topics

Internment

Labour

Marriage and divorce

Conflict

Nationality

Operations, battles and campaigns

From 1934

Series is not accruing. By June 2012 The National Archives had received papers for those aliens with surnames starting with letters A-O. Those for surnames starting with letters P-Q were released in December 2012, letter R in April 2013, letter S in July 2013, letters T-V in October 2013 and letters W-Z in December 2013.

All the files in the aliens personal series were scheduled for destruction with the exception of a number of illustrative and famous cases which were transferred into HO 382. In 1992 the PRO learned that not all files opened before 1948 had been destroyed. Those which survived provided sufficient additional insight into pre and post-war European immigration and World War Two internment to justify preservation of a high proportion. All surviving files which included an application for naturalisation have been preserved in this series regardless of whether the application was approved. It is estimated that some 40% of naturalisation applications have survived.