Overseas Visitors Records Offices

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Overseas Visitors Records Offices were police departments across the United Kingdom from 1915 to 2022. The best known was the Metropolitan Police District’s Aliens Registration Office. They were set up to enforce restrictions on enemy aliens under the Aliens Restriction Act 1914, but after the war they remained in use for all foreign residents who were not citizens. Until Brexit, some groups such as European Union citizens were exempt. On 4 August 2022 the Home Office suspended the registration requirement, effectively ending the Offices. The offices were created in 1915 within the Metropolitan Police’s central administration (C5 Branch) after an Emergency Department was established the year before. They were run by civil staff, not police officers, and kept photo records of adult aliens who were looking for or holding a job for more than three months or who stayed in the MPD for more than six months. Some records are kept at the National Archives. During World War II the offices were based at Vine Street Police Station and later at Brandon House, 180 Borough High Street, from 1999 to 2022.