Chinese Exclusion Act Files at the
National Archives & Records Administration

The list below covers major series of individual Chinese Exclusion Act case files at regional facilities of the National Archives. It does not currently include records at the National Archives in Washington, DC and College Park, MD (Archives I and Archives II.) See Chinese Immigration and Chinese in the United States (Reference Information Paper 99), originally published in 1997, for additional record series in the National Archives relating to Chinese Exclusion. 

 

Boston, Massachusetts

 

Montreal, Canada

 

 

New York, New York


 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


 

Chicago, Illinois

 

St. Paul, Minnesota

 

 

El Paso, Texas



The Seattle District Office’s series Chinese Passenger Arrival and Disposition Volumes, 7/1/1903 - 6/23/1944 (NAID 646080) is digitized and available on the National Archives online catalog. Entries in these volumes may include Chinese Exclusion Act Case File numbers and the Certificate of Identity numbers. These records have also been transcribed and indexed on Ancestry as the database "North Dakota and Washington, U.S., Chinese Arriving Passenger Arrivals and Disposition, 1903-1944."


In addition, the Seattle District Office's Index to Chinese Passengers Arriving at Seattle, Washington, 1893 - ca. 1943 (NAID 2953536) is digitized and available on the National Archives online catalog. This index is arranged alphabetically by surname and includes Chinese Exclusion Act Case File numbers and Certificate of Identity numbers. These records have also been transcribed and indexed on Ancestry as part of the database "Washington, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1965."


Portland, Oregon

 

Helena, Montana

 

Sumas, Washington


Port Townsend, Washington

 

Seattle, Washington

 

Vancouver, British Columbia

 

Portal, North Dakota

 

 

Los Angeles, California

 

San Diego, California

 

San Pedro, California

 

Calexico, California

 

Nogales, California


The Early Arrivals Records Search (EARS) tool hosted by the University of California, Berkeley Library contains a partial dataset that can be used to search case files from the Honolulu and San Francisco District Offices. The Ancestry databases "Hawaii, U.S., Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944", "California, U.S., Index to Chinese Exclusion Case Files, 1903-1944", and "California, U.S., Chinese Arrival Case Files Index, 1884-1940" also refer to files in these series. 


For more on the Honolulu District Office case files, see this November 8, 2022 blog post by National Archives at San Francisco archivist Ruth Chan: Honolulu INS Office Filing System

Honolulu, Hawaii

San Francisco, California


Last updated 06/22/2023