The invention discloses a registration method for visible light and infrared images based on multi-scale segmentation and SIFT, which comprises the following steps: step 1, preprocessing is performed to visible light images and infrared images, wherein Gaussian filtering processing is performed to the visible light images, and linear enhancement processing is performed to the infrared images; step 2, an initial parameter value which includes a scale factor, a compact factor and a shape factor is set, and the multi-scale image segmentation is performed to the visual light and infrared images subjected to preprocessing; step 3, the SIFT registration is performed to the visible light and infrared images subjected to the multi-scale image segmentation, calculation parameters of homonymy point selection transformation models are found out and the registration is performed to source images; step 4 and step 5, judgment is performed, if the visible light images and the infrared images are not subjected to accurate registration or the registration accuracy does not meet the requirement of the set threshold, the operation is returned to step 2 to adjust the parameter value of the multi-scale image segmentation method till the registration accuracy of the visual light images and infrared images meets the requirement of the set threshold, iteration is stopped, and the registration result is output.