Recent developments of fiber optic acoustic emission sensors (FOAESs) have provided an excellent choice for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of structures in civil engineering. FOAESs have the advantages of small dimensions, good embeddability within structures, as well as immunity to electric and electromagnetic fields. They can be serially multiplexed along a single fiber to make distributed measurements. Besides, acoustic emission (AE) is an excellent indication signal for real-time long-term damage detection systems. These advantages make FOAESs a better method than other traditional monitoring methods and devices to some extent. This paper provides a review of recent developments in FOAESs as well as some practical and laboratory applications of FOAESs to the heath condition monitoring of civil infrastructures. Existing problems of FOAESs with their applications to heath condition monitoring of civil infrastructures are also discussed.