Report a change of address to USCIS

Most non-citizens in the United States are legally required to report a change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving. This is a separate obligation from telling the post office, your bank, or the DMV, and it is one of the few immigration duties that carries a criminal penalty rather than merely a procedural one.

Deadline

10 days after you move

Cost

Free

How

Online through your USCIS account, or Form AR-11

Who

Each family member needs their own filing, children included

Why it matters even if you think nobody is watching

The practical risk is not the penalty. It is that every notice USCIS sends — interview appointments, requests for evidence, approval notices with deadlines — goes to the address on file. USCIS post is not forwarded, even if you have a forwarding order with the postal service, because the envelopes are marked to be returned rather than redirected.

A missed interview is recorded as a failure to appear. A request for evidence that expires unanswered is usually fatal to the case. Both happen to people who did everything else correctly and simply moved.

The formal penalty is real but rarely the point: wilful failure to give notice is a misdemeanour under the immigration statute, punishable by a fine of up to $200 or up to 30 days' imprisonment, and it can be treated as a ground of removal. It is also the kind of thing that surfaces awkwardly in a later application.

How to file

The fastest route is through your USCIS online account, which updates the address across your pending cases in one action and gives you a timestamped confirmation. You can also file Form AR-11 online without an account.

Each person changes their own address. If a family of four moves, that is four filings — including for children, and including for anyone with no case pending.

Keep proof

Save the confirmation page as a PDF, screenshot the submission, and note the date. If a notice is later sent to your old address, that confirmation is the difference between a fixable administrative error and an unexplained failure to appear.

Who is exempt

The requirement does not apply to U.S. citizens. Among non-citizens, holders of A and G visas — diplomats and international organisation staff — and visitors admitted under the Visa Waiver Program are outside it.

If you are unsure whether it applies to you, file anyway. It costs nothing, takes minutes, and there is no downside to a filing that was not strictly required.

Also update, separately

• Social Security Administration, if you receive any benefit or have a claim pending
• The state DMV — most states require an address update within 10 to 30 days of moving, and in many states your licence is not valid with a stale address
• The IRS, using Form 8822, before tax season, so refunds and notices reach you
• Your employer, so your W-2 arrives — a missing W-2 delays the return that you may be required to file
• Your bank and insurers, which often close or freeze accounts on returned post

None of these updates each other. Working through the list in one sitting on moving day is far easier than discovering the gaps one returned envelope at a time — and it belongs on the same list as the expiry dates in tracking when your documents expire.