How to Change Your USCIS Address Online or by Mail

If you’re a non-citizen and you’ve moved, you have 10 days to tell USCIS about it. The fastest way to change your USCIS address is through your USCIS online account, which updates the agency’s records almost immediately and lets you push the new address to each pending case. You can also mail a paper Form AR-11, but that route is slower and won’t automatically update applications that are already in the system.¹

Who Has to File

Federal law requires every non-citizen registered with USCIS to report a new address in writing within 10 days of moving.² That covers lawful permanent residents, non-immigrants on visas like H-1B or F-1, and anyone with a pending application or approved status. You still have to file even if nothing is actively being processed.

A few groups don’t. Diplomats on A visas, representatives of international organizations on G visas, and visitors admitted under the Visa Waiver Program are exempt from the USCIS filing.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Pull these together first so you can complete the update in one sitting:

Your Alien Registration Number (A-Number), from your green card, EAD, or immigration notices.
Your full legal name as it appears on your immigration records. Even small mismatches can cause processing errors.
Your previous and new addresses, including apartment number and ZIP code. The address has to be where you physically live; a P.O. Box does not qualify.
The receipt number for every pending case. These are the 13-character numbers printed on each Form I-797C notice of action USCIS has sent you. Every open case needs its number entered separately.³
Your date of birth, country of citizenship, and date of last entry into the United States.

Filing Online Through Your USCIS Account

USCIS directs applicants to submit the change through the Enterprise Change of Address (E-COA) tool inside a USCIS online account, under the “My Account” menu.¹ If you don’t already have one, create it at my.uscis.gov before you start.

Log in, follow the prompts to enter your details and new address, and then enter the receipt number for every pending case you want updated.¹ This is the step people miss. Updating your general profile alone will not update a pending Form I-485 or any other open filing; the system updates each case individually. Save or screenshot the confirmation. Submitting through the online tool satisfies your legal notice obligation, and the change takes effect in USCIS case management almost immediately.⁴

Filing a Paper AR-11 by Mail

If you can’t file online, download Form AR-11 (Alien’s Change of Address Card) and mail it to the USCIS Change of Address unit in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at the address printed on the AR-11 page.⁴

Two things to know about going paper. A mailed AR-11 does not automatically update your address in USCIS’s electronic case management systems the way the online tool does, so an open application may still show your old address after the form is processed. And mail processing takes time, which makes it harder to prove you met the 10-day deadline. If you have to use paper, send it certified mail with return receipt so you have dated proof of submission.

USPS Mail Forwarding Doesn’t Count

Setting up mail forwarding through the Post Office does not satisfy your obligation to notify USCIS. A forwarding order only changes your mailing instructions at USPS; the agency’s own records still list your old address. That matters when USCIS sends time-sensitive documents whose response deadline is tied to what’s on file, and forwarding orders eventually expire. File the change with USCIS directly.

Immigration Court Is a Separate Filing

If you have a case in immigration court, updating with USCIS does not update the court. USCIS is under the Department of Homeland Security; immigration courts are under the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. If you have removal proceedings or any other matter before an immigration judge, you also have to file Form EOIR-33/IC with the court within five business days of moving. The court will not pick up an address change from other filings or correspondence — only that specific form updates its records.

This is where address slip-ups turn into disasters. If the court sends a hearing notice to your old address because you only updated USCIS, you can be ordered removed in absentia for failing to appear, and unwinding that can take years.

Special Procedures for VAWA, T, U, and I-751 Abuse Waiver Cases

Applicants with cases tied to domestic violence, trafficking, or other crimes have confidentiality protections that change how the update works. This covers VAWA self-petitioners, T nonimmigrant applicants, U nonimmigrant petitioners, and Form I-751 abuse waiver applicants. USCIS treats the address on these cases as a protected “safe address” for correspondence.⁵

Do not use the standard online E-COA tool. USCIS offers these alternatives instead:

Call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 (TTY 800-767-1833) with your receipt notices at hand. If the representative can’t complete the request, you may be scheduled for an in-person appointment at a field office.
Send a secure message through your USCIS online account. USCIS will call you back to verify your identity before making the change.
Mail a paper Form AR-11 or a signed written notice directly to the service center handling your case, using certified or return receipt mail.
Have your attorney or accredited representative submit a signed AR-11 or written notice by email with a cover letter listing every pending application that needs updating.

Under these procedures you have to specifically request an address update for each pending form. The change doesn’t carry over from one case to another the way it does with E-COA.⁵

If You Signed an Affidavit of Support

If you signed Form I-864 to sponsor an immigrant, your address change goes on Form I-865 within 30 days of moving, not on AR-11 within 10.⁶ The obligation lasts as long as the sponsorship agreement is enforceable, and the civil fines for missing it are substantially higher than the general AR-11 penalty, especially where the sponsored immigrant is receiving means-tested public benefits.⁷

What Happens If You Don’t File

Failing to report an address change is a federal misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $200 or up to 30 days in jail. The bigger risk is on the immigration side: the same statute lets USCIS take any non-citizen who fails to report an address change into custody and place them in removal proceedings, unless the failure was reasonably excusable or not willful.⁸

The everyday damage is just as real. USCIS mails interview notices, requests for evidence, and decisions to the address on file. If those go to your old address, you won’t know about them. A missed interview is usually treated as abandonment and the application is denied, which means starting over with a new filing and new fees.⁹ Physical documents like green cards or EADs that can’t be delivered generally have to be reissued through a new form and another fee.

Confirming the Update Went Through

If you filed online, log back into your USCIS account and check that the address on your profile and on each pending case shows the new address. It should update almost immediately. Paper filings take longer because they don’t trigger an automatic update to the electronic systems — manual processing is involved.⁴

If your address still shows as unchanged after a reasonable period, especially after a mailed AR-11, call the USCIS Contact Center at 800-375-5283 to follow up. An address change sitting in a processing queue won’t protect you if a notice goes out to your old address in the meantime.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How to Change Your Address
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1305 – Notices of Change of Address
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Receipt Number
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AR-11, Alien’s Change of Address Card
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Change of Address Procedures for VAWA/T/U Cases and Form I-751 Abuse Waivers
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Form I-865 – Sponsor’s Notice of Change of Address
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1183a – Requirements for Sponsor’s Affidavit of Support
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1306 – Penalties
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How to Track Delivery of Your Notice or Secure Identity Document or Card