To find a forwarding address for someone who has moved, the most direct route is a written request to the U.S. Postal Service under 39 C.F.R. § 265.6, which releases an individual’s new address only for narrow purposes like service of legal process. If that door is closed to you, the same information often surfaces through county property records, court filings, voter rolls, restricted DMV data, people-search sites, or a professional skip tracer. Which tool fits depends on why you need the address and how recently the person moved.
Why Timing Shapes What You Can Find
When someone files PS Form 3575, USPS forwards their mail to the new address for 12 months. The filer can pay to extend forwarding for another 6, 12, or 18 months. After forwarding expires, USPS returns mail to senders for six more months with a label showing the new address.1USPS. Standard Forward Mail and Change of Address
If the move happened more than about two and a half years ago and the person never extended forwarding, USPS may hold no active record to share. Start early. The trail cools quickly.
Requesting a Forwarding Address From USPS
Federal regulation 39 C.F.R. § 265.6 controls when the Postal Service will release a customer’s new address. If the change-of-address order was filed for a business, the new address is available to anyone who asks. If the filer indicated the move was for an individual or a family, the Postal Service will only release the forwarding address in narrower circumstances, primarily for service of legal process.2GovInfo. 39 CFR 265.6 – Availability of Records
Send a written request to the postmaster at the post office serving the person’s last known address. Include:
- The person’s full name and last known address, so the clerk can match it against filed forwarding orders.
- Your legal capacity and the reason you need the address, such as serving a lawsuit, collecting a debt, or enforcing a court order.
- Court and case information if applicable, including the court name and docket number.
Send it certified with a return receipt. Responses usually take a couple of weeks, and the reply will either give you the forwarding address on file or state that the person moved without leaving one. A confirmed address from USPS can then anchor service of process or other contact at the new location.
Property and Court Records
County recorder and tax assessor offices keep records of every real estate transaction in their jurisdiction. If the person bought property after moving, the recorded deed lists a mailing address. Most counties run free online name-search portals; copies of the underlying documents cost a small per-page fee that varies by county.
Court filings are the other paper trail. Federal cases are searchable through PACER, which lets anyone with an account look up matters in appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.3United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) Lawsuits, bankruptcy petitions, and divorce filings routinely list current addresses for the parties. State court systems offer comparable public access, though search features vary.
Voter Registration Records
When a person registers to vote or updates their registration after moving, the new residential address enters the state voter file. Most states make voter registration data, including addresses, available either to the public or to a defined group such as candidates, parties, and individuals with a stated purpose. A smaller number restrict access more tightly or allow voters to keep their address confidential.4U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Availability of State Voter File Information
Contact the county elections office or secretary of state where you believe the person now lives. Some states have online lookup tools; others require a written request and a small fee. Commercial use of voter data is almost universally prohibited, even in states with broad public access.
DMV Records and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
State DMV files carry current addresses, but federal law tightly restricts access. The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act bars state motor vehicle departments from releasing personal information except for listed purposes. The ones most relevant to address searches include use by a government agency carrying out its functions, use in connection with any civil or criminal proceeding (including service of process and pre-litigation investigation), and use by a licensed private investigator for any purpose otherwise permitted under the statute.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2721 – Prohibition on Release and Use of Certain Personal Information From State Motor Vehicle Records
An ordinary person cannot walk into a DMV and pull someone’s address out of curiosity. You need a qualifying legal purpose, or you need to work with a licensed investigator who has authorized access. Accessing DMV data under false pretenses carries federal penalties.
Web Searches and People-Search Sites
A plain web search sometimes gets you there faster than any government database. Putting the full name in quotation marks with the last known city narrows results quickly. Professional networking profiles often list a current employer or city even when the exact address is private.
People-search sites aggregate public records, utility connections, marketing lists, and other commercial data into searchable profiles. Entering a name and last known location can pull up a residency history spanning several years. Some offer basic results free, with detailed reports for a fee. Accuracy varies, and information can lag a recent move by weeks or months.
An empty result is not proof the person is unfindable. A growing number of states require data brokers to honor deletion requests, and some people actively scrub their profiles.
Hiring a Skip Tracer
When your own searching stalls, a professional skip tracer can reach databases the general public cannot. Give the investigator everything you already know: full name, date of birth, last known address, and any other identifiers. More input means faster and cheaper work.
Skip tracers verify addresses by cross-referencing commercial databases, checking public records across jurisdictions, contacting associates like former neighbors or employers (which must be done openly, without misrepresenting who they are or why they’re calling), and sometimes by driving out to confirm someone actually lives where the records say. The deliverable is usually a report by secure email listing the current verified address and the sources used.
Fees vary with difficulty. A straightforward search where the person left a clear trail might run $20 to $50; a complex case with database work and fieldwork can run several hundred. If you need the address for service of process, many process-serving companies bundle skip tracing with service, which streamlines the job.p>
Rules for Debt Collectors
If you are a debt collector trying to locate someone who owes money, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets specific rules for the search. When you contact a third party for location information about a consumer, you must identify yourself and say you are confirming or correcting location information. You cannot reveal that the person owes a debt. You cannot contact any third party more than once unless that person asks you to call back or you reasonably believe their earlier answer was wrong or incomplete. You cannot send postcards, and you cannot use any language on an envelope or in a message that shows you are in the debt collection business.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692b – Acquisition of Location Information
Once you know the consumer has an attorney on the debt, you must stop contacting third parties and deal only with the attorney. Violations expose you to statutory damages and attorney’s fees under the FDCPA, which makes sloppy skip tracing an expensive mistake.
Fair Credit Reporting Act Limits
Anyone using consumer data from a credit reporting agency to find an address needs a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Permissible purposes include extending credit, collecting a debt, employment screening (with the consumer’s consent), insurance underwriting, court orders, and certain government functions.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
Skip tracers have long relied on “credit headers,” the identifying information at the top of a credit file (name, address, date of birth, Social Security number) that does not include actual credit history. The industry has treated these as outside the FCRA’s definition of a consumer report, which made them easier to access. That distinction is under direct challenge: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule in late 2024 that would classify credit header data as a consumer report whenever it was originally collected to prepare one, meaning anyone accessing it would need a permissible purpose.8Federal Register. Protecting Americans From Harmful Data Broker Practices – Regulation V If the rule takes effect, professional skip tracers who currently use credit headers without verifying a permissible purpose will need to change how they operate.
Pulling a consumer report without a permissible purpose is a federal violation that can trigger civil liability and criminal penalties. The FTC and CFPB actively enforce the FCRA against companies and individuals who access consumer data for unauthorized purposes. If you hire a skip tracer, confirm they access their databases lawfully and that your reason for the search qualifies.