How to Send a Letter to USCIS by Mail or Online

To send a letter to USCIS, put your full legal name, date of birth, A-Number, and receipt number on the letter, place it on top of any supporting documents, and mail the package to the address USCIS lists for your specific form or, if you are responding to a notice, the address printed on that notice. Use USPS with tracking or a private courier, remembering that USCIS gives a P.O. Box for the Postal Service and a separate street address for FedEx, UPS, and DHL. If you have a USCIS online account, you can often skip the mail entirely and upload the same material there.

The rest of this guide walks through what the letter needs to say, how to package it, where it goes, how to pay if a fee is due, and how to make sure it counts as on time.

What to Put in the Letter

USCIS processes millions of filings, so your letter needs enough identifying information to reach the right officer. Use your full legal name exactly as it appears on your passport or birth certificate, because USCIS matches correspondence against those documents.¹ Add your date of birth and your Alien Registration Number, the nine-digit A-Number on your immigration documents.

If the letter relates to a pending case, include the 13-character receipt number. It starts with three letters (EAC, WAC, LIN, SRC, NBC, MSC, or IOE) followed by ten digits, and it appears on every Form I-797, Notice of Action, USCIS has sent you.² State clearly why you are writing: submitting missing evidence, notifying USCIS of an address or name change, asking about status, or something else.

Signing the Letter

USCIS does not require a wet-ink original signature on mailed documents. A photocopy, scan, or fax of a document carrying your original handwritten signature is acceptable. What is not acceptable is a signature produced by a typewriter, word processor, stamp, or auto-pen, and electronic signatures on mailed forms are not valid unless the form’s instructions say so.³

Assembling the Package

Open the package with a cover letter that lists every enclosure. That list doubles as a check that nothing is missing before you seal the envelope, and it helps mailroom staff route the package. If you are responding to a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny, place the original notice on top of the stack so the receiving clerk can send it straight to the office handling your case.⁴

USCIS scans everything digitally at intake, so packaging choices matter. Do not use binders, folders, photo albums, or scrapbooks; USCIS cannot process them and will return them. Skip heavy-duty staples that jam scanners. Do not submit evidence on USB drives or CDs. Print single-sided on standard-size paper.⁵

Originals or Photocopies

For most supporting documents, USCIS accepts legible photocopies at filing. Originals are specifically required for medical examinations, affidavits, and labor certifications. Outside those categories, sending originals is risky because mail and intake facilities lose things. Keep your originals and send copies unless USCIS asks for the original, which it can do at any time if a copy looks altered or unclear.⁴

Foreign-Language Documents

Any document in a foreign language must be accompanied by a full English translation. Federal regulations require the translator to certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent in both languages.⁶ The certification does not need to be notarized. A bilingual friend or relative can do the translation as long as they sign a statement with their name, address, the date, and the required declaration.

Finding the Right Address

A lot of filings go wrong here. USCIS uses different addresses depending on the form, the eligibility category, and sometimes where you live, and sending a form to the wrong facility can cause delays or rejection.⁷

For a new application or petition, check the filing instructions on that form’s page at uscis.gov. Some forms, like the I-485, have dedicated filing address pages where the address changes based on your eligibility category and location.⁸ If you are responding to a Request for Evidence, use the address printed on the RFE notice itself; that address routes your response to the specific office working on your case.

USPS Versus Courier

Most filing locations have two addresses: a P.O. Box for the U.S. Postal Service and a physical street address for FedEx, UPS, and DHL.⁹ Private couriers cannot deliver to P.O. Boxes, so a courier package sent to the P.O. Box may come back as undeliverable. Match the address to the carrier before you drop the package off.

Paying a Fee if One Is Due

If the form you are mailing has a filing fee, how you pay matters. USCIS no longer accepts personal checks, business checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks for paper filings unless you qualify for an exemption and submit Form G-1651. Otherwise, complete and sign Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, and place it on top of the package. USCIS accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and prepaid cards on those networks, issued by a U.S. financial institution. Gift cards are not accepted.¹⁰ If the card is declined, USCIS will not retry the transaction and will reject the entire filing for lack of payment, so make sure the credit is available before you mail.¹¹

Making the Deadline

USCIS uses the date it physically receives your response, not the date you mailed it, to decide whether you met a deadline.¹² A package postmarked before the due date but delivered after it can still be treated as late.

When USCIS issues a Request for Evidence, the notice gives a specific deadline by which your response must arrive.⁴ Miss it, or submit only part of what was asked for, and USCIS can deny the case as abandoned, deny it on the incomplete record, or both.⁶ There is no grace period and no automatic extension. Send everything requested together in one mailing, with the original RFE notice on top.

One built-in break: if a filing period or response deadline lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, USCIS treats a paper response as timely if it arrives by the end of the next business day. Online submissions are considered received immediately and are not affected by weekend or holiday closures.¹³

Delivery Method

Because arrival date is what counts, ship with tracking. USPS Certified Mail with a Return Receipt gives you a signed delivery confirmation. USPS Priority Mail Express is an option when the deadline is tight. FedEx, UPS, and DHL provide similar tracking, but use the courier-specific street address rather than the P.O. Box. Save the tracking number and delivery confirmation. If USCIS later says the response arrived late or never arrived, that record is your defense.

Faster Confirmation With Form G-1145

For applications filed at a USCIS Lockbox, you can clip Form G-1145, e-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance, to the first page of the package. USCIS then sends an email or text within 24 hours of accepting the filing, including your receipt number, which you can use to track the case online.¹⁴ It costs nothing and beats waiting weeks for a mailed receipt.

Sending It Through Your USCIS Online Account

If you have a USCIS online account, you can submit many documents and RFE responses electronically instead of mailing them, which removes shipping cost, delivery risk, and any question about arrival date. You can set up an account at uscis.gov with an email address and, if you want text codes, a U.S. mobile number. Even if you originally filed on paper, you can add the case to the account by choosing “Add a paper-filed case” and entering your receipt number.¹⁵

Once the case appears in your account, the Documents tab is where you upload evidence and respond to an RFE. USCIS notifies you by email or text when an RFE is issued, and you log in to view it and upload the response. You can also submit unsolicited evidence at the bottom of the same tab, though that option is disabled while an RFE is open; during that window, only the RFE response can be filed. Uploads must be PDF, JPG, or JPEG (some forms accept TIF or TIFF), each file no larger than 12 MB, and cannot be encrypted or password-protected. Any foreign-language document still needs a certified English translation uploaded with it.¹⁶

After You Send It

For a mailed package, keep the delivery confirmation and a full copy of everything you sent, including the cover letter and the tracking receipt. You may need it months later if USCIS says something was missing. For online submissions, the History section of your account shows a log of submitted files and confirms receipt.

You should receive a receipt notice (Form I-797) within about 30 days of USCIS receiving a new application or petition at a Service Center or Lockbox.¹⁷ The Case Status Online tool at uscis.gov lets you enter the receipt number to see the latest action.¹⁸

If 30 days pass with no receipt notice, check the case status online first. If the status shows a notice was issued but you never got it, you can file a non-delivery inquiry through e-Request at egov.uscis.gov, but not until at least 60 days after you filed; USCIS will not process an earlier inquiry.¹⁹ You will need your receipt number, A-Number if you have one, the date you filed, and the form type. If that does not resolve it, call the USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283.¹⁸

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 5 – Verification of Identifying Information
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Receipt Number
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part B, Chapter 2 – Signatures
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 6 – Evidence
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tips for Filing Forms by Mail
6
eCFR. 8 CFR 103.2 – Submission and Adjudication of Benefit Requests
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Lockbox and Service Center Filing Location Updates
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Lockbox Filing Locations Chart for Certain Family-Based Forms
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Filing Fees
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form G-1450, Instructions for Authorization for Credit Card Transactions
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Alert – Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements Final Rule
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Policy Alert – Filing Periods and Response Timeframes Ending on Saturdays, Sundays, or Federal Holidays
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form G-1145, e-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. How to Create a USCIS Online Account
16
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tips for Filing Forms Online
17
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. e-Request – Non-Delivery of Notice
18
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Checking Your Case Status Online
19
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. href=”https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/ndn” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>e-Request – Non-Delivery of Notice