Foreign nationals in the U.S. (including permanent residents) are required to notify USCIS of a change of address within 10 days of moving to that new address. This notification is accomplished by filing an AR-11 Change of Address Form with USCIS. You can either file the form online at USCIS AR-11 or you can download the AR-11 form and send it by mail. While either method would keep you in compliance with the law, if you have any pending cases with USCIS, it is recommended that you file online, as by doing so, your change of address will be posted to the pending application. While the AR-11 form is available and downloadable in languages other than English, the form must be completed and submitted in English.

If you are mailing your form, it should be sent to:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Change of Address
PO Box 7134
London, KY 40742-7134

For commercial overnight or fast freight services, only:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Change of Address
1084-I South Laurel Road
London, KY 40744

If you have changed your address and more than 10 days has already elapsed, it is recommended that you still file even though it is late, just to make sure that you are complying with the law. If you have changed your address more than one time, rather than filing multiple AR-11 forms, we recommend to our clients that an AR-11 form be filed for the current address only.

This regulation should not be overlooked, since failure to notify USCIS within the 10 day period is a ground of removal from the U.S. While we are not aware of any instances where proceedings have been initiated based upon this ground alone, we have seen USCIS raise the failure to comply with this regulation in different contexts in the past as part of a larger argument against allowing a particular foreign national to obtain an approval of a petition or application for benefits or relief from removal.

Remember, understanding and applying U.S. immigration law is sometimes more of an art than a science and whether an otherwise approvable case is actually approved or denied can boil down to whether the alien's positive factors outweigh the negative factors. Complying with the Change of Address regulation will be one less negative factor that USCIS can use against you in your efforts to obtain whatever U.S. immigration benefits you are seeking.