If you are a legal permanent resident of the U.S., you may be sick of interacting with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. After all, you have probably filed many petitions and applications, gone to several appointments and received countless notices.
Fortunately, after you become a legal permanent resident, your interactions with the USCIS are likely to drop off significantly. Still, as a legal permanent resident, you have an obligation to notify immigration officials every time you change your address.
Legal permanent residents
According to the USCIS, all foreign nationals in the U.S. have an affirmative duty to report changes in address within 10 days. This is true even if you are temporarily relocating to a different address inside the country.
Regrettably, because the USCIS has many service centers, it can be difficult to determine where to submit your change of address form. For many, though, it is possible simply to file the form online.
U.S. citizens
If you secured your legal permanent residence because of your relationship with a U.S. citizen, the citizen also may have an obligation to report address changes. This obligation is part of the affidavit of support. Therefore, when you change your address, you also may want to ask the citizen in your family to submit an address change too.
Additionally, your U.S. citizen relative may have pending petitions or applications. If so, it is advisable for him or her to file a prompt change of address to ensure he or she does not miss important updates from the USCIS.
Ultimately, to avoid unnecessarily complicating your immigration situation, you should prioritize filing address changes every time you and your U.S. citizen relative move to a different location.
