Form AR-11 and mail forwarding services

W

WMB

New Member
Hi,
I've been a US Permanent Resident for more than 12 years. In the spring I'm going to start a year-long RV trip around the US and Canada and will be moving out of my apartment, so I plan to use a commercial mail handling service to process physical mail for both myself and my consulting LLC.

Does anyone know definitively if it's OK to provide the address of my mail handling service on Form AR-11? I won't have a permanent physical address.

The only alternative to that would be to have to resubmit AR-11 every time I stop at a campground or a national park for more than 10 days (even though there's a good chance that I wouldn't be able to receive mail at many of those sites, anyway)?

Or maybe I could ask a friend if I could use their address as a c/o address, but in that case (since I'm not actually going to be physically living there), that doesn't seem like it would satisfy any "permanent physical address" requirement either.

Thanks
 
A friend's address would be easiest. If you won't need CIS services for the year you'll be gone, it won't really matter. If you do need their services, you'll have a proper address. They just want to be able to reach you. You will, after all, retain your driving licence, right? You can update the DMV too with your friend's address.
 
cafeconleche said:
A friend's address would be easiest. If you won't need CIS services for the year you'll be gone, it won't really matter. If you do need their services, you'll have a proper address. They just want to be able to reach you. You will, after all, retain your driving licence, right? You can update the DMV too with your friend's address.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I just recently renewed the GC so hopefully I won't need to deal with USCIS again for quite a while. From what you wrote it sounds like the requirement is not that USCIS needs to know physically where you live at any given time, but just that they need to be able to get in touch. In which case it seems that either a mail service or a friend's address would work equally well. I'd actually prefer the mail service since it means I won't need to impose on someone or deal with what happens if _they_ decide to move.
 
Eh, I don't remember, but I think you can't really use a PO box or mail service, whatever that is. I mean, technically the address is so that they can come and get you to throw you out and stuff, but unless you have immigration issues, it's not really an issue, in which case the address is just so that they can get in touch.
 
The mail services I'm describing are companies that provide a physical street address (not a PO Box) that can be used to officially receive physical mail, which they then scan for you and post to an online account for your review. You can then decide to dump them or forward them to your actual location. You have to file an official application with USPS to delegate to them the right to open your mail.

If they need to know physically where I am at all times, it looks like I'll need to file a lot of AR-11s next year. I'd prefer not to get fined, imprisoned or deported on a technicality :)
 
Well, you'll kind of be on holiday right? People going on holiday do not change their address. So, again, while they want to be able to find you physically, you won't really be doing something illegal like trying to hide from them - because you will be reachable, and can go and report to them if asked, am I right? Besides, people forget to report a change of address VERY often, and who knows, maybe more often than not? Go ahead with the friend's address, or the mail service. I'm quite sure that, unless you're sought by our dysfunctional government for some stupid reason, you'll be alright.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top