Resources Immigration and asylum
You moved: tell the immigration agencies and the court your new address
You must give your new address to USCIS and to the court separately, each by its own deadline. The post office does not pass it on.
This is general information, not legal advice: QARAVAN has no lawyers. QARAVAN does not help anyone enter the US and cannot arrange visas, invitations, sponsorship or evacuation. For your own case, talk to a licensed immigration attorney or a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice.
USCIS and the immigration court (EOIR) each keep their own record of your address, and you change each one separately.
If a court or interview notice goes to your old address, you may never learn the date, and a missed hearing can end in a removal order.
Start here
- Tell USCIS your new address within 10 days, best online in your account, with the receipt number of each application.
- If you have a court case, file form EOIR-33/IC within 5 days, most easily online in Respondent Access.
- If you already missed a hearing because of an old address, check your case on the EOIR website at once and find a lawyer.
Tell each one that handles your case.
Change of address: three recipients
| USCIS | Immigration court (EOIR) | Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who must report | Everyone in the US (exceptions: A and G visa holders and visitors under the visa waiver program) | Everyone with a case in immigration court | Everyone with an appeal pending at the BIA |
| Deadline | Within 10 days of moving; if you have a pending request, as soon as possible | Within 5 days (the regulation says “five days”, EOIR's pages say “five working days”; counting calendar days is safer) | The same as for the court: within 5 days |
| Form | Your USCIS online account (or paper form AR-11) | Form EOIR-33/IC (IC stands for immigration court) | Form EOIR-33/BIA |
| Easiest way | Online in your USCIS account: enter the receipt number of each pending application, even one you filed by mail; the address updates almost immediately | Online in Respondent Access, or in person or by mail; one form per person | The same as for the court: Respondent Access, in person or by mail; one form per person |
Write down your numbers
Your A-Number and the receipt number of each application you filed: you will need them to change the address.
Tell USCIS online
Change the address in your account at my.uscis.gov (account menu) and enter the receipt number of each application. Paper form AR-11 also meets the law but does not update your applications automatically.
If your asylum application is pending, write to the asylum office
Besides USCIS, tell the asylum office that has your case, in writing (the 10 days is the USCIS deadline). Your office is named in USCIS letters. Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are served by the New York Asylum Office (1065 Stewart Avenue, Suite 200, Bethpage, NY 11714; email NewYork.Asylum@uscis.dhs.gov); Manhattan and the Bronx by the Newark Asylum Office (Manhattan sub-office: 201 Varick Street, 6th Floor, Suite 629, New York, NY 10014; mail: 100 Mulberry Street, Suite 199, Newark, NJ 07102; email NewarkAsylumOfficeMailbox@uscis.dhs.gov). If you can't write in English, ask a lawyer for help. Since April 20, 2026 the offices give no information in person, and the USCIS Contact Center's phone line answers only in English and Spanish. If you ask to move your interview to another office because you moved, that delay does not count toward a work permit.
Tell the immigration court
File form EOIR-33/IC within 5 days (the form itself says “five working days”), most easily online in Respondent Access on the EOIR website. Otherwise notices go to the old address. The form has a Proof of Service section: you confirm you sent a copy to the government's lawyers (ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor). Send it through ICE's eService portal, by mail or in person (addresses at ice.gov/contact/legal); without it EOIR may reject the form.
Tell the BIA if you filed an appeal
The form is EOIR-33/BIA, and you can file it the same ways as the court form.
Change your address at the post office too
A change of address at the post office (USPS) does not reach USCIS, and USPS does not forward USCIS mail, so you need both. The work permit card comes by USPS Priority Mail; at a wrong address it can get lost, and then you have to apply and pay again.
Keep proof
A screenshot or a copy of the form proves you reported the address on time.
Hearing notices
Any status
The court mails a Notice of Hearing to the address in the EOIR records. If the notice goes to an old address, you can miss a hearing without knowing about it.
USCIS letters about your asylum application
Asylum applicants
By mail you get the receipt notice, the fingerprint appointment and the interview notice. If the interview notice went to an address other than the last one you properly reported, USCIS reschedules without asking you to prove exceptional circumstances; the USCIS Contact Center takes the request; its phone line answers only in English and Spanish, so if you speak no English, ask a lawyer for help.
Fingerprint notice when your case is in court
Asylum applicants
If you are asking for asylum in court, USCIS sends the fingerprint notice to the address the court has, so after a move file form EOIR-33/IC.
Your work-permit card
With a work permit (EAD)
It comes by USPS Priority Mail about 2 weeks after approval. If it has not come after 30 days, contact USCIS. Update your address with both USCIS and the post office.
The Annual Asylum Fee notice
Asylum applicants
USCIS sends a notice, and you pay within 30 days. The letter may not arrive, so check the payment page in your my.uscis.gov account yourself. If the date in the notice has passed, pay anyway: after a federal court ruling of August 5, 2026 the payment page is open again for people who missed it.
Motion to change venue
Any status
You can ask to move the case to a court closer to your new home. Give your permanent street address in the motion and file form EOIR-33/IC separately. Until the judge agrees, keep going to hearings at the old court.
- Receipt number
- The number on the USCIS notice confirming it received your application; you need it to change your address and to check your case status.
- Respondent Access
- The EOIR online account for people with a case in immigration court; you use it to file the change-of-address form.
- Form EOIR-33/IC
- The form that tells the immigration court your new address (IC stands for immigration court).
- Form AR-11
- The paper change-of-address form for USCIS; the online way is better because it updates your record at once.
- A-Number
- Your Alien Registration Number; it is shown on letters from the court and USCIS.
- Asylum office
- The USCIS office that reviews asylum applications and holds the interviews.