What is Form AR-11?

Form AR-11 is the form you use to tell USCIS that you changed your address. The law requires reporting a move, and this sheet is the paper way of doing it.

USCIS also has an online version of the same notice, through a USCIS account. Its page says that is the route it recommends, because it updates your address almost immediately.

According to the official page, most people who are not citizens and live in the United States report every change of address within 10 days of moving, whether or not they have an open case.

The same page mentions exceptions, for example certain diplomatic visas, and a different procedure for VAWA, T and U cases. Whether any of them applies to you is a legal question and we do not answer it: the official instructions and a licensed attorney are the way.

Your name, your A-Number if you have one, the new address, the previous one and the date of the move. If you have an open case, the receipt number helps the office handling it find out too.

It needs no supporting documents. The general list and the official sources live on the form's page.

Gather the complete address exactly as it appears on your mail: number, street, apartment, city, state and ZIP code. A missing apartment number is the most common reason a letter never arrives.

We ask you for those details in Spanish, one thing at a time, and transfer them onto the official form with technical checks. You receive an unsigned PDF: you review it, sign it by hand and mail it to the address in the current instructions.

Keep a copy and write down the date you sent it. It is your only proof that you reported the move on time.

Telling only the post office and assuming USCIS finds out: it does not. Sending the notice weeks after the move. Using a relative's address because “it is safer” when you no longer live there.

And forgetting the receipt numbers of your open cases. Without them, the office handling your case may keep writing to the old address.

USCIS does not always send a paper confirmation of an AR-11. With the online version you see the change in your account. The proof that it worked is the next USCIS letter arriving at the new address.

In the guide on what happens after you mail your form we explain USCIS notices and how to check an open case.

We transfer your details onto the official form and check the formatting. We do not give legal advice and we do not decide whether you are required to file it or what happens if it is filed late; those are questions for a licensed attorney or a Department of Justice accredited representative.