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Step by Step Process to file change of
address at USPS
You should start the process of changing your address by going to the
online form available at the official website of USPS, you can find the
link also at the bottom of this post. When you go to the USPS’s
change of address form you will see a welcome page.
You need to click the orange Continue button to go to the next page.
On the next page, it gives you some tips and information on charges.
There is a clearly mentioned charge of $1.05 to be charged from your
credit card or debit card. This helps USPS to verify that the person
filing the request is real.
This form can be filled personally by anyone who wants to update
his/her address in post office or he or she should be the executor,
guardian, authorized officer of the person whose USPS free change of
address is being done or an agent of the person for whom the update
of address is being carried out. This is clearly stated on the
official UMove (This page www.usps.com/umove has been removed
by USPS some time back, but the official link mentioned at the end of
this post is still good) page, you need to acknowledge that statement
before you start the actual change of address process.
Statement for change of address
As soon as you click the ‘continue’ button, you will start the actual
official change of address process which consist of five steps as you
can see in the image below-
Five Steps of Change of Address
The whole process is divided into five steps
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Move Info
Name & Address
Identity Check
Instant Saving
Confirm Order
Mov e Info- https://www.megcor.net/filling-usps-change-of-
address-form-online/
The first step ‘Move Info’ is divided into three important questions.
Move Information – I
The most important question is the status of move, weather it is
temporary or permanent. If you are planning to move back to the
same address within a year then temporary should be marked, even if
you are sure about the first six months and your next six months plan
in dependent on something else, you should file a temporary change
request and then after six months, you should again file the same
request.
Move Information – II
Date of forwarding Date of forwarding implies to the date from which you want your
mails to be delivered to the new address, you can fill the form after or
before moving so you have to tell USPS the date when you want the
mail forwarding to start. For example you can file the request within
thirty (30) days of moving or if you want to fill the change of address
form well in advance than you can do it that upto three months
before the date of forwarding.
If you apply for a permanent address change than you will see only
one date option, ‘Start Forwarding’ date, but if you are applying for a
temporary change of address then you will see a second date option
as ‘End Forwarding’ which will tell USPS to stop your mail forwarding
to new address and resume its going to the old address.
The ‘End Forwarding’ date should not be more than six months away
from the Start Forwarding date. As it was mentioned earlier, you can
apply for temporary change of address for six months and extend it
for another six months.
In case you don’t know the exact End Forwarding date then it is good
to input the best estimated date, and if this date is ever changed , you
must inform your local post office about the new/changed End
Forwarding date.
Another important point to remember is that if you receive your mails
by more than one name e.g. your middle name or nick name then a
separate postal service change of address form should be filed for
that name as well.
The Type of Move The next point asks about the type of move it is. You should clearly
mention whether it is an individual move, a family move or a business
moving to a new address.
Here is an explanation of three different types of moves. Individual
move is defined as move when a single person from a family is moving
and the rest of the family is going to stay at the same old address.
If one person in a family has a different surname then the family has
to file for a change of address as a family and the person who has a
different surname has to file separate change of address for as an
individual. You can mark it as a family move if the whole family which
has same surname is moving to a new address, in that case all the
people having same surname will get their mails forwarded to the
new address by filing just one form.
Third option is for the businesses moving to a new address. It is not
possible to divert few mails to a different address; all the mails should
be delivered to the same business address, either new or old.
Once you have filled all three options, you can now click on the
orange ‘Continue’ button to provide your name and address details.
Name and Address –
This part of the form should be filled very carefully. In the four blocks
on this page, the first block is for your name. If the form is being filled
for an individual, your first name, middle name and last name should
be entered. In case the form is being filled for whole family, first name
should
Name and Address part of the form
contain the First Name or initials of the Head of the family. Another
important point to remember is that if you receive your mails by more
than one name e.g. your middle name or nick name then a separate
postal service change of address form should be filed for that name as
well. Same goes with the last name and surname.
Another important point, if a person who has the same surname is
moving to a different address, then a separate form should be filled
for that person otherwise mails of that person will also be forwarded
to the address where whole family’s mails are being forwarded.
Please remember, you can’t file for a change of address from a non
USPS PO box, but if you have a USPS PO box, you should put that in
the street field.
Entering Old Address
The second block has the space for you to provide your old address
information (not your previous address, this is the address where you
are already receiving your mails) you need to be careful in filling this
as any mistakes will complicate the process of changing the address
with USPS.
Entering New Address
The third block is where you will put your new address or the address
where you want your mails to be forwarded. If you are moving to a
newly built house that was built in last six months, then it may not be
in USPS database, in that case you must tick the box below the ZIP
code.
There are few type of address which you cannot use for these fields
like you cannot file for a US Postal Service change of address from a
non USPS PO box but if you have a USPS PO box you should put it in
the street field.
Similarly you cannot file Similarly you cannot file United States Postal
Service Change of address online for international address or from a
Military APO/FPO address, but you can file an online change of
address to change your address ‘to’ a military address.
Online address changing facility can also not be used to change
’Unique ZIP Codes’ address. Unique ZIP codes are used for specific
universities, governmental agencies, buildings or business that gets a
very high volume of mails. Such offices are assigned a Unique ZIP code
to funnel the mails easily.
Once you are done with the contact information, press the orange
“Continue” button to the next step of “Identity Check” and confirm
your identity.
Entering Contact Information in US Postal Service Change of Address
Form
In the Fourth block you need to provide your contact information
including your email address, confirmation of email address, home
phone and Mobile phone. This information is used to send the
information of the transaction and confirmation of the change of
address and mail forwarding.
Identity Check –
Third Step of filling the form is Identity Verification, this step helps
USPS verify the applicant. It require you to verify yourself using a valid
Debit or Credit card, this card should be in the name of person filing
the request and it should have the same billing address as either your
old or new house.
Identity Verification Part-I for Post Office Change of Address
USPS charges a $1.05 fee to verify the ownership of the card. This
helps in preventing fraudulent address changing requests and also
saves you from your friend’s playing prank on you.
When you fill this page, it will show you both of your address (New
where you are moving and old from where you are moving) to select
for billing address; you can select the right address on your card. If
your card is billed on any other address (a third address) then there is
an option for entering a different billing address of your credit card or
debit card.
Entering A Different Address For Payment
If you mark the third option of “Enter a Different Address” a new
address field appears where you can enter your billing address. In
case you are making the payment on behalf of someone else, there is
an option to mark “I’M HELPING SOMEONE ELSE”.
Making Payment For Someone Else
If you mark that field, you will have to provide your details like Name, Phone Number and Email
address. Once you are done with that, you can click on the Continue button to move to the next
step. If you feel like you have not provided the card information, please don’t afraid as USPS will ask
that information in the next step.
On the next page you will be asked to enter your card information, once you do that, your United
States Postal Service change of address process will be done.
While you are filling the form, you will see a vertical orange box on the right hand side of each page,
this box shows all the information you have filled during the whole process and if you want to make
any corrections or changes, you will find an edit button in front of each field, at any stage, you can
click on edit button and it will take you to the respective page to make the edits.
Please note, the address you see in the box is standardized by USPS database the moment you enter
it, so if you see any difference in the format of address you filled and the address you see, it may be
due to the database address, and you can leave it like that.
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Once you have checked and verified the details, you can be sure that your change of address is
applied and it will start forwarding your mails to your new forwarding address within fourteen days.
If you are moving and feel like you don’t want to take tour car along, you can think about donating
your car to charity.
Official USPS Change of address form – https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/