USPS change of address form
About The USPS Change Of Address Form
People move from one place to another all the time for a variety of reasons. In many cases, the move is permanent but it can also be temporary in other cases. A permanent move typically means that the person is moving into another residence for a long term whereas a temporary move usually indicates that a person is going to stay at the new address for a short period of time.
Moving is not limited only to individuals as business also move from one address to another, and this move can also be permanent or temporary. While moving to a new place comes with its own challenges, one of the most important things you need to consider while moving is USPS change of address. After all, you do not want your mail to get lost and this is the reason, you need to inform the USPS that you have moved to a new address, and they should forward all your mail to this new address.
Keep in mind that if you do not provide the necessary information to the U.S. Postal Service, your mail is likely to get lost and it can have disastrous consequences in certain situations. If they do not have your new address, your mail is likely to be returned to your old post office and you will have to go to the post office to collect your mail. Therefore, it is recommended to inform the USPS of your intention to move to a new address by informing them through recommended means.
Thankfully, there are several ways available for you to inform USPS about your change of address. You can even change your address temporarily in case you plan to return to your old address in a short period of time. USPS allows you to submit a temporary change of address request. In fact, you have the flexibility to give exact dates for a temporary request. United states postal office address change processing available online.
Ways to Inform USPS
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There are multiple options available to you when you want to inform USPS about a change of address. However, one of the first things you need to understand is that there are separate applications for individuals, families and businesses. In other words, when you submit a change of address request, you will need to specify whether it is for only an individual, or for all the family members or for a business. Accordingly, you will need to submit an application form to the USPS.
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Another important thing you need to understand is that you have the option to submit this application online or to your local post office. If you submit this request online, you need to go to the official website of the USPS and fill up the application form on that website. It is important that you pay attention to every single piece of information that is asked of you in the application form. Everything should be filled in correctly and any incorrect things in the application form may cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, make sure you read everything carefully and provide the required information.
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On this application form, you will need to choose whether you are applying for a change of address for an individual, for the whole family or for a business. If you are applying for a change of address for your whole family, it is important that the last name of all the family members is the same. In case the last name is different for all the family members, they will need to fill up their own application forms in order to make the change of address request.
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The online application form requires you to provide information regarding your name, age, date of birth, old address, new address, email address, phone number and other such things. They also require you to have a credit card to pay a fee. This fee is used by USPS to verify your address and it goes towards the cost of changing the address. If you do not want to make the change of address request online, you also have the option of downloading a specific form from the website of USPS and submitting this form to your local post office.
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This is known as USPS change of address form. As opposed to a fee for online change of address request, the off-line process is completely free and you do not need to pay any fees. In addition, you also have the option of submitting a change of address request through the phone. If you opt to change the address through the phone, you will also have to pay the required fee through your credit card or debit card. It will also help in confirming your address.
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If you decide to fill up the off-line application form, you will need to download the form from the USPS website and fill in all the required information. Once the information has been filled in, you will need to submit this application form to your local post office. When the application form has been successfully submitted and the address has been change in the USPS system, you will receive a confirmation from USPS regarding the postal address change information.
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You are likely to get three forms at your new and old address. An address change validation letter will be sent to your old address. In case you have already moved from your old address, you won’t receive this letter. Your new address will also receive an address change confirmation letter. You will also receive an electronic mail regarding the change of address confirmation. In addition, you are also going to receive a welcome kit at your new address that will contain a variety of offers and coupons related to your new address. As far as the time taken for address change is concerned, you should give USPS at least 7 to 10 business days for changing your address in their system.
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It is important that you make the application for change of address as soon as possible and you should not wait till the last minute as USPS is known to be a bit slow and their system may take a lot longer to make the required changes. If you wait till the last minute, you may miss a lot of important mail.
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Another important thing you need to understand is that in case you apply for a temporary change of address, the mail is forwarded to this new address for only the next 12 months and once the 12 months have passed, the mail is sent to your old address. Therefore, it is important that you make USPS aware of your new address as quickly as possible.
Informing Others about Address Change
One of the most common mistakes made by people when they move from one place to another is that they do not inform their bank and other businesses about address change. Do not think that your banks, credit card issuers of other businesses that you regularly deal with will automatically update your new address in their systems based on the change of address request you submitted to USPS.
You will also need to inform your bank and other businesses about change of address in order to keep receiving mail at your new address. It is especially important for you to make your bank aware of the change in address in case you have taken a loan from the bank as you might get in trouble in case you do not advise bank of the change in address.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that since everything is done online, there is no need to inform bank or other businesses about the change of address. It’s all about trust and sometimes, banks and other businesses need to send important papers through mail.
Problems with the Process
While the change of address process on the USPS website is deemed to be simple and without any issues, many people find it difficult to gather all the required information and make many inadvertent mistakes. These mistakes usually result in rejection of the change of address application which means you won’t be able to receive mail at your new address and USPS won’t forward mail to your new address.
Thankfully, there are quite a few private services that can help you with this process. These private services are not associated with USPS and they do not work for USPS. These private services gather all the required information that you need to provide to USPS and make sure that the application form for change of address is filled correctly. They will ask you for all the required information and after ensuring that the required information is correct, they will make the application on your behalf to ensure that your change of address application is accepted and you get a confirmation mail from the USPS that your address has been successfully change in your system.
These private sites offers such a service for a fee. The biggest advantage of using such a service is that their forms are extremely easy and you won’t have to click on dozens of pages to complete the process. They will also pay the convenience fee for verification on your behalf. The only thing you need to do is go to their site and provide the required information and click on submit in order for them to submit this information securely to the USPS.
What to Do after Filing the Request
One of the most frequent questions people ask is what they need to do once they have submitted the application form for making change of address request. As mentioned above, USPS is a bit on the slow slide when it comes to making change of address and therefore, it is recommended to wait for a period of around 10 to 12 business days in order for USPS to process your change of address request. Once the change of address request has been processed by USPS on their side, you should start receiving your mail on your new address after a period of around 10 to 12 business days.
If you want to know how you can ensure that your change of address request has been accepted and your mail will be forwarded, you need to know that USPS is going to send a confirmation letter to the new address once the post office has processed the change of address form. This confirmation letter will include a unique USPS confirmation number. So, you should be waiting for this confirmation letter.
This confirmation number is extremely important and you should keep it somewhere safe. This confirmation number will be needed if you need to cancel or edit the forwarding request in the future. Without this confirmation number, you won’t be able to edit your request or make any changes at a later date. So, treat it as an important document and store it somewhere safe.
In case you do not receive the confirmation letter from USPS even after waiting for a period of 10 to 12 business days, it is likely that your change of address request has fallen through the cracks. In such a situation, you should stop by the local post office and make them aware of your change of address request. If you’re not aware of your closest local post office, you can search online in order to find the address of your local post office. When you go to the local post office, always bring your ID as it will help establish your identity and the helpful folks at your local post office will help you sort out the matter.
Overall, the process of change of address with USPS is pretty straightforward. You have multiple options. You can do it the old way by downloading the application form from their website and submitting the completed application form to your local post office. The newer and faster way is to do everything online. The online application process also allows you to verify your address through the address your bank has on your credit card file. If you’re not comfortable with the online process, you can take the help of one of the several private websites that can help you change your address for a fee.
