So I've been told that USCIS will Not Accept My (USC) Foreign Address

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

A very polite woman on the phone told me today that they will not send mail to me at a non-American address, despite it being my current address. All this time waiting for NOA1 and it has probably been sitting in an unattended mailbox in America! Hmmmpphh. You think since they got rid of DCF they could fix this.

Can USCIS mail be forwarded or does it have "Do Not Forward" written on it??

Edited December 10, 2012 by Nola123

[bsd058 296]

A very polite woman on the phone told me today that they will not send mail to me at a non-American address, despite it being my current address. All this time waiting for NOA1 and it has probably been sitting in an unattended mailbox in America! Hmmmpphh. You think since they got rid of DCF they could fix this.

Can USCIS mail be forwarded or does it have "Do Not Forward" written on it??

The very polite lady was probably well-intentioned, but misinformed. They certainly do send mail to non-US addresses. They sent our NOA1 to us in Canada. And I know of plenty of other VJ members who've received their NOA1 from USCIS in their foreign country.

However, it may take up to a month to receive. We got ours 2 weeks after we sent our I-130.

Edited December 10, 2012 by bsd058

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

The very polite lady was probably well-intentioned, but misinformed. They certainly do send mail to non-US addresses. They sent our NOA1 to us in Canada. And I know of plenty of other VJ members who've received their NOA1 from USCIS in their foreign country.

However, it may take up to a month to receive. We got ours 2 weeks after we sent our I-130.

Might be, but there has been no NOA1 mailed here and the zip code attached to my case is a US one. We are basically at the one month point and the stupid online thing won't let me update my address.

This is very very frustrating!

Edited December 10, 2012 by Nola123

[Sweetcheeksss 91]

All letters I have received from USCIS has clearly been marked with a "no forwarding" stamp on it. Of course, you could get a friend to get your mail and if it is in there, they could put it inside a plain envelope and mail it to you.

[bsd058 296]

Might be, but there has been no NOA1 mailed here and the zip code attached to my case is a US one. We are basically at the one month point and the stupid online thing won't let me update my address.

This is very very frustrating!

Did you put a US address on the I-130?

Edited December 10, 2012 by bsd058

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

All letters I have received from USCIS has clearly been marked with a "no forwarding" stamp on it. Of course, you could get a friend to get your mail and if it is in there, they could put it inside a plain envelope and mail it to you.

Unfortunately, our caretaker had scammed us and the nearest person I know to the house is 2 hours away. This is worrisome, I have to figure out another way to change my address or something.

Did you put a US address on the I-130?

I put my Danish address all over the darn thing, but on question 18 "Address in US your where your relative intends to live" I put a US address. That appears to be the zip code they have attached to the application.

[bsd058 296]

Unfortunately, our caretaker had scammed us and the nearest person I know to the house is 2 hours away. This is worrisome, I have to figure out another way to change my address or something.

I put my Danish address all over the darn thing, but on question 18 "Address in US your where your relative intends to live" I put a US address. That appears to be the zip code they have attached to the application.

I see. Ya. It all comes down to USCIS paying attention. So if you're no longer planning to live there because the care taker scammed you, see if you can try to find a family member's address or friend's address (someone you've KNOWN PERSONALLY for years and has no business relationship with you) that you are planning on moving to. Or call again, because clearly that lady was wrong and USCIS does deliver to non-US addresses.

[oohpartiv 484]

I was told the same thing! I wait for some sort of notification for months, made calls, etc, until someone finally told me that they wouldn't send me any mail since my primary address was in South America. Luckily, the lady who talked to me was very helpful and changed it to my dad's address. Unfortunatly, they'd sent me a RFE but since they weren't sending me any mail, I didn't find out about it until four months after sending my i130... it pushed everything waaaay back. ): If I were you I'd try to change your address to maybe a friend's or family members? And then they can call you whenever you get anything sent there.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I've managed to get the online address change thing to work on IE instead of Chrome. So, I've changed it to my mother's address and hopefully it will work out ok.

According to the lady on the phone, I do not have any RFEs and it to call back at 45 days if it is still not online or to check for RFEs.

[Roosha 51]

Nola, thank you so much for posting about this. This is one of the things I've been SO worried about. I don't want to put a US address b/c just in case they're expediting filers from abroad but I'm so worried about getting mail!

I too put my international address all over the petition but requested in my cover letter that all mail be sent to my parents address (I also listed that same address for question 18). Do you think that if they don't send to international addresses they might actually pay attention to my cover letter and send the mail to my parents house?

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

OK, I talked to another ISO on the phone and she said that in the past they did not mail things out to foreign addresses. However because they have stopped doing DCF, they now will do it but there is no guarantee that you'll get anything in the mail. So it is hit or miss on the foreign address front.

[Roosha 51]

So it is hit or miss on the foreign address front.

Doesn't that apply to everything regarding this process? You'd think with the amount of people who immigrate this process would be more streamlined and organized.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see what they do. Fingers crossed they'll send stuff to my parents address.

[vigilante_397 0]

I'm living abroad with my foreign wife, and they mailed my NOA1 to our Mongolian address because that's what I put on the form, but if anything is addressed to something besides a PO Box it gets returned. So I talked to an ISO (it has to be an ISO) and they said they can change to my Mongolian address, but they advised me to use a USA address and have it forwarded, because it's more reliable. So I now have everything sent to my parents, who scan and email me all of our mail before they actually send the physical copy, just in case

[NikLR 13,227]

Vigilante, that is a really good idea to have the mail scanned and emailed too. Smart thinking on the part of you and your parents :-)