How to open a virtual mailbox without getting stuck on Form 1583

What the form is

PS Form 1583 is the “Application for Delivery of Mail Through Agent.” It authorizes a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency to receive mail for you. It is not a change-of-address. It is not a domicile. It does not forward mail from your old house. If you need USPS to redirect mail from a previous address, that is a different product (Form 3575 / online change of address).

The June 2024 form — still the file USPS hosted when we retrieved it in August 2026 — says the applicant must sign in the physical or real-time audio-and-video presence of the CMRA (or authorized employee) or of a notary public commissioned in a U.S. state, territory, possession, or the District of Columbia. The CMRA keeps a copy and uploads to USPS’s CMRA customer registration database.

The two-ID rule, from the form’s own footnotes

Footnotes 9–12 on the June 2024 form are the part blogs get sloppy about:

• Two types of identification for the applicant (and for any “authorized individual” you list).
• One must be a government-issued photo ID from the list in item 8e (driver or nondriver ID, passport, permanent resident card, and the other boxes printed on the form).
• The second must be an address ID from item 9g that contains the home address you wrote in 9b–9f: current lease, mortgage or deed, home or vehicle insurance, vehicle registration, voter card — or a driver/nondriver ID.
• A driver license may fill the photo slot or the address slot, not both.

Utility bills are not on the 9g list on this revision. If a blog told you to upload a power bill as the address ID, check the form in your hand. Providers can be stricter than USPS; they cannot be looser and remain a lawful CMRA.

The field that stalls people

Do not put the mailbox street in the home-address boxes. Item 4f and item 9b want the place you actually live (or, for a business filing, the real business street in item 7). The PMB is item 2. Startup Owl and Ecommerce Paradise both describe iPostal1 users who paid first, used an incompatible notary, or advertised the new address before the form cleared. That sequence is how you get a month of rent and no mail.

For a business, complete item 7. An officer signs. Anyone else who will receive mail at the PMB can be asked for two IDs later (footnote 13).

Notary: use the provider’s remote flow unless you like rejections

Remote online notarization is allowed when the notary’s commission and the session are real-time video, per the form’s note. Many mailbox companies sell a $20–$30 in-app notary. Startup Owl recorded $25 for iPostal1’s online notary in 2026. Using a random notary who stamps an old PDF is a common reject. If you are abroad, confirm the provider accepts a U.S.-commissioned remote notary before you pay a second one.

You can also walk into the CMRA and sign in front of staff if you are local. In San Diego, a store like Miramar Postal Plus is the kind of counter where that is a real option. A downtown “Suite 700” pin may not have a person who is allowed to witness.

A sequence that usually works

1. Pick the store or owned hub first. Read owned hub vs marketplace if you have not.
2. Download the current PDF from about.usps.com/forms/ps1583.pdf or use the provider’s prefilled copy. Do not google a 2010 scan.
3. Fill home address to match the address ID. Name to match the photo ID. Business legal name to match the SOS printout if you checked Business Use.
4. Notarize or witness through the path the provider documents. Upload both ID copies, readable, edges visible.
5. Wait for activation. Then — only then — put the address on the LLC amendment, the bank, or the Amazon seller form. If Amazon needs a lease, this form will not be that lease. See the commerce page.

What Form 1583 will not do

• It will not make a CMRA acceptable to Mercury or Stripe Issuing.
• It will not make Google treat the store as your shop.
• It will not appoint a California registered agent. Separate statute.
• It will not change your IRS address. That is Form 8822-B.