USPS mail forwarding: what gets sent, and for how long

How you file the change of address

You file with the Postal Service. A moving company website is not that filing. The change-of-address basics page says some other sites charge $40 or more, and the Postal Service no longer accepts those submissions. Start at the USPS forwarding page or at moversguide.usps.com.

You choose Individual, Family, or Business. Family is for people who share one last name and one new address. Different last names need separate individual orders. A business order is for the company, not for a person who works there. The basics page says you cannot file a change for your own mail at a job. The employer has to redirect that mail.

Online, you confirm who you are. The forwarding page says you opt in to a code or a link on your phone. Then you pay the identity charge in the next section. If the check works, USPS emails a confirmation code. Keep it. You need the code to change or cancel the order. If the check fails, USPS emails a barcode. Take that email and a photo ID to a post office.

At the counter, you ask for the free Mover’s Guide packet. Inside it is PS Form 3575, the change-of-address form. You fill it out. The clerk checks your photo ID and files the order. The basics page says you use this paper path if you do not want to use a card online. The form is not something you print at home. The same page says a form mailed in without the identity check gets a letter telling you to finish online or at a post office.

You must go in person if you are moving outside the United States, if you are filing for someone else, or if you cannot pass the online identity check. Filing for a child needs a birth certificate. Filing for someone who cannot act for themselves needs a power of attorney. Filing for a person who has died needs executor or administrator papers. A death certificate alone is not enough. A business filing at the counter needs a letter that shows you may file for the company.

You can file from 90 days before the move date through 30 days after it. After the order is approved, allow at least 7 to 10 business days before it starts. Mail to the new address can start within 7 to 10 postal business days of the start date. During that stretch the mail is inaccessible. You cannot pick it up at the old post office.

Two letters follow a normal filing. A Move Validation letter goes to the old address. About five business days before the start date, a Customer Notification Letter goes to the new address. That letter has the confirmation code. A welcome kit comes with it.

What the identity check costs

The online filing charges $1.25. The forwarding page calls it an identity verification fee. The basics page calls it an authentication fee. Both pages name $1.25. The card’s billing address must match either your old address or your new one. The Domestic Mail Manual, section 507.2.1.4, says the online filing charges a credit card authentication fee and points to the USPS price list for the amount. The dollar figure on the consumer pages is $1.25.

That $1.25 is not postage. Forwarded mail can still cost extra, by class. The table below is that split. A copy of the confirmation letter, if you ask for a duplicate, is a different charge. The basics page says that reprint is $95, and the order has to be less than 18 months old. The same page does not call the $95 a part of the normal filing.

A longer permanent forward is also a separate purchase. The prices are in the duration section. They are not part of the $1.25.

How long does USPS mail forwarding last

It depends on the kind of move, and then on the kind of mail. A permanent order means you left. A temporary order means you are coming back.

On a permanent order, the basics chart and section 507 of the manual use these windows. “Months 1 through 12” in the manual is that first year.

The forwarding page also says standard forwarding lasts 12 months. Read that next to the table. Magazines are the short row. Ads are the “only if the sender paid” row. The 12-month line is the letters, Priority Mail, Ground Advantage, and Express.

A temporary order is a different clock. The forwarding page says to use it for 15 days up to 1 year, such as school or a stay with family. The manual, section 507.2.1.3, is more exact. The first order runs from 15 days to 185 days. That is two weeks to six months. Every order needs a start date and an end date. A second order can extend the total to 364 days, which the manual calls 12 months. The basics page says that second stretch can add up to 179 days, and that 185 plus 179 is the same 364-day cap.

Those two USPS pages do not use the same start rule for the second order. The manual says the second order begins on day 186. The basics page says the new start can be the original end date, or a few days earlier if you forgot the date. File the dates the post office accepts on the form in front of you. Do not assume the two sentences are the same rule.

On the end date, forwarding stops. Delivery goes back to the original address. If you are not sure of the return date, the basics page says to give your best estimate, then tell the post office for the old address if the date changes. If you are already home, cancel the order. If you stay home for at least 45 days, the basics page says the 364-day limit starts over and you can file a new temporary order. The same page names Premium Forwarding Service as another temporary option. It does not print a price for that service.

You can pay to keep a permanent forward going. Extended Mail Forwarding adds 6, 12, or 18 months. Eighteen extra months is the maximum. It sits on top of the first 12 months. It is only for a permanent move inside the country. The prices on that page, when you buy it with the first filing, are $26 for 6 months, $39 for 12 months, and $52 for 18 months. If you bought 6 or 12 months first, more time comes in 6-month blocks at $26 each, still capped at 18 extra months. You can buy it at filing, or later with your confirmation code and your new ZIP Code, online, at a post office, or at a kiosk where kiosks offer it. USPS emails a reminder around month 11. You cannot change the extension once forwarding has started. Canceling the change of address cancels the extension, and the page says you do not get a refund. If the change of address has already expired, you cannot buy the extension.

The extension page names the classes that keep moving: First-Class Mail, USPS Ground Advantage commercial items, and Priority Mail. It does not name magazines, marketing mail, Media Mail, or Priority Mail Express. This page will not guess that those keep going.

Does USPS mail forwarding include packages

Some packages are included. “Package” is not one mail class. The label decides.

Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and USPS Ground Advantage are forwarded at no extra charge. The forwarding page says that in those words. Express is domestic only. Section 507.1.5.5 of the manual says Priority Mail Express is forwarded only to a U.S. address, at no charge, for months 1 through 12 of a permanent order.

Media Mail is forwarded, and you pay. The forwarding page says you pay the cost of shipping from your local post office to the new address. Library Mail, Bound Printed Matter, and Parcel Select are in the same 12-month domestic row on the basics chart, with a note that postage may be due. Section 507.2.3.6 says Package Services are postage due at the single-piece price for that class, and Parcel Select is postage due at the Ground Advantage commercial price plus an extra service fee. The manual does not print that fee as a dollar amount. You can refuse the piece. If the sender uses Shipper Paid Forwarding, the sender pays instead of you. That is the sender’s choice, not yours.

A sender can also block forwarding. The basics page says mail is not forwarded when the mailer told USPS to return anything that cannot be delivered as addressed. A sticker such as “Return Service Requested” is that kind of instruction. The piece goes back even if your change of address is active.

What the post office will not send on

Three gaps catch people.

Marketing mail stays put unless the sender paid to forward it. A catalog is not a letter. Do not expect the ads to follow you for a year.

Magazines stop at 60 days, even when letters are still moving. After the address-correction notice, the manual says later copies are disposed of.

Some senders block sensitive pieces. The forwarding page lists identity documents, especially driver’s licenses and voter registration, plus credit cards, bank statements, insurance, and other financial or medical information. Contact the sender and give them the new address. The change of address does not update those accounts. The forwarding page says that in a note: the order changes your address with the post office. You tell everyone else.

A few letters can go to another country. Section 507.1.5.1 says First-Class Mail and Priority Mail cards and unregistered letters that do not look like merchandise may be forwarded to an international address, unless the sender used “Return Service Requested” or “Change Service Requested.” Priority Mail Express and Package Services are domestic only. An international move is filed in person, before you leave. The basics page says you cannot file that change online from an address outside the United States. If you already left, you tell each sender, or you authorize someone, in a letter, to file PS Form 3575 for you. What a private company can do with U.S. mail while you live abroad is a different product. That job is on expat mail forwarding.

For a military move, the forwarding page says to work with your command first. Relocation information in the military system is shared with USPS. If you still need to file, you can do it online. If you are moving from a military address, the email you use has to end in .gov, .mil, or .edu. In-person identity checks happen only at post offices in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. The manual, section 507.2.2.6, adds a postage rule: when official orders cause the move, Priority Mail Express, First-Class Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, Periodicals, and Package Services are forwarded at no added charge for the service member and for household members on those orders. If the orders send you to an overseas military address, military authorities forward the mail, and that forwarding is limited to 60 days. The manual does not put marketing mail on that free list.

What happens when the forward ends

On a permanent order, the first year is the forward. Then the post office does not keep delivering those pieces to you. The forwarding page says that when the forwarding period ends, USPS returns your mail to the sender for 6 months with a label that shows your new address. The basics chart describes the same stretch as months 13 through 18: the piece goes back with your new address attached. After 18 months, it goes back without your new address. The sender can see where you went during those six return months. After that, the label is gone.

That is why the extension has to be bought before the order expires. A reminder around month 11 is the warning, not a promise that mail will keep arriving.

On a temporary order, the end is simpler. Mail goes back to the original address on the end date. It is not forwarded for an extra six months of return labels. If you moved for good, the basics page says you can switch a temporary order to a permanent one. You cannot switch a permanent order back to a temporary one.

You also cannot use a USPS change of address to pull mail from a private mailbox company. The basics page and section 507.2.2.7 say a change of address from that kind of company is not allowed. The official name is a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA): a private mail-receiving company the Postal Service regulates. The company, not the post office, re-sends that mail, and the new postage is due. The company has to accept and re-send mail for former customers for at least 6 months after the account ends. After that, it may refuse the mail. You can file a change of address to a CMRA. That direction is allowed.

When a private mailbox fits better than the post office

USPS forwarding is one old address, one new address, and a clock. It is the right tool for a single move when you will tell each sender the new address and you can wait out the classes above. It is a weak tool when you do not have one next address, when you leave the country, or when you need a street that is still there after month 12.

A private company that receives your mail at a street address is a different buy. You rent the street. Staff scan a letter or ship it. The path of one letter is on how a virtual mailbox works. The company needs the form that authorizes it to accept your mail (USPS Form 1583) before it can keep pieces. The ID steps are on Form 1583. That form is not a change of address. A change of address is not that form.

People who move often hit the temporary cap. A first order is at most about six months. The whole temporary stretch is at most 364 days, and the limit starts over only after you have been back at the old address for 45 days. A rented street does not expire on that calendar. Phoenix and Tucson are the seasonal case: a winter stay can be a temporary forward, and a counter in town is the street that is still there next winter. Madison is the school case. The University Ave door is a mailbox, not the temporary order you file for a year away. Pittsburgh is the same split near the University of Pittsburgh. The Forbes Ave counter is a shop. The change of address is the post office.

A military move has the free-forward rule above, and the 60-day limit when the orders go overseas. El Paso lists a Fort Bliss counter on Pike Rd. That counter is a private mailbox. It is not the military forward. Virginia Beach and Colorado Springs are the same kind of town: people rotate through, and a Lynnhaven counter or a Cheyenne Mountain counter can hold a street after the post office clock stops. Neither page is the change-of-address form.

Living abroad is the sharp version. The post office will not take an online change from outside the country, and several classes never leave the United States. A CMRA street can still receive domestic mail. Expat mail forwarding is that job.

A stable business address is the other reason people leave the post office product. A forward ends. A rented street can stay on the envelope. It is still a mailbox. It does not, by itself, become your legal home or the office on a company filing. A bank runs its own identity checks. Those checks are called know your customer (KYC). Form 1583 does not pass them. What a virtual business address is separates the street from the office. What banks accept reads the address boxes one by one.

The buttons near the top go to iPostal1 and VirtualPostMail. Those are the companies’ own pages. Read them for the current price and for whether they ship to where you will be. Anytime Mailbox, PostScan Mail, and US Global Mail are other companies. Their prices stay on their pages.

Questions people ask first