Last update on June 12th, 2022 at 12:14 am
Suppose you decided to move from your home or temporarily move to a new place due to work or study. You may want to consider forwarding your postal mail to another address for a while. USPS is offering this service, so you can keep receiving your mail like you used to.
Changing your address with USPS (United States Postal Service) can forward your mail starting from 15 days up to 12 months, and you can cancel or extend this whenever you want.
Whether making a local move or relocating, changing your postal address should be a priority. Check with us all the questions you can think about in this article.
What is a USPS temporary change-of-address?
USPS offers temporary change-of-address for a while, from 15 days up to 1 year. You can cancel this forwarding anytime, or even you can go with a permanent change of address to forward your postal mail to another permanent address.
Which Type of USPS Form to Use?
You can find three types of forms on the USPS website, and you need to ensure that you’re using the right form, so you don’t run into issues if you use the wrong form.
There are USPS forms for individuals, families, and businesses as well. If you’re unsure which type of change of address form to use, you can pay a visit to the local post office or call them.
How Much Does USPS Mail Forwarding Cost?
Forwarding your mail in person by filling out the Change of Address Form at the post office is free. However, submitting your request online requires your email address and a $1.05 (one-time fee) for identification purposes. The Postal Service wants to ensure your identity is safe, so they use your credit card to confirm your identity for online change of address requests.
When Does USPS Mail Forwarding Start?
USPS forwarded mail will start to reach your new address within 7-10 business days of your change-of-address date. You only need to ensure that you filled out the form in enough time, so there is no need to worry about your mail. USPS won’t redirect your mail before that time.
After 2 weeks, I Didn’t Get My Mail.
As we said, it usually takes 7-10 business days to get your mail to your new address. However, if it’s been more than that, you should head to your local post office and make a complaint about that.
You need to bring your ID for identification and your confirmation code as a reference so they can help you with your issue.
How Long Does USPS Forward Mail After Change of Address?
USPS will forward most of your mail from 15 days up to 12 months, including First Class Mail, Priority Mail, and First-Class Package services. This gives you a year to update your address with your friends, family, bank, and other businesses.
However, if you’ve got a newspaper or magazine subscription, it will be forwarded for a shorter time limit of just 60 days. So you need to update your subscriptions with your new address, as USPS won’t forward your magazines or newspapers that arrive at your old address after two months.
How Can I be Sure the USPS change-of-address Works Correctly?
After you’re done with the previous steps and submit the proper form, you’ll receive a validation letter from USPS on your current address so that USPS can make sure that you genuinely want to forward your mail to another address.
When USPS completes your request’s processing, they will notify you by a letter or a welcome package to your new address. This letter should contain a confirmation code that you will need to cancel the mail forwarding service or change it. So make sure you keep this code safe as you are going to need it later.
What If I Didn’t Get the Confirmation Letter?
If you’re sure you’ve filled out the proper forms before your move with a good time, but you haven’t heard back from USPS at your home. Then, you may want to visit your post office to follow up on your request’s status.
The USPS should help you with it, but you must bring your ID for identity verification.
What If I Didn’t Submit a USPS Mail Forwarding Request?
If you didn’t submit a USPS change-of-address request and moved to a new address, the USPS will collect your mail and store it for ten days. After that period, your mail will either be forwarded or returned to its sender. If the post office cannot return or deliver your mail, it may be dropped.
We hope you enjoyed this article. If so, you might enjoy these resources:
