INS Confirms Its Enforcement Of Change Of Address Provisions

As part of its effort to implement a related section of the law requiring fingerprinting and registration of aliens (see GT Web update), INS officials confirmed at the annual conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association that the agency will enforce the requirement that all aliens notify it of changes of address in the United States.

Section 265 of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires all aliens living in the United States to notify the AG in writing of a change of address within 10 days of the change. Section 266 provides for both criminal and monetary penalties—upon conviction of a failure to notify of the address change, an alien can be fined up to $200 or imprisoned for 30 days, or both. However, the law also provides that the alien can be removed from the US for failure to notify of an address change, unless the alien can establish that the failure was not willful or was reasonably excusable. The requirement lasts until naturalization.

The appropriate method for notifying the INS of a change of address depends upon the status of the alien. If a nonimmigrant has an application pending with the Service, he or she should advise the office where it is pending of the address change using the preferred method of that office. If no case is pending, the nonimmigrant should use Form AR-11, available from GT or on the INS website. The AR-11 includes the address to which the form should be sent. All permanent residents must notify INS of changes of address using Form AR-11.

Foreign nationals are advised to discuss this situation with their attorneys.

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