How to Set Up Mail Forwarding (and How Long It Lasts)

Published Read 8 min read

You filed your change of address, but the bills, letters, and the occasional check are still arriving at your old mailbox. Mail forwarding is what closes that gap. It tells the Postal Service to scoop up mail addressed to your old home and reroute it to the new one while you work through the longer job of telling each sender directly. The catch most people miss is that forwarding is not permanent and does not cover every kind of mail. Knowing what gets forwarded, what gets dropped, and exactly how long the clock runs is what keeps an important letter from quietly vanishing a few months after you settle in.

How Mail Forwarding Works After You File a Change of Address

Forwarding isn’t a separate product you sign up for on its own. It’s the action your Change of Address (COA) order triggers. When you submit a permanent or temporary COA so your mail is rerouted to the new address, the Postal Service begins intercepting mail bound for your old address and sending it on to you. For the mechanics of filing that COA itself, including the methods and the small online identity-verification fee, see our guide on changing your address with USPS (post 135). This post picks up where that one leaves off: once the order is in, what actually happens to your mail.

Forwarding does not start the instant you hit submit. The Postal Service notes that forwarding may begin within three business days of your request, but advises allowing up to two weeks for it to fully kick in. That lag matters for timing. If you file too late, a stretch of mail can slip through to the old address before the order takes hold, which is one reason to put your COA in a couple of weeks ahead of your move when you can. During that window, a quick heads-up to whoever moves in after you, or to your old landlord, can help recover anything that arrives early.

One more framing point: a forwarding order changes your address only with the Post Office. It does not update your address with banks, government agencies, or any company that mails you. Forwarding buys you time to do that work; it does not do the work for you. More on that in the final section.

What Gets Forwarded and What Doesn’t (Mail Class by Class)

Not all mail is treated the same, and this is where people get tripped up. Whether a piece follows you depends on its mail class.

Forwarded for free:

  • First-Class Mail. Personal letters, most bills, statements, checks, and cards. This is the everyday mail that follows you automatically at no charge.
  • Periodicals. Newspapers, magazines, and newsletters are forwarded for free, but only for a limited window (see the next paragraph).
  • Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, and USPS Ground Advantage. These are forwarded for free as well.

Forwarded, but you pay the cost:

  • Media Mail. Items sent by Media Mail are forwarded, but you have to pay the shipping cost from your local Post Office to your new address.

Not forwarded:

  • USPS Marketing Mail. Advertising mail, circulars, and most bulk promotional pieces are not forwarded at all. If you want to keep getting catalogs or store mailers, you have to update your address with those senders directly.

Periodicals deserve a closer look because their clock is much shorter than the rest. Magazines and newspapers are forwarded free of charge for only about 60 days after your change of address takes effect. After that window, the Postal Service notifies the publisher of your new address, and copies stop being forwarded. So if you want your subscriptions to keep arriving without interruption, the reliable fix is to log in to each publisher’s account and change your address there, rather than leaning on forwarding to do it for you.

Packages are a separate world. USPS handles its own package classes as described above, but private carriers like UPS and FedEx do not follow a USPS forwarding order at all. If you have shipments coming through those carriers, you redirect or update the address through that carrier’s own account or system, not through the Post Office.

Permanent vs. Temporary Forwarding and How Long Each Lasts

When you file your COA, you choose between a permanent and a temporary move, and the choice sets how long your mail follows you.

Permanent forwarding is for a move with no planned return to the old address. Standard forwarding of First-Class Mail under a permanent COA runs for 12 months. That year is meant to be a bridge, not a long-term arrangement, which is why the periodical window is so much shorter and why marketing mail is excluded entirely.

Temporary forwarding is built for a move of 15 days up to a year, such as a semester away at school, a seasonal stay, or time spent with family. A temporary order forwards your mail for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of about six months at a time. If your temporary stay runs longer, you can extend the temporary order at the end of that six-month period, but the total temporary forwarding time cannot exceed 12 months. When a temporary order ends, your mail simply goes back to your original address, which is the point of choosing temporary in the first place.

A practical way to decide: if you’re not coming back, choose permanent. If you’ll return to the old address and want mail waiting for you there when you do, choose temporary. Durations and the exact rules can change, so confirm the current windows on USPS.com when you file.

Extending, Editing, or Ending Forwarding

Twelve months sounds like plenty, but address updates have a way of slipping. If you reach the end of standard forwarding and still have stragglers, you have options beyond letting the order expire.

Extended Mail Forwarding is a paid add-on that keeps your First-Class Mail coming after the standard period ends. You can purchase extensions in blocks of 6, 12, or 18 additional months, with 18 months being the maximum extension available. Because it’s a paid service and the price and rules can change, check the current cost and terms on USPS.com before you commit.

Premium Forwarding Service Residential (PFS-R) works differently and is worth knowing about if you’re away temporarily and want everything in one place. Instead of pieces trickling to you one at a time, your local Post Office gathers your mail and ships it to you once a week by Priority Mail. It bundles First-Class Mail, periodicals, and marketing notices into that weekly shipment, with some package classes rerouted as they arrive. PFS-R is a paid, opt-in service with an enrollment fee plus a weekly charge, and you can add or remove weeks as your plans shift. Confirm the current fees and exact terms on USPS.com, since this service costs noticeably more than standard forwarding.

You can also edit or cancel an existing order. If you mistyped your new address, need to change the dates, or filed a forwarding order you no longer want, you can update or cancel it through the same change-of-address system you used to file it. Keep the confirmation number from your original request handy, since you’ll typically need it to make changes.

Why Forwarding Is a Bridge, Not a Substitute for Updating Senders

It’s tempting to treat a forwarding order as a permanent solution and move on. Resist that. Forwarding is designed as a temporary bridge, and every limit covered above is a reminder of why. First-Class Mail follows you for about a year. Periodicals stop after roughly two months. Marketing mail never forwards at all. And a forwarding order changes your address only with the Post Office, not with the people and institutions actually sending you mail.

The Postal Service is explicit on this point: a change of address order updates your mailing address with the Post Office, but you must still update government agencies and companies yourself. That means notifying your bank, your insurers, the IRS, your employer, your state agencies, and anyone else who mails you, on their own systems. For a complete, organized rundown of everyone who needs your new address, see our who-to-notify checklist (post 136), which points you to the specific how-to for each one.

Use forwarding for what it’s good at: catching the mail you’d otherwise miss while you methodically update each sender. Treat the 12-month window as a countdown, work through your notify list well before it runs out, and by the time forwarding expires there should be little left for it to catch. That’s the sign you’ve done it right, the forwarded pile slowly shrinking to nothing because the real address change has caught up.

This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. USPS policies, durations, and fees can change, so confirm the current rules and pricing on USPS.com before you file or pay for any service.

Sources

  • USPS, “Standard Forward Mail & Change of Address” (manage/forward.htm). https://www.usps.com/manage/forward.htm (mail classes forwarded free vs. paid vs. not forwarded; Media Mail and USPS Marketing Mail handling; 12-month standard duration; temporary move 15 days to 1 year; forwarding begins within 3 business days, allow up to 2 weeks; 6/12/18-month extensions, 18-month maximum; forwarding only changes your address with the Post Office)
  • USPS, “Premium Forwarding Services” (manage/forward-premium.htm). https://www.usps.com/manage/forward-premium.htm (Premium Forwarding Service Residential: weekly Priority Mail shipment; classes included; paid enrollment plus weekly fee; add or remove weeks)
  • USPS FAQ, “Mail Forwarding Options”. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Mail-Forwarding-Options (temporary minimum two weeks / maximum six months, extend at six months, total not to exceed 12 months; periodicals forwarded free for 60 days, then publisher notified)
  • USPS FAQ, “Extended Mail Forwarding”. https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Extended-Mail-Forwarding (paid extension of First-Class Mail forwarding beyond the standard period)

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