Moving during AOS

I always see other fellow Aliens asking on forums if they can change addresses while going through the AOS process, and if so, what the delay is.  I don't know about specific corner cases, but this is what I can tell you: This Little Alien changed her address while waiting to be scheduled for an interview, and I know there was no delay involved because I got my Interview Notice about 1 week after USCIS sent me a letter acknowledging my Change in Address.

This Little Alien's AOS process took 188 days.  During this 188-day period, my landlord tried to increase rent by $250 per month because our 1-year lease was about to be up.  Since the Hubby and I were not as loaded as our landlord was implicitly requiring us to be to continue staying at where we were, we decided to move.  And because of where we ended up moving, the jurisdiction of our case changed from the San Bernardino USCIS Field Office to the LA USCIS Field Office.

On an unrelated side note, I was very happy to have moved from San Bernardino County back to Los Angeles County:

Anyway.  Here's what you need to fill out and do, if you're doing the I-485 and I-130 concurrently like I did:

1. 2 AR-11's, 1 pertaining to the I-485 for the beneficiary and 1 pertaining to the I-130 for the sponsor

2. I-865 for the sponsor (I know you don't have to until the sponsorship takes effect when the AOS is approved, but we wanted to play safe)

3. Call up the USCIS service center for both the I-485 and I-130 to notify them of the change in address

Slightly over a week after I first called up USCIS, my USCIS case status changed from "Testing & Interview" to "Initial Review" after USCIS registered the Change in Address (which freaked me out), and then changed back to "Testing & Interview" after a couple more days.  And then USCIS sent letters acknowledging the Change in Address to my new address about a week later.

According to my read on a transcript of a Q&A Session between the National Benefits Center (NBC) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), there should be no delay in processing times for the I-130/I-485 resulting from a change in address if you do it before your interview has been scheduled.  The transcript can be found here: http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Outreach/Notes%20from%20Previous%20Engagements/2013/May%202013/NBC-AILA-QA-2013-05-01.pdf.  In particular, "the NBC notifies applicants of the I-485 interview about six weeks prior to the scheduled date, and transfers the file to the appropriate USCIS field office approximately three weeks before the interview".

My guess is that the implication of that quote is that your case file doesn't have to jump between offices if you change your address before your interview is scheduled.  And I'm guessing the jump between offices (and the resulting shuffle in paperwork) is what would cause a delay, so since my file stayed at the NBC the entire time, there was no delay for me.

Moral of the story, yes you can move as long as your interview has not been scheduled, there was definitely no delay for me as a result.

That's all for today, my fellow Aliens!