USCIS “Change of address” rip-off
As a resident alien I’m legally required to inform the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly INS) about any address change. Now that I’m settled in the new house and the post office finally recognizes my new address, I wanted to inform the USCIS as well.
Not knowing where to start I searched on Google for: ins address change. The top (sponsored) search result leads to this page. The site looks very official, using the same colors as the USCIS site and showing the same structure as the official .gov pages. However when you examine the content closer, you’ll find notices that say that this site is run by a non-government, independent entity. The site offers an “e-Book” for the address-change procedure and asks for $30 for the package.
I keep on searching and on the official USCIS site I find a note that says that there is no filing fee for the AR-11-address-change form. Even better, I see a notice on the pages that mentions a secure web site where the address change can be done online.
So those guys from the usimmigrationsupport.org site, bought a number of search key words from Google and appear as the first link for certain queries. They trap some of the Googlers and get money for services that should not cost a penny. Smart and sad at the same time.
I guess, you used ≈$30 of your time when searching for a real site
Haha - but I still have the $30 in my pocket, which means I did not spend it