# Do I need a US address



## Jack Duf

Hi, I am retired and have been living half the year in the US and half the year in France, where I worked for many years as a journalist. I am now thinking about selling my apartment in Florida and living in France full time.
I understand the issues to do with health care and how Medicare does not work abroad. I am just wondering if there might be other problems or issues I have not considered in not having a permanent US address. 
If anyone has thoughts or experiences to share I would greatly appreciate it. 
Thanks and best regards, Jack


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## Bevdeforges

There are varying takes on the "need" for a US address (generally speaking, they are talking about a mailing address, not necessarily a "permanent" address) - though most often this is in connection with financial matters: banks, investment accounts, etc. Depending on the particular situation, you may well be able to get by with using a friend or family member as a "mail drop" and there are services available in the US that will receive mail for you and pass on important stuff to you by e-mail, fax or periodically forwarding the actual mailings to you. For other purposes, you may find you need a US phone number - though again, you can sometimes manage using a friend or family member's number (obviously, with their permission), and there are ways to use a variety of paid services to maintain a US phone number.

Depending on your ties to the US, you may also find that you can get by perfectly well without a US address or phone number.


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## Ronin76

I've been an expat for close to 30 years. For a long time I had mail drop services which forwarded my mail but too often I found that I couldn't rely on the staff to sort important mail from spam. I was paying good money to have them forward useless catalogs and sometimes even other people's mis-delivered mail.

Recently I found a mail box system which gives me a physical address and sends me, via e-mail, a scan of any mail received. I have the option of holding, forwarding, throwing away, or even shredding each letter. There are actually a few services like this - Google can show you.


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