How to Change Your Address in Canada

The short answer

There is no single address change in Canada. No department tells the others for you, so a move means a round of separate notifications, and the order matters. Set up Canada Post Mail Forwarding before moving day, then update the CRA, then Service Canada, then your provincial driver's licence and health card, then everyone else — bank, employer, insurer, utilities, and subscriptions. Forwarding is the safety net that catches what you miss; it is not a replacement for telling anyone.

The single most expensive mistake is assuming one update covers the rest. The CRA says so explicitly: it will not share your change of address with other government departments. If you only update your tax file, your benefits, your licence, and your health card still show the old address.

Step 1: Canada Post Mail Forwarding, before moving day

Buy Mail Forwarding for moves online or at any post office. You need a Canada Post account, and if you buy in person, government-issued photo identification. Bought online, Canada Post confirms your identity through an authentication process using your credit card information; if that check cannot confirm you, you finish the order at a post office with your barcode and photo identification.

Timing is the reason this step comes first. A residential service can start as early as five business days after purchase, so buying it on moving day leaves a gap in which mail still goes to the old address. Buy it at least a week before the move where you can.

For a move, Canada Post offers two terms: 4 months or 12 months. The 12-month option is the recommended one, because it catches annual or infrequent mail — tax documents, licence renewals, financial statements, membership renewals — that a 4-month term would miss. Before the service expires, you can extend it for another 4 or 12 months. Put the expiry date in your calendar now; an expired forwarding service quietly stops protecting you.

Step 2: the CRA, in My Account

Tell the CRA your new address as soon as possible after the move, so benefit payments and correspondence reach you and so the CRA can validate your identity when you call. The fastest route is online: sign in to your CRA account, select your Individual account to reach My Account, go to Profile, then Contact information, then Edit, and update your address. An online change takes effect immediately, with no wait time.

If you cannot sign in — for example, because your phone number changed and you cannot receive a multi-factor authentication passcode — update by phone instead. Mail and your tax return are also routes for an address change, but online is the one that is immediate. If you are changing an address for someone else, including a spouse or family member, you must be their legal representative and use Represent a Client; you cannot simply edit their file from your own account.

One more CRA point worth knowing: if you moved for work, you may be eligible to claim some moving expenses. That is a tax question for your return, not part of the address change itself, but it is worth flagging before you throw out the moving receipts.

Step 3: Service Canada, benefit by benefit

Service Canada is not one update either — it depends on which benefit you receive.

If you receive Old Age Security or the Canadian Dental Care Plan, you can change your address directly in My Service Canada Account. For Old Age Security, sign in to My Service Canada Account, go to your Old Age Security dashboard, select Profile, then choose Manage address information. You can also ask for that update to be shared with the Canada Pension Plan. Note that you may first need to activate notifications and alerts for your Old Age Security account, which is a one-time step done by phone or at a Service Canada location.

If you receive Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, or the Canada Disability Benefit, you cannot change your information in My Service Canada Account at this time. Service Canada is explicit about this. For those benefits, use one of the other routes: request a callback, contact the call centre, or go to a Service Canada office in person.

If you receive Employment Insurance and you have moved to a new province or territory, there is a second update inside the account: on your My Service Canada Account dashboard, select Employment Insurance benefits, then Update my personal information, then Province of residence. Updating your mailing address alone does not update your province of residence, and you need the province right to keep accessing your claim information online.

Step 4: your province or territory — licence and health card

Driver's licences and health cards are provincial and territorial, not federal, and this guide deliberately gives no single deadline or fee for them: each province and territory sets its own. What does not change is the task — go to your new province or territory's official licensing and health issuer promptly after the move and follow its process for a new resident. If you moved within the same province, update the address on your existing licence and health card through that province's channel.

Do this step before the second wave, not after. Your licence is the photo identification most other organisations ask for, and a licence showing an old address creates friction everywhere from the bank counter to the doctor's office. Get the provincial cards right first, and the rest of the list gets easier.

Moving provinces: tell both health plans

If your move crosses a provincial or territorial border, health coverage needs two notifications that the steps above do not cover. Tell your old province or territory's health insurance plan that you are moving, and register with the new province or territory's plan as soon as you arrive. The Government of Canada states the handoff plainly: you continue to be covered by your home province or territory for 3 months, and — provided you have registered in the new province or territory — coverage begins after that period. Those two notifications are what make the handoff work: if you never tell the old plan you left, or never register in the new one, the gap the rule is meant to prevent can still happen. Keep your old health card until the new coverage starts, and ask the new plan for the exact start date rather than assuming it.

Step 5: the second wave — everyone who pays you or mails you

Once the government updates are done, work through a checklist of every organisation that holds your address. The usual list: your bank and credit card issuers, your employer and payroll, your insurer, your utilities and phone provider, your subscriptions and memberships, your doctor, dentist, and pharmacy, your children's school, and your voter registration through Elections Canada. Canada's own change-of-address hub lists the federal services in one place, but you still have to complete each organisation's own process — the hub points you there, it does not update them for you.

Be methodical rather than fast. Open your last two months of mail and statements — paper and email — and turn every sender into a checklist item. The senders people most often forget are the infrequent ones: the insurer that writes once a year, the professional association, the loyalty programme, the charity with the annual receipt. Those are exactly the senders a 12-month forwarding term is designed to catch.

Step 6: confirm, watch, and extend

A move is not finished when the forms are filed; it is finished when the confirmations check out. Verify that the CRA shows the new address in My Account, that Service Canada shows it for each benefit, and that your new provincial cards carry the new address. Then watch the forwarded mail for a few weeks. Every forwarded item is a sender you missed — notify them directly and cross them off.

Finally, diary the forwarding expiry. If mail is still being forwarded near the end of the term, extend it for another 4 or 12 months before it expires, and keep notifying senders until nothing arrives forwarded anymore. When a full month passes with no forwarded mail, the move is genuinely done.

Sources

• Canada Post, Forward mail when you move or relocate — Mail Forwarding for moves in 4-month or 12-month terms; residential service can start as early as 5 days after purchase (3 days if bought at a post office); extendable before expiry; parcels are not forwarded.
• Canada Revenue Agency, Change your address — online change in My Account takes effect immediately; the CRA will not share your change of address with other government departments; Represent a Client for someone else's file; phone (same day) and mail (Form RC325, 4 to 6 weeks) routes; moving expenses.
• Government of Canada, Change your address with the Government of Canada — the federal change-of-address hub: your new address is not shared automatically because government systems are not connected; each department must be updated separately; lists Service Canada programs, CRA, Elections Canada voter registration, health cards and driver's licences as provincial.
• Service Canada, Change your personal information — OAS and Canadian Dental Care Plan can be changed directly in My Service Canada Account; for EI, CPP and CDB, you cannot use My Service Canada Account at this time — request a callback, go in person, or contact a call centre.
• Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Insurance services in My Service Canada Account — EI mailing address or telephone number changed by callback, call centre, or in person; if you moved to a new province or territory, update Province of residence in MSCA to keep accessing your claim information online.
• Employment and Social Development Canada, Old Age Security — While receiving OAS — to update direct deposit and contact information in MSCA you must first call 1-800-277-9914 to enable the feature; you only need to do this once.
• Health Canada, How publicly funded health care coverage works — when moving to another province or territory, tell your old plan and register with the new one; you stay covered by your home province or territory for 3 months, and coverage begins after that period provided you have registered.
• Elections Canada, Frequently Asked Questions — E-Registration — if you moved recently, update your home or mailing address through the online voter registration service; if you cannot update online, request a form by mail outside an election, or register in person at a local Elections Canada office once an election is called.

Related guides: how to register a sole proprietorship and GST/HST in Canada.