New Immigrant U.S. Setup Planner
Build a private, step-by-step checklist for documents, health coverage, work, money, school, travel, and everyday setup.
Written and checked by the QueueCheck editorial team. Last checked September 25, 2026. How we verify information
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Read the full explanation without leaving QueueCheck
The planner links each task to a detailed QueueCheck guide. Official government pages remain attached as sources and action links, but you can understand the steps, choices, cautions, and documents here first.
Browse all new immigrant guides →How this planner works
You answer six short sets of questions about how you arrived, when, where you are living, and what you still need to set up. The planner turns those answers into an ordered checklist: what to do now, what has a real date attached, and what can wait. Nothing is sent anywhere. The plan is worked out in your browser and saved in your browser.
A few tasks carry a calculated date, and each one comes from an agency page that states the rule. USCIS says most people must report a change of address within 10 days of moving. SSA says to visit an office if a Social Security card has not arrived within three weeks of admission. USCIS says to ask for help if a Green Card has not arrived within 90 days of paying the immigrant fee, or within 90 days of entering when the fee was paid first. Where you have not given the planner the date those rules count from, it shows the rule and no date, rather than guessing.
What your plan can cover
- Green Card and Social Security
- Whether the USCIS Immigrant Fee still needs paying, when the 90-day card window starts for your situation, and when SSA says to go in about a card that has not arrived.
- Address and official records
- The 10-day address duty and its exceptions, a USCIS online account, and a plain reminder that updating your address with the Postal Service does not update it with USCIS.
- Health coverage and care
- Where to apply, what a Special Enrollment Period is, and how to find a community health centre that charges on a sliding scale.
- Work, money, and school
- Free public job services, the workplace rights that protect you, opening a bank account, credit basics, school enrolment, and child care directories.
- Travel and recordkeeping
- What to read before a long trip, and why keeping your own list of trips and addresses is worth starting on day one.
What the planner cannot decide
This is an organisation tool, not an adjudicator. It deliberately does not ask the questions that would be needed to answer any of the following, and it will route you to the agency or to qualified help instead.
- Whether you hold, or will hold, any immigration status.
- Whether a registration requirement applies to you.
- Whether you qualify for any benefit, or what a benefit means for a future immigration application.
- Your tax residency, filing status, or what you owe.
- Whether you are authorised to work, or which documents an employer must accept.
- Whether Selective Service registration applies to you.
- Whether travel is advisable, or whether an absence affected your residence.
- Whether you qualify for a health plan, Medicaid, CHIP, or any saving.
One change is worth naming directly. The public-charge regulations were rescinded by a rule effective 18 September 2026, and review is now more individualised. Older lists describing particular benefits as safe or not counted are out of date, so this planner carries none of them and will not tell you what any benefit means for your case.
How your privacy is protected
Your answers and your ticked tasks are stored in this browser under a single key and nowhere else. QueueCheck never receives them. There is no account, no sign-in, no email field, and no upload. The planner does not ask for an A-Number, a receipt number, a Social Security number, a passport number, a date of birth, or a street address, and there is nowhere to type one.
Nothing you answer appears in the page address, so a link you copy carries no part of your plan. Usage measurement is limited to which steps are reached and which task or source was opened, always as counts in ranges rather than exact values, and never including a date, a state, or your route. Read the privacy notice.
If your browser blocks storage, the planner still works for the session and says so rather than pretending to save. Start over deletes this planner's key and nothing else.
Official sources used
Every task links to the agency that sets the rule. Verified guidance was last reviewed on September 25, 2026; any source we could not fully read is labeled separately below.
- Settling in the U.S., USCIS
- Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants (M-618), USCISConfirmed as a live PDF download on 2026-09-25. The revision date inside the document was not read in this pass, so no sentence here quotes the guide.
- How to Change Your Address, USCIS
- Alien Registration Requirement, USCIS
- Pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee, USCIS
- USCIS Immigrant Fee: who pays, tracking your card, and moving after entry, USCIS
- USCIS Contact Center, USCIS
- Green Card, USCIS
- How to Create a USCIS Online Account, USCIS
- Social Security Numbers and Immigrant Visas, Social Security Administration
- What is Enumeration at Entry and how does it work?, Social Security Administration
- Social Security Numbers and Immigrant Visas: what you need to do, Social Security Administration
- Learn what documents you will need to get a Social Security Card, Social Security Administration
- Who needs to register, Selective Service SystemCould not be opened from the verification environment on 2026-09-25: the site's CloudFront distribution blocks requests from this country. The planner only routes to this page and makes no registration determination, so no calculated claim depends on it. Re-open from a U.S. connection before relying on its wording.
- Health coverage for lawfully present immigrants, HealthCare.gov
- Getting health coverage outside Open Enrollment, HealthCare.gov
- The Marketplace in your state, HealthCare.gov
- Find a Health Center, Health Resources and Services Administration
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
- State motor vehicle services, USAGov
- Local governments, USAGov
- Find government benefits and financial help, USAGov
- State social service agencies, USAGov
- Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility, 91 FR 45324, Department of Homeland Security
- Tax information and responsibilities for new immigrants to the United States, Internal Revenue Service
- Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, Internal Revenue Service
- Migrant Worker Rights, Department of Labor
- How to find a job, USAGov
- I-9 Central, USCIS
- Form I-9 and E-Verify, Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
- Equal Rights to Public Education Regardless of Immigration or Citizenship Status, Department of Education
- Understanding and Finding Child Care Resources, ChildCare.gov
- Find courses to help you learn English, USAGov
- GetBanked, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- The newcomer's guides to managing money, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Recognition and Accreditation Program roster, Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review
- Avoid Scams, USCIS
- International Travel as a Permanent Resident, USCIS
- Policy Manual, Volume 12, Part D, Chapter 3: Continuous Residence, USCIS
Get qualified immigration help
Two kinds of people may give you legal advice on immigration in the United States: a licensed attorney, and a representative accredited by the Department of Justice working for a recognised organisation. A notario is neither, whatever the sign outside says. QueueCheck does not recommend any provider and is not paid by any of them.