US address requirement (LPR)
 

So various airlines -- most recently AA -- keep demanding the address where I'll be staying in the US. I'm an LPR, and like US citizens, permanent residents are supposed to be exempt from this requirement. And this happens even though my LPR status is on file (as required for travel to the US.)

Perhaps I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill -- after all, USCIS has my address and far more on file, which I'm sure is accessible to every federal agency. And airlines all have my address from the credit card billing address. But do airlines deliberately impose this requirement where the law does not require it? There doesn't seem to be a way to not input this data, as forms will complain about being incomplete. And I've had check-in clerks from several airlines run into the same problem with their terminals if I attempt to check in at the airport.

I'm curious why this requirement for tourists, to be honest. Unlike LPRs and Citizens, we're likely to stay at multiple locations rather than just one, and yet can only provide one address. Logically, they should ask it of LPRs and Citizens, but not tourists. It's silly.

Put it down to laziness. Trying to figure out the US visa system with immigrant, non-immigrant, and dual intent visas and then the multitude of LSR once in the US, and then having to program the data entry system for them is simply not worth the effort compared to splitting it in two as "citizen" and "everyone else". It sucks, but it's not likely to change any time soon.

An address is irrelevent for US citizens since we cannot be denied re-entry into the US. It doesn't matter where we plan to go after we clear immigration and customs. It's in there for visitors since the idea is that if you don't know where you're staying, at least for the 1st night, then you might be planning on staying illegally once in.

In most countries the idea behind requiring an address is simply for tracking people down in the event of a communicable disease being subsequently reported. You'd be surprised how often the system gets used.

Requiring the address of all incoming travelers has little to do with admissibility. The CBP needs the address in case a traveler has to be contacted thereafter for any reason.

There generally is zero need for CBP to contact a US citizen once they clear Customs. If they do, there are plenty of databases they can use.

The question here is not why the US bothers to collect this information from arriving non-nationals (whether one is visiting is irrelevant), that is a given. The question here relates to LPR's, not citizens. Citizens may or may not reside in the US. LPR's pretty much must in order to retain that status.