I've been working/living abroad for the past 4 years, and e.g. on my US tax returns I put only my foreign address (since to my understanding that's the right way to fill them out). I've had more than one overseas address in this time, and I recently moved again (still a non-US address).
However, my driver's license address and credit card/bank account billing addresses are what I consider my permanent address in the US, which is my parents' address/where I've lived most of my life/the state I was born in/where I go when I go home/where I'd consider myself living if I were in America.
Usually when I apply for stuff involving forms (that is, not when I'm just buying products), I use my permanent address as my residential/mailing address, except in rare situations. For COVID relief and voting stuff, for example, I think I put my overseas address so that I would get it ASAP. Either way, if something is important, my parents will often forward it to me after I have it sent to my permanent (US) address. This has all been well and good up to now, and banks have been fine with it even when I've told them about it, and it all seems pretty kosher to me.
However, now I'm up for TSA Precheck renewal in the next few months, and it's asking if I've lived at my residential address for more than 5 years, and if my residential and mailing addresses are the same. While there's a small chance I actually will move back home to my permanent/US address before I renew, it's frankly unlikely.
Normally I'd be inclined to just assume that all of these refer to my permanent US address, but in my situation, am I supposed to answer no to the 5-year question and then write my non-US addresses, even though in many ways I DO still live at my US address?
If I say I haven't lived at my residential address for 5 years, and it's different from my mailing one, I have to put my "Residential Address" and my "Previous Address" in addition to my "Mailing Address." What is my "Previous Address" here? Is it my permanent US address? Or is it my previous foreign address? Is "Residential Address" my current foreign address?
What about my permanent US address? It doesn't really make sense to me to not write that anywhere except perhaps as my mailing address. After all, my passport only has the state I was born in, not any permanent US address information, so I feel like I need to provide that somewhere. Should I just assume that that's the actual residential address they're talking about and that they don't even care about non-US addresses?
Basically, there's no explanation for what address they really want, so to make things simple I'm leaning towards just putting my US address for everything (and saying I've lived there for 5+ years, which is true), and calling it a day. Is that fine? Does it matter either way? If I put non-US addresses down for certain fields will that complicate my renewal? I want to be able to renew completely online since I'm out of the country, so I'd rather not needlessly complicate anything here. If it's not fine, and my "Residential Address" should be my overseas/non-US address, then what is my "Previous Address?"
