Can Mom Transfer Her Section 8 Voucher to Another State? (2026)

In most cases, yes: federal portability rules let Mom transfer her Section 8 voucher to another state, anywhere in the U.S. that a housing agency runs a voucher program.1 If she's getting frailer and you want her closer, that means she usually doesn't have to start over on a new waiting list, because the receiving agency's waiting list isn't used for a family that ports in.2 Whether she can move right now depends on a few things: whether she already rents with her voucher or is still a new applicant, what her lease allows, and how the housing agency in your area sets its own rules.

In This Guide

• Can Mom Transfer Her Section 8 Voucher to Another State Right Now?
• How to Port a Section 8 Voucher, Step by Step
• What Changes When Mom Transfers Her Section 8 Voucher to Another State
• When a Portability Move Can Be Refused, and What to Do
• Costs and Time Limits to Plan For
• Special Situations
• Finding a Landlord in the New City
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Can Mom Transfer Her Section 8 Voucher to Another State Right Now?

Moving a voucher from one housing agency's area to another is called portability, and the rules for it are in federal regulations at 24 CFR 982.353, 982.354 and 982.355, with step-by-step guidance in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidebook chapter on moves and portability. The Housing Choice Voucher program is run locally by about 2,000 public housing agencies, so the national rules set the floor and each agency fills in some details in its own policies.3,1 Four questions decide whether Mom can start a move today.

Is she a participant or a new applicant?

A participant is a family already renting a unit with its voucher. An applicant is a family that has been selected from a waiting list but hasn't yet leased a unit under a voucher contract. The difference decides whether the income test applies: a new applicant must meet the income limits of the area where she first leases with the voucher, while a participant isn't re-tested for income when she ports.1 The 12-month residency rule works differently. It runs for the first 12 months after a nonresident family is admitted to the program, so it can still bind a family that has already leased a unit, as the next section explains.1 If Mom has been living in her apartment with the voucher for years, she is a participant and well past that first year.

Does the 12-month nonresident rule apply to her?

You may have read that every new voucher holder must wait 12 months before moving. The regulation is narrower than that. Under 24 CFR 982.353, a family is a nonresident applicant if neither the head of household nor the spouse had a legal residence in the issuing agency's area when the family first applied to that agency, and residency is judged as of that first application, not as of the day the family reached the top of the list. For the 12 months after a nonresident applicant family is admitted, it can lease anywhere in the issuing agency's area but has no right to port, although the agency may choose to allow it.1

HUD's guidebook adds that an agency may allow these moves in some cases, for example for a job, must write its exceptions into its administrative plan, and may choose not to impose the one-year requirement at all. A family whose head of household or spouse lived in the agency's area when it applied must be allowed to port if every other portability requirement is met.1 So if Mom applied where she lives now, the 12-month rule doesn't hold her back.

Does her lease let her leave now?

A participant family may move with continued assistance when its lease has ended (including by mutual agreement with the landlord), when the landlord has given a notice to vacate or started an eviction, or when the tenant has given notice to end the lease where the tenant has a right to do so.1 HUD's guidebook says participants are generally eligible to port as long as the move doesn't violate the lease, with some exceptions, and follows the agency's policies on moves.1 Read Mom's lease for how and when she can give notice before anyone signs anything in the new city.

The regulation lets a housing agency adopt two optional limits: no move during the initial lease term, and no more than one move in any one-year period. These are agency policies, not national rules, so ask Mom's agency whether it has adopted either one.1

Has she moved out in violation of the lease?

The issuing agency must not provide portable assistance for a participant family that has moved out of its assisted unit in violation of the lease, except as the regulation provides.1 This is the costly mistake to avoid. Breaking the lease to move quickly can mean Mom arrives in your city without her voucher, so settle the lease timing with her landlord and her agency first.

How to Port a Section 8 Voucher, Step by Step

HUD's guidebook lays out the order of a portability move, and the steps below follow it.1 You can make the calls with Mom, but some steps belong to the agencies and not to your family.

1. Tell her housing agency and her landlord. Mom must notify both her current housing agency and her landlord before moving out. When the new unit is outside the agency's area, her notice to the agency must name the area she wants to move to.1
2. Pick the receiving agency if there's a choice. If more than one housing agency serves your area, the family chooses which one will receive the voucher, or the issuing agency picks if the family prefers not to.2
3. Let the agencies work out payment. The issuing agency, not your family, contacts the receiving agency to learn whether it will bill the issuing agency for Mom's assistance or absorb her into its own program.1
4. Contact the receiving agency promptly. The family is responsible for promptly contacting the receiving agency and following its procedures for incoming families. Failing to comply may lead to denial or termination of the receiving agency's voucher, so call early and keep every appointment.2
5. Get the new voucher. The receiving agency issues Mom a voucher of its own. HUD expects the receiving agency to issue its voucher within two weeks of receiving the issuing agency's paperwork (form HUD-52665 and supporting documents), as long as the information is in order, the family has made contact and the family follows the receiving agency's procedures.2
6. Find a unit and submit the request for tenancy approval. Mom submits a request for tenancy approval for the unit she chooses during the term of the receiving agency's voucher.1
7. Wait for inspection and rent approval, then move. The guidebook tells families to allow time for the receiving agency's rent approval and inspection of the unit before the move.1

If the receiving agency decides to do a new income reexamination for a current participant, it may not delay issuing the voucher or approving a unit because of it.2

What Changes When Mom Transfers Her Section 8 Voucher to Another State

The voucher keeps paying, but it starts following the receiving agency's rules. These changes are the part families are least prepared for, so it helps to know ahead of time what the new agency decides on its own.

Bedroom size and payment standard

The receiving agency administers the voucher under its own policies. The receiving agency decides the family unit size, meaning the number of bedrooms on the voucher, using its own subsidy standards, and it calculates the housing assistance payment the same way it does for every other family in its program.2 HUD's guidebook says the issuing agency must explain to a family that elects to port how differences in the receiving agency's screening criteria, subsidy standards and payment standards may affect its assistance.2 Ask Mom's current agency for that explanation, and ask the receiving agency directly what bedroom size she'll get. If she needs a bedroom for a caregiver, our guide to a live-in aide in HUD housing explains how that request works.

Mom's share of the rent

In the voucher program, the family generally pays 30% of its adjusted monthly income when the rent is at or below the payment standard. When an agency approves a family's first lease in a unit whose gross rent is above the payment standard, the family's share can't exceed 40% of adjusted monthly income at that point.3 Because payment standards are set by each agency from local rents, the same apartment budget can work in one city and fall short in another. For how medical expenses and age can lower a senior's counted income, see our guide to how HUD calculates senior rent.

Screening and the waiting list

The receiving agency's waiting list isn't used for a porting family, and its preferences for choosing among applicants don't apply to her.2 The receiving agency can still screen her, though. HUD's guidebook says a receiving agency may, without prior HUD approval, apply its own denial or termination policies to a portability family, such as a policy on evictions from federally assisted housing in the last 5 years.2

Income limits

HUD sets income limits as a percentage of each area's median income: the low-income limit at 80% and the very-low-income limit at 50% of the median for the county or metro area, adjusted for family size. Because those limits differ by area, a household can be eligible at one housing agency and not at another.4 That gap matters only for a family that hasn't leased up yet, as explained under special situations below.1

When a Portability Move Can Be Refused, and What to Do

Under 24 CFR 982.355, the receiving agency must administer the family's assistance. A receiving agency can't refuse incoming portable families or send them to a neighboring agency, and HUD's guidebook says it can't have a policy of turning a family away because a set number of days isn't left on the issuing agency's voucher.2 HUD can excuse an agency from accepting portable families, for example in a declared disaster area, but only with HUD's written approval, and the guidebook says those requests are meant for extreme circumstances.2 Even so, a move can be refused in two main ways, and the family has a way to push back.

The old agency says it can't afford the move

Under 24 CFR 982.354, a housing agency may deny a family permission to move if it doesn't have enough funding for continued assistance. HUD's guidebook says an agency must not deny a portability move for that reason unless all three of these are true: the move is to a higher-cost area, where the subsidy would be higher because of the receiving agency's payment or subsidy standards; the receiving agency isn't absorbing the voucher; and the agency would otherwise be unable to avoid terminating current participants during the year to stay within its budget.5

An agency may not deny a portability move for insufficient funding once the receiving agency has confirmed it will absorb the family. An agency that denies moves to higher-cost units for funding reasons must notify its local HUD office in writing within 10 business days. And if an agency approves a move and then runs short, it can rescind the voucher only if Mom could stay in her current unit; if she has already moved out, the agency must let her lease a new unit.5 If funding is the reason given, ask whether the receiving agency in your area would absorb her voucher, since that takes the funding question off the table.

Either agency applies its screening rules

Either the issuing or the receiving agency may deny or terminate a family's assistance at any time on the program's regulatory grounds, and a receiving agency may apply its own denial policies, either referring the family back to the issuing agency or ending its participation.2

Asking for a hearing or review

When a receiving agency takes action against a porting family, it must give the family the chance to request an informal hearing if it is a participant, or an informal review if it is an applicant. The issuing agency may still help the family in its own area or let it port to a different receiving agency.2 Ask for any denial in writing so you know which rule the agency is relying on and how long Mom has to request the hearing or review.

Costs and Time Limits to Plan For

HUD's guidebook advises families to plan for living expenses during the move, security deposits and moving costs, and to allow time for appointments with the receiving agency, inspection of the unit and rent approval.1 Budget for them before Mom gives notice on her current lease.

The rules set time limits for individual steps of the move, and those are the dates to plan the calendar around:

Special Situations

Mom has a project-based voucher

A project-based voucher works differently from the tenant-based voucher most people mean by Section 8. HUD's guidebook explains that a tenant-based voucher's subsidy follows the family, while a project-based voucher's subsidy stays with the unit. A family in a project-based unit can switch to the tenant-based program and port only after one year of assistance in that unit, with some restrictions.1 If Mom's building is the one holding the subsidy, ask its management and the housing agency how to request a tenant-based voucher.

A HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly building is a separate program again. HUD funds the property itself, and the property's Project Rental Assistance Contract covers operating costs beyond the tenant's share of the rent, so that help is tied to the building rather than to a voucher Mom holds.7 Our guide to affordable senior housing explains how Section 202 differs from the voucher program.

Mom is still on a waiting list, or just got her voucher

A new applicant who uses portability to lease a first unit in another agency's area must be income-eligible under the receiving agency's income limits, and HUD's guidebook says agencies must deny the move for an applicant who isn't.1 The 12-month nonresident rule may also apply if Mom applied somewhere she didn't live, and it keeps applying for her first 12 months after admission, even once she has leased a unit.1

Another route is to apply in your city now. HUD says you don't need to live in a jurisdiction to apply there and may need to join several agencies' waiting lists because of high demand, although an agency may require a family that lived outside its area when it applied to live there for the first 12 months of assistance.3 Our guide to whether seniors get priority on Section 8 waiting lists explains how agencies rank applicants.

Moving away from domestic violence or sexual assault

The optional limits on moves during the initial lease term or more than once a year, and the 12-month nonresident limit, don't apply when a family member is or has been a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking and the move is needed to protect that person's health or safety. The optional move limits and the 12-month nonresident limit also don't apply when a family member was sexually assaulted on the premises in the 90 calendar days before the request to move.1 HUD's guidebook also lists reasonable accommodation among the exceptions to move limits.1

A hospital stay in the middle of the move

If Mom lands in the hospital or a rehab facility before the move is done, her current agency's absence rules still apply. A voucher family may be absent from its unit only as long as the agency's plan allows, and never for more than 180 consecutive days, and the family must promptly tell the agency about an absence.6 Our guide to what a nursing home stay means for Section 8 covers this in detail. If her care needs are changing, it may also help to read about using a Section 8 voucher in assisted living before choosing a unit.

Finding a Landlord in the New City

Start looking for a unit as soon as the receiving agency tells Mom her bedroom size and payment standard, because she has to submit a request for tenancy approval during the term of the receiving agency's voucher.1 Ask the receiving agency whether it keeps a list of available units or landlords who rent to voucher holders. If Mom needs a wheelchair-accessible or ground-floor unit, see our guide to requesting an accessible unit in HUD housing.

One group of buildings has a federal rule. Under the tax code, a building that receives the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit must operate under an agreement with the state housing credit agency that prohibits refusing to lease to someone because they hold a Section 8 voucher.8 Our guide to tax credit (LIHTC) senior apartments explains how to find these buildings and what rent they charge.

Learn More

Find personalized help planning your parent's Section 8 voucher move closer to family at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.