How should I address an internaional package?

fire-stick

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
616
Location
Austin Indiana, USA
I've sent many in state packages.. Ive never sent an international one though..

Along with my address:

First Last
House # and Street Name
City State Zip code

And the other persons address

Is there any other information I should put?

Where do I put USA?

What About the other guys country where do I put that??

Thanks,

Fire-stick
 
Put the name on the back and adress on front and then country on separate envelope..

No postage needed...
























:crackup:

Just kidding!!!

We use the same system....:twothumbs
 
First Last
House # and Street Name
City State Zip code
Country
It's pretty straight forward. :)
Norm
 
Speaking for Canada you would have "name"/ "street address"/ "town or city"/ "prov."/ "Canada"/ "Postal Code"
The postal code can be after the province also.
Pretty much the same as your address is.
 
PM or e-mail the recipient and ask them exactly how to write their address. Each country has their particularities.

Other than that, just add "USA" to the last line of the return address.

If what you're mailing are not documents, you will have to fill out a customs form (green). They're available on-line or at the PO. Super easy to fill, just list what the package contains and the commercial value (if any).
 
The best way is to ask him write his address in english in his way, and email it to you.

Actually, you don't have to worry too much about it. If you don't get his way of writing address then write the address as you usually do in US. Just make sure you add USA at the end of your address, the name of country at the end of his address, and oh, don't forget the zipcode. They will figure out and deliever it w/o problem.

You need to fill a custom form (either CP72 for box, CR22 for small envelop). Go to your local post office, give your package and custom form to the clerk, pay the postage fee, and you're all set.
 
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Speaking for Canada you would have "name"/ "street address"/ "town or city"/ "prov."/ "Canada"/ "Postal Code"
The postal code can be after the province also.
Pretty much the same as your address is.
In Canada and the US all the sorting is done by computer based on the ZIP (+4 please) or postal code.

In letters the computer will look for a TYPED ZIP/postal code in the last item in the address or the right of the 2nd last line (I do not trust the computer to do the 2nd one properly).
For handwritten letters or where the computer can not locate the ZIP/Postal code (code not the last line in the address or the right of the 2nd last line) the letter is rerouted to a postal clerk to type the postal code (delay 1 day?).
For letters without the postal code the letter is routed to another clerk who looks up the postal code based on the address and types it in (delay 1 week?).
The computer will then print a bar code on the letter in not so invisible ink.

For parcels the clerk at the Post Office will type in the ZIP/Postal Code and out pops a barcode sticker which he/she will attach to the parcel. The computer will then sort by that barcode sticker, not by the address you have written on the parcel.

For a ZIP+4, Canadian Postal Code the computer will sort all the way to the bag for the block & side of street or for an apartment building. For ZIP without the +4 the computer will send the item to the nearest Post Office or Sorting Center where the item is sorted by hand (delay 1 day?)

In the olden days writing the address the proper way allow the clerk at each sorting stage to find the information needed quickly so speeding delivery. Country, state, town, street, street#, suite# from bottom to top, right to left.
Today the address is for backup re-sorting if the computer or the postal clerks typing in the postal codes goofs.
I have sent myself letters by simply TYPING:
Apt#
Postal Code

and it arrived in my mailbox the next day.

Be friends with the post office computer, not with your English teacher who may have learned how to address letters before the post office discovered computers.

Many countries do not have computerized ZIP/Postal code systems. For those the addressing should be done the proper old fashioned way or as provided by the recipient.
 
In Canada and the US all the sorting is done by computer based on the ZIP (+4 please) or postal code.

In letters the computer will look for a TYPED ZIP/postal code in the last item in the address or the right of the 2nd last line (I do not trust the computer to do the 2nd one properly).
For handwritten letters or where the computer can not locate the ZIP/Postal code (code not the last line in the address or the right of the 2nd last line) the letter is rerouted to a postal clerk to type the postal code (delay 1 day?).
For letters without the postal code the letter is routed to another clerk who looks up the postal code based on the address and types it in (delay 1 week?).
The computer will then print a bar code on the letter in not so invisible ink.
.

At least in the US the postal systems uses OCR technology on letter/flat mail. If it cannot read what has been printed/typed then an image of the piece gets sent to a data center where many hundreds of people sit 24hrs a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. They type in what the system needs to finish the piece off. Only rarely does mail get sorted by hand in the US now.
 
Ah, differences between national post address system, also known as the Pandora's box of the international post system.

Once upon a time the french pretty much set the standards for the international postal services but with the decline of the french empire came chaos and postal anarchy. But do not despair, the international postal community is not idle but trying to remedy the situation and an international ISO-standard is under development, see: http://metadata-standards.org/metad...773-08_rs1--upu_s42_postal_data--20041104.doc :green:

One aggravating circumstance is that not all countries use ZIP-codes, another that even in those where a ZIP-code is used this code is placed rather randomly in the adress (before , after, beneath or over town/city/district.....). The french are again trying to seize world postal power with the following proposal:

\Line 1\
[form of address] [qualification] [given name] \surname\
OR
\organization name\ [legal status]
[Line 2] [addressee role descriptor] [mailee role descriptor] [form of address] [qualification] [given name] [surname]
OR
[addressee role descriptor] [mailee role descriptor] \organisation name\ [legal status] [organisational unit]
[function]
OR
[floor] [door] [supplementary dispatch data]
\Line 3\ [wing] [floor] [door] [supplementary dispatch data]
OR
[building/construction type] [building/construction] [wing] [floor] [door] [supplementary delivery point data]
[Line 4] \street no. or plot\ [extension designation] [thoroughfare type] \thoroughfare name\
\Line 5\ \delivery service type\ \delivery service indicator\ [town]
[Line 6] \postcode\ \town\ [region] [district] [delivery service qualifier]
\Line 7\ \country\

Vive la France!

I think I should have become a postman when I had the chance in my youth, seems to be a field where bureaucratic endeavours can lead to a long and thrilling career
 
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