[jess]

Our post office tells us that there is no international change of address form, and we just write very small on the regular change of address and fit the country in somewhere. Does this sound right to other Americans? It seems like there would be a form, but they had no idea.

Thanks!

J

[Howie]

That's what they told us and that's what we did, but we haven't received any mail yet. They said it would take about 8 weeks to take effect.

[Park City Partner]

Will they actually forward your mail internationally? Or do they just mark it return to sender with the updated address?

[Oregonkiwi]

https://hdusps.esecurecare.net/cgi-bin/hdusps.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=YkQD5I3i&p_lva=5128&p_faqid=6602&p_created=1106330771&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfc m93X2NudD00NSZwX3Byb2RzPTQ5LDAmcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PTE uNDkmcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJja F9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**

International Mail

* Express Mail®, Periodicals, Package Services, and Standard Mail™ items are not forwarded Internationally. In addition, First-Class and Priority Mail® items that contains a non-forwarding endorsement or appears to contain merchandise are not forwarded Internationally.
*

First-Class Mail® and Priority Mail® cards and unregistered letters are forwarded Internationally, for 12 months, as long as both of the following conditions are met:
1. The mailpiece does not contain a non-forwarding endorsement
2. The mailpiece does not appear to contain merchandise.
* The post office will advise publishers of a customer’s new address.
* All international mail that is not forwarded will be treated as RTS (returned to sender) or waste, depending on the class of mail.
.

[jess]

Thanks guys!!!

Ok so I'll fill out the regular form and wait eight long weeks. :(

Oregonkiwi thanks for the tip. A friend is mailing a dvd to us in a few weeks, and I thought it would forward without him having to bother with overseas postage, but I will make sure he sends it directly to the NZ post restante address.

I don't suppose anyone knows whether I can give USPS the post restante address in NZ for an international forwarding address and then update with the USPS again once we're in the rental house? I have not been able to get a clear answer on this at the post office. (It seems like maybe we can't , and I'd need to pay the post restante forwarding fee to keep receiving forwarded mail form the US.)

Thanks,
J

[Oregonkiwi]

Another option maybe..... have you got a friend or family member in the US who you could have your mail forwarded to? And then have that person mail a package of your mail to you every month or so. That's what we'll be doing - not that we'll be getting much mail once utilities are cancelled etc, but we'll still have a few magazine subscriptions running, so we'll change our address to my husband's parents' address, and then leave them money to mail our stuff to us in NZ. You can fit quite a bit in the flat rate Global Priority envelopes.

[Howie]

We set up a PO Box in Auckland before we moved here and that's the address we gave USPS.
One other thing to note - we had money owing to us from the phone company, rental company, etc and they refused to mail it outside the US. We're just asking them to mail it to a friend and then have him send us the cheques.

[Howie]

We have started to receive mail forwarded from the US to our Auckland PO Box. It took less than 4 weeks for the forwarding to begin.

[Smiler]

Jess

I'm not sure about the US forwarding but in the UK you can't update your forwarding address.

However it is only $7 to forward your post restante addressed mail forwarded to your new address for 3 months. Bargain.:nice1