I apologize if this has been discussed elsewhere or if it is available in FAQs and I missed it (moderators, if this belongs in an existing conversation please send me there )
For Postcrossers in the USA, do you put âUSAâ or spell out âUnited States of Americaâ for your address? I had it spelled out âUnited States of Americaâ from when I began Postcrossing in 2017 (not sure why I did that? I must have read that was the proper format?), then I changed it to simply âUSAâ sometime in 2021 and havenât noticed any problems with items not showing up. I made the change because:
it is less for people to squeeze on the postcard and
many (most!) of my postcards came addressed with âUSAâ even when my shared address had the full spelling of the country
Why am I asking this? I received a message from someone in Germany who recently tried to send me an envelope from a lottery and it was returned to them so I am trying to figure out what possibly could be the problem. The address I gave was complete:
FirstName LastName
House# StreetName
City, State 00000-0000 <âeven full zip!
USA
There are a number of reasons that it was returned. I had someone send me something and it was returned to them twice. I had them write out my address really neatly and the third time it arrived.
I also just registered an official card earlier today that was sent to me from Wisconsin on 13 April, then was canceled on 18 April in Baton Rouge, LA, then again in Baton Rouge, LA, on 20 April. SoâŚperhaps the USPS is just having some issues right now! lol
That is a great question - from the message it sounded like it was returned before it even left Germany, so not by the USPS? She was very nice in her message and said she would try to find out more from her post office, but I wanted to make sure it wasnât a mistake on my part causing the trouble! I will see if she finds out more and I will ask if it was returned by USPS or German post.
I have the full UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on my official Postcrossing address (if I remember correctly, it was a prompt when signing up), but on the forum Iâve always given USA. Some official card senders even abbreviate USA. I havenât had any issues that I know of.
I suppose if it did make it the the US it could be a handwriting issue, where some of the numbers are written differently in Europe? Though Iâve been impressed at what they have been able to deliver to me. Itâs an interesting conundrum
Yes! I think I had it in all caps spelled out like that, having followed the prompt. I was looking around on my profile to see if I could find anything about that again and didnât see anything. Maybe I should change my official back. That is good to know that you use USA for the forum without issues.
Hi, may I put a little post delivery problem to you? Yesterday a letter came back from USA with a yellow label âinsufficient address, unable to forwardâ and the word NIXIE. I canât understand, whatâs wrong with the address, because the recipient wrote it exatly so in a forum. Only a handwritten seven couldnât exactly be written the american way, but is was the house number and the guy lives there for 30 years, so the postman/woman should know him anyway. Did you have some ideas, what was going wrong here?
Hi, Alexander! Sorry to hear you are having postal trouble too! I googled NIXIE USPS and learned this:
A Nixie is a name given by the United States Postal Service to a piece of mail which is undeliverable as addressed. It is derived from ânixâ, English slang for the German nichts (ânothingâ), and â-ieâ, an item or a thing.
âinsufficient address, unable to forwardâ brought up this:
According to the definition set forth by USPS, âInsufficient Addressâ means that the mail or package is addressed without a proper zip code, apartment name, street number, box number, house number, route number, or with geographical subdivision of the city or the state. Thus the correct address is unknown. In short, there is something missing in the address that makes it difficult for the USPS to identify the delivery location correctly. And as a result, the mail couldnât be delivered.
Though, I will tell you in 2021 I sent a Christmas card to a friend who lives only about 15 miles away from me and the USPS sent it back to me with a Nixie label saying that the reason was that the house was VACANT ! Which was not true at all, I called my friend and they had no idea why that would have happened - they still lived there! So the USPS does make mistakes.
Can you take a picture of your addressed letter and PM the photo to the intended recipient so they can look and see if they notice anything amiss? Good luck - I hope you find a solution!
Is it possible to recipient made a typo when giving you the address? I know Iâve done that a couple times and thankfully it was caught. But SilverHareâs solution should cover that.
Thanks to booth of you. I found the address at another place, so I donât think there is a typo in. Contacting the recipient is a litte probleme because the letter should be a surprise. I think, I am printing out the adress and tape it onto a new envelope and try again.
@SilverHare I write USA even when somebody spells it out as âUnited States of Americaâ. The country only matters in the origin country. I think the problem here is something else, USPS returns mail sometimes for no reason.Thereâs a related discussion about this here
I write always United States of America, or United States of A. because postal worker told me once that USA isnât enough! It can be mixed up with other country. Tell me which other country has got this abbreviation?
I imagine you are talking about a wooden postcard you won in a lottery. Could it be that the envelope is considered to contain âcommercial valueâ? if so, it could require a form called CN22 as that item could be subjected to fees and taxes as itâs being sent from the EU to the USA. Itâs just an ideaâŚ
It was a different envelope/lottery that likely only contains flat paper items (I donât know what they are yetâŚcould be postcards, stickers, etcâŚprobably the usual stationery related items). Hopefully the sender can get some info from her post office if it was some sort of material categorization causing the problem.
I suppose writing UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is the way to go, then each individual sender can use their discretion about abbreviating to USA (like @Martin-CZE and @anon12838227 have different experiences with their postal systems about what will work or not)
Technically, weâre only allowed to send documents in a normal letter from Germany. Everything else, including blank postcards and stickers would have to be sent as a (much more expensive) parcel. If the items are flat, they should get through undetected, but you never know.
Then again, I think it would be indicated on the envelope if it was returned for missing postage.
Itâs still possible that it required CN22 declaration. Germany is in EU.
I donât like it when thereâs no reason the letter came back. They should put a sticker with an information on the envelope. In Poland, they do not do it only when there are not enough stamps. (Then the reason is obvious.) At least thatâs what my experience shows.
At my post office they accept postcards with a country name such as âUSâ or âUKâ. I can save time and not write âAâ . Just kidding. Ladies at the post office accept all legibly written addresses. Again - at least thatâs what my experience shows.
)
. Just kidding. Ladies at the post office accept all legibly written addresses. Again - at least thatâs what my experience shows.