I’m from australia. I’m writing the US address on the address labels I usually use to send parcels within Australia. Australia only has 4 digit postcodes whereas the US has 9 digit postcodes. The address labels only have 4 squares in the bottom right corner for the postcode. That’s why I couldn’t write the postcode next to Mississipi. I had to write the postcode next to the suburb.
Surely any post office staff member will see the address below and still able to send it to the correct address?
The alternative is to just print off the address on a blank a4 paper instead of writing it on the Australian address labels that I usually use.
John Smith
+1 123-123-1234
567 Orange Street
Olive Branch 38654-6599
Mississippi
United States
Edit: my dad has already stuck on the address label to the parcel using the format that I wrote above, so I can’t change it now. I’m really glad from reading the comments that my parcel will still eventually be delivered to the correct address. I’ve just sold another parcel to the US, and I’m really excited to write the address in the preferred format using all the feedback from this post!
Comments
Ask the Aussie post, you aren’t the first person to send a package to the US they will know what to do.
567 Orange Street
Olive Branch, Mississippi 38654-6599
United States
You can also abbreviate Mississippi to MS. The last 4 digits of the zip code (6599) are optional, but recommended.
I would guess that it would probably arrive okay, since all the needed information is there, just not quite in the right order. It would get kicked off the sorting line in the US to have a human read the address, then be on its way again.
I’d ask at your local post office though – they’ll know for sure how to get it started.
The odds are quite good that it will be able to be delivered as you’ve written it. However, this is a nonstandard way of writing addresses in the US, so if you wanted to be extra sure, I would recommend writing the address on a blank paper instead — it’s up to you on how much you want to risk it.
If I was doing it, I would probably write it in the most standard way possible — it doesn’t seem worth saving one minute of time for a slightly higher chance that it might be misdelivered.
Asking at your post office probably won’t yield anything useful, because the address is going to be read and sorted by many employees on its journey, not just at your local Australian post office.
Also, a minor nitpick — here in the US, we refer to "Olive Branch" as the "city" portion of the address, not the "suburb" portion of the address.
Only the first 5 digits of the zip code are required. The other 4 are basically redundant to the written street address.
John Smith
567 Orange Street. Apt 23
Olive Branch, MS
38654-6599 USA
**
MS is the two letter code for Mississippi. Each state has a unique 2 letter code. Use capital letters.
APT 23 indicates apartment 23. I know you did not ask. I added it.
I know that area. I’m trying to remember the street…
It would get there like that, since it has the 5 digit zip and the optional zip+4 (which identifies a specific house or street often) but it should be on 4 lines like:
(Usually the state is listed on mail using a 2 letter abbreviation. Mississippi’s is MS)
If it goes through the USPS at any point you’ll be lucky if it shows up even if perfectly written.
No phone number needed
John Smith
123 Willow Street
Baltimore, MD 21212
You ONLY need to write:
John Smith
567 Orange Street
Olive Branch MS
38654
USA
You don’t need a comma between “Olive Branch” and MS. You don’t need to write out Mississippi. And you don’t have to include the last four digits of the zip code. Packages are sorted automatically, and this is the standard way of writing addresses, so punctuation is not advised—writing in all caps is also recommended (for the receiver’s address). Of course, if there’s a problem, someone will take a look at it, and if all the information is there, it will be fine—it just might cause delays. But this format should be able to fit on your label.
It will get there. Might just take a little longer if they have to read it by sight instead of machine.
The zip code should be on the last line for computers to read it. Are the 123 numbers phone numbers? The postal service wouldn’t want those on an address. They could be confused with street numbers or zips.
They also prefer everything to be in upper case font. Again, for computer recognition.
Looks fine to me. Stuff like this happens all the time.
It’ll get to the destination, it might take an extra day because of the format, but it’ll still get there.
Yes
I think you will be fine, I recognize a fellow overthinker lol. The post office is pretty good at their job.
I’m jealous your buddy has a cool Australian penpal.
What others said.
If you already sent this:
It’s fine. It’s easy to figure out.
The USPS is used to incoming international mail being written in non-standard ways. The most important thing is the postal code.
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It’s not exactly standard which means that it won’t be machine readable. It might take an extra day for a human to take a glance.
It’ll get there.
In the future, I would format US addresses like this so it’s machine readable – better if you can type or print out the address label but handwritten is still machine readable. All caps for everything except the name. Standardized abbreviations for the state and street (ST instead of Street, AVE instead of Avenue, LN instead of lane, BLVD instead of Boulevard, CIR instead of Circle, RD instead of Road, HWY instead of Highway, etc).
John Smith
567 ORANGE ST
OLIVE BRANCH, MS 38654-6599
USA
Your package will make it okay but might encounter a delay for human intervention at the USPS sorting facility to read and label it with something machine readable.
There was a time when I’d have said USPS would figure it out.
Who knows these days.
The address label should be:
John Smith
567 Orange Street
Olive Branch, Mississippi 38654-6599
You don’t need to put his phone number.
Since you mention a label, I’m assuming that it’s printed text. That means it’s automatically machine readable. They have great systems for reading addresses and labels. In the remote case the system has an issue or will flag it for hand review. But the most likely scenario is it’s read just fine, and a barcode is printed across the bottom, which contains the Delivery Point Code (Zip+4+last 2 digits of house number). From what I’m seeing, you’ll be fine.
John Smith
567 Orange Street
Olive Branch, MS 38654-6599
USA
The USPS will prefer you to write that address like this:
567 ORANGE ST
OLIVE BRANCH MS 38654-6599
UNITED STATES
However, if you address it the way you did originally, it will still get to the destination, though it might be slightly delayed.
The most important thing is that you get the ZIP code correct and if you use a ZIP + 4, make sure that is correct as well.
It will probably get there but it could be delayed based on the technology reading the label.
We tend to go small to big for addresses (exception is that apartment numbers tend to be after the street.)
first & last name
House number street name
(Additional line for apt number etc)
City, state abbreviation zip. We tend to just use the 5 digit zip for personal mail as the additionally four can be easier to mess up & is optional)
It’ll be ok dude.
I am not a huge fan of the post office, but they absolutely will be able to figure this out.
The zip code is the important part. That is just fine. I’ve shipped to and from Europe many times.
Though, next time, the format is:
Name
Street address, apartment number (or suite number)
city, state (2-letter code) zip code
USA
Yes, this will get to the recipient, worst case scenario is it’s sent back to you. Our zip codes are 5 digits, the last 4 are optional/more specific.
If you need to look how to write a US address for future use use this, but you were really close
OP it’ll likely get there. The postal service here is generally good and they will make all reasonable efforts to deliver a package (we don’t use the word ‘parcel’ here).
A fun note: There are at least 10 locations with that example street address (567 Orange Street) in the USA in 8 different states. If you add a ‘North’ or a ‘South’ or allow for differences in the roadway type ‘Avenue’, ‘Boulevard’, ‘Road’, etc … The list gets significantly longer.
It would be fine regardless. As soon as it got here, as long as the address, city and state were on there, a machine would scan it, and add a label with the zip code and bar code. There are still a lot of older people here that do not write addresses fully.
Depending on what you are sending. Make sure you don’t have to use a customs form.
I never use the last four digits of my 9 digit postal code (zip code)unless a SW form enters them automatically for me. They are not really necessary.
I think when it arrives in the US it will get a barcode of the ZIP stuck on which will allow it to be scanned by various delivery systems and routed to the right city.
As others have said, as long as the house number, street, and the first 5 digits of the post code are on there, it should eventually find the right location.
Shortly after moving to a new state, I ordered something and didn’t catch where auto-fill messed up the address. It was addressed to:
My name
New street address
Old city, state
New zip code
and it was delivered just fine. It may have taken an extra day.
99.9% chance of arrival. The post office has lots of worse examples of addresses that get delivered, and they’re very diligent about doing everything they can to ensure delivery. That being said, if you’re going to be mailing a lot to the us, I’d recommend getting used to the standard addressing format for thr united states.
https://umbrex.com/resources/how-to-address-an-international-letter-to-any-country/how-to-address-an-international-letter-to-united-states/
Name
Street Address
City, State, ZIP code (sometimes there will be some additional numbers after the ZIP. This is either a suite number or PO Box)
Country (if it’s international mail)
So it should look like this:
John Doe
123 Sesame Street
Town City, MS, 12345
United States
Probably. The post office is incredibly good at decoding addresses even if the elements are not in the correct order.
For the US, the format is the following
Name
Street address starting with numbers
Additional street address location info (follow, unit, department, division)
City, State (abbreviation), Zip Code
Country
It might take longer because it will require more human eyes on it, but I think it’ll probably get there. All the information is there.
I know envelopes are almost entirely machine sorted, I don’t know if packages are as well.
The US postal system was a early adopter of machine learning to sort mail. It’s fine
Long as it gets to the US in the first place, it should be fine. The US post tries to get the job done. I’ve gotten packages with the wrong zip, or the wrong name on them somehow still delivered to the correct address.
More the shame that we keep trying to defund them.
Am mailman. This would be fine
It will still get there. The post office can handle how it is written.
It will get there but it might be delayed. Machines read the address labels, and since things are out of order the sorting machine may not be able to read it, so it might have to wait for a human. Any human postal worker will understand that address no problems
The USPS can’t even figure out than in Canada (which uses substantially the same format as they do) unit number – street number is the most common way of writing it (for americans 123-45678 Main Street, is 45678 Main St, unit 123).
Half the time, packages get returned to the sender before leaving the US because they are confused. Do the safe thing, and write it the US way as they will likely not figure it out, all the more so with it going to Mississippi, where nobody knows how to read.
Yes.
Look, I do shipping all over the world. One thing I can be proud of is an American is that our postal service kicks ass at what they do. They will get it delivered 9/10 times as long as there’s a name and address, or name and zip code.
Other countries, not so much. Almost a third the time I ship anything internationally it gets lost somewhere in their possession. The worst ones though are shipping to countries that are active warzones. Whenever anyone orders anything from me to ship to Ukraine or Israel for example, RIP, those almost always mysteriously vanish.