762 Mail of Domestic Origin

762.1 Addressee Moved to Another Country

762.11 Letters and Postcards

Postcards and unregistered letters that do not appear to contain merchandise and do not bear a notice forbidding forwarding may be redirected to the original addressee in another country. Letters and cards are forwarded without prepayment of additional postage.

762.12 Mail Other Than Letters and Postcards

Domestic mail (Periodicals Mail, Standard Mail, and Package Services) addressed to a domestic addressee who has moved to another country must not be forwarded to another country but must be returned to the sender. Domestic mail that cannot be returned to the sender because of an incorrect, incomplete, illegible, or missing return address must be treated as dead mail and disposed of as provided in DMM 507. (See 762.2 for items bearing foreign return address.)

762.2 Undeliverable Domestic Mail Bearing U.S. Postage and a Foreign Return Address

1. Domestic letters that do not appear to contain merchandise and domestic postcards that bear the sender’s request for return must be returned to the foreign return address. Postcards not bearing the sender’s request for return are disposed of as waste.
2. If a mailer places a foreign return address on registered or certified letter mail, he or she is requesting, in effect, that the letter be returned to the foreign return address if it is not deliverable at the U.S. address. Further, the mailer thereby agrees, in case of loss of a registered letter after dispatch from the United States, to the indemnity payment provisions of 934, regardless of the amount of registry fee paid.
3. First-Class Mail containing merchandise, Standard Mail items, or Package Services parcels, which bear a foreign return address, must be held at the Post Office of the addressee, while a request for instructions is sent to International Claims, St. Louis ASC, P.O. Box 80146, St. Louis, MO 63180-0146. Requests must include the following information:
1. Names and addresses of sender and addressee.
2. Weight of the item and any extra services.
3. Nature and value of contents if known. The International Claims Office will contact the sender for disposition instructions, completion of the required customs forms, and payment of additional postage.