mail to u.s.
 

on mailing post cards from italy to the u.s. do you need to put u.s.a after the state, i.e. n.y. u.s.a. i am preprinting labels so would like to know thankyou.

Yes

fpsoley, I always show USA on the line after the name of the city, state and zip code when sending mail from Italy to the US. I notice my friends in Italy do it the same way when writing to me. I think it makes it more obvious that the mail is being sent to the US.

Yes - how would people in a post office in Italy know what country Iowa is in?

Just a side note for anyone sending mail TO Italy.

The first line is the name of course.
The second line starts with the zip code, than the street address, than the number of the residence or the business. The next line the city and normally the providence written in initials (Treviso for example is shown as TV.
Last line Italy.

Exzactly - how will anyone know which country to send it to if you dont indicate that???

The worlwide standard (incl. Italy), except for a few countries is:

Name
Street and Number (or Number first)
CountryCode-ZIP City/Town

so correct and machine readable would be

Henry Miller
Via ..... 10
I-38066 RIVA DEL GARDA

no need to write "Italy".

>no need to write "Italy".<

Not if you are sending it from the USA.

It will end up in Rossville, TN.

((I))

You can't blame Italy for that ;-). Just another international standard that some don't care about...

I do need to correct what I said.

The zipcode goes before the line where the city in Italy is written. Not before the street name and residence or business number.

But I would be assured if one is sending mail to Italy and they did not write Italy on the bottom line of the address when mailing from the US the mail would not arrive in Italy. Especially if the address was not a famous city such as Rome, Venice etc. And even than..would it end up in Rome, Georgia or Venice California? Zipcode or not. And no of course not logos, why would one blame Italy since the piece of mail would probably not ever reach Italy, lol. Perhaps your information is for mail sent between various countries in Europe. Anyway, fpsoley now knows how to address mail from Italy to the US.

It's just another worldwide ISO standard like ISO/DIN paper sizes. Just guess the countries where it doesn't apply, you'd usually be right ;-)

> The worlwide standard....

Is UPU (Universal Postal Union) S42 and it allows for a variety of 'Postal Address Templates'.

"The standard also describes the address templates for each country, i.e. the specific way an address is formatted in each country, indicating in particular the order in which the various elements appear." (S42)

"Postal address structures may differ from country to country, from region to region or even from operator to operator within a country." (S42)

The example you gave is merely based on one of the templates in S42, and is not THE standard by any consideration!

In respect of US addresses, S42 states...

"The minimum number of address lines for a valid USPS address mailed within the United States is three lines. If
this same address is mailed from outside the United States the minimum number of lines would be four (this
additional line would contain the country element)."

Cheers,

Bill

Well, despite all the comments about standards and who follows them, I still think it's only logical to put the country. A few times, without thinking, I've gone down to our village post office (in France) with a letter to Canada, and have put the postal code, plus Ontario - only to be asked 'Where is is going?' Since I'd prefer it not end up in Rossville, TN, I happily write in 'Canada'

>>>>
Exzactly - how will anyone know which country to send it to if you dont indicate that???
....

Yes - how would people in a post office in Italy know what country Iowa is in?
>>>>>>>>>

obviously the country should be indicated but post will generally reach its destination without it if it's forgotten (especially if sent to a major country like the US - which no doubt has a lot of italy to US post).

i sometimes get mail from the US without any country indicated and sometimes without a postcode either. it gets here (UK). the italian post most certainly knows where iowa is....it's their business to know!

>It's just another worldwide ISO standard like ISO/DIN paper sizes. Just guess the countries where it doesn't apply, you'd usually be right.<

Just where is it written that everyone has to follow ISO (International Standard Organization) or DIN (Deutsches Institut fur Normung) standards?

((I))

It just makes life easier :-).

>>>>>
It just makes life easier
>>>>>

there is a great argument for the use of the US dollar as the standard currency around the world. after all, it is already used for much of the important international trade (e.g. oil). why not adopt it as the national currency in every country? a common currency would make things easier and would save a lot of money in the global economy.

english is already the defacto standard around the world in business, science, etc. it would sure make life easier if everyone in the world spoke english instead of silly national languages. let's do away with them...having everything in english would make things a lot easier and in the long run save a lot of money in the worldwide economy.

it's funny to me that some here constantly argue for "international standards" and decry "certain countries" for not abiding by them. however, at the same time they decry "international standards" that are born in the US as cultural imperialism.

so, are you for standardising everything in the world or against it? ...let's be consistent.

Try to copy 2 letter sized pages into one, doesn't fit properly, you may even lose parts of the text. Try the same with DIN/ISO sized paper, works. :-). Use the international country codes on letters, works too and all the countries agree to use them by multilateral agreement. Do you realize the difference? ;-)