Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
I think I've shipped to APO's before (that's a military base, right?). But today I ran into an error on the shipping label page.
So I clicked the highlighted customs form thingy, and the only thing highlighted there was to declare the country of origin. -IDK if that means where the item is shipping from (which should be obvious) or where the item was made (which I have no idea of, as it's just an old gold chain without a maker's mark), so I just chose United States.
And that cleared the error, so I was then allowed to print the label as usual. But I have never seen a label like this before. Looks like I have to put my signature on it, and (this kinda bugs me) it states what the item is, and its value. I think I can trust my mailman but any other handlers after that ..... I don't know.
Is this normal, and is there any reason I shouldn't go ahead and ship this item? I need to decide within a couple hours, and there won't be mail service tomorrow.
The label & the Customs form have been one for quite a few years now. It's completely normal & you must fill it out & sign it. For some countries the APO/FPO requires a Customs form & for other countries it does not. You used to have to do it separately which is why I didn't ship to APO/FPO for years, but when it became inline with the label, it became much easier & so I started allowing them again.
No Customs form for the Mariana Islands b/c it's a US Commonwealth.
@bdmh-enterprises wrote:
All APO's are considered domestic shipments (note she's only paying $4.80 for the label), so no eIS needed. I've shipped both ESE and GA to just APO and never needed a customs form so I would guess it's the AE that triggers it.?.
If I remember right, it's the specific ZIP Code that triggers it, as that is the most specific part of the address, and I think that some APO ZIPs require a Customs form and some do not. It's been a while since I had a sale to an APO address anywhere, so my recollection might be a bit off.
P.S. I did a more thorough search through my old sale records to find any occurrences of an APO address, and finally found one that went to ZIP Code 09114-0086. I discovered that in USPS addressing, APO would be listed as the City Name and AE is actually in the State Abbreviation field.
So at that point I went back to the USPS.com ZIP Code Lookup Page, and discovered that the pulldown menu for State Abbreviations actually lists four definitions for AE entries, plus one each for AA and AP:
Thus I would say that it must be using the buyer's ZIP Code to determine which AE is the correct one, and thus some AE ZIPs could require a Customs form and others might not. If a form appears at label purchase time, fill it out, and if one does not appear, no worries.
I always thought it was the specific country, but it may be by zip code as @a_c_green said, but I have always had some APO/FPO require Customs forms & others not. Even going back 15+ years. I remember my first one ever required a Customs form & I was so shocked b/c I'd always been told they were like sending US Mail. Well, they are, cost-wise, but the country's that they are going to, still sometimes require Customs forms. That's how it was explained to me by the recipient. Which makes sense, if the base is in another country, then the mail is still entering that country. Mariana Islands though (which I always want to call Marinara Islands) I don't think ever had a customs form though b/c they are a US Commonwealth or Protectorate, I forget which.
@gurlcat wrote:Well my mailman never even came to pick up my scheduled pickups today for some reason (there's another thread where others had closed post offices and/or no carrier service today).
So it looks like this thing won't even start moving until Friday. But if there's one silver lining: I (just now) realize I never signed the label! 🤣
I'll go out and get it tomorrow, too much gunfire going on already. I need another hole in my head like I need another hole in my head!
I had carrier service, but my PO closed at 12:30. IDK what happened with carriers who do their routes in the afternoon. I texted mine last night to be make sure he could do a pickup & he assured me he could & did. Sounds like it worked out perfectly for you though. They WILL return unsigned ones, so that is perfect.
@a_c_green wrote:
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:I always thought it was the specific country, but it may be by zip code as @a_c_green said, but I have always had some APO/FPO require Customs forms & others not.
Yes, me too. I figure it must be determined by the ZIP Code (I have some vague memory of reading that somewhere on the USPS site), since (a) the country is not mentioned anywhere in the buyer's address, and (b) the military probably prefers to keep it that way. 😉
Makes sense. I basically do what you do, if the form comes up, it means it's required, if it doesn't, then it's not. Until it became automated with the label, I wouldn't do APO/FPO b/c to try & figure out if it was needed was a nightmare & I'd have to go to the PO to get the form. I remember back then sellers advising to always include the customs form, it just felt like a big hassle. I love that it's so easy now.
