parcel Post from other countries

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I got to wondering about how and when a letter or package is entered in the mail system of another country, makes it's way to the US. Does a letter from England shipped by boat become US Mail half way across the Atlantic, When it leaves an English port or when it arrives at a US port. I know there must be some international treaties which govern this. But, I recently ordered a set of tools from Russia and there is already a USPS tracking number showing me the various Russian postal facilities that the package has traveled through. (2 so far) I tried looking on line for the information but Google keeps referring me to pages of links about job transfers overseas Bing and mozilla were worthless as well.

It seems kind of miraculous that a letter from a new found relative (DNA test) in Australia can make it so seamlessly to my mail box in Pennsylvania. Or that packages from India arrived in under two weeks. Perhaps the one single thing that most Governments around the world are doing right.

[Jim Becker]

I would imagine that responsibility passes at the point of entry. Most civilized countries have agreements in place to pass mail and small packages back and forth "relatively seamlessly" and it's been that way for a very long time. There are expectations relative to how something gets addressed that are part of the process but that information is pretty available. I have sent and received mail between the US and Russia (our daughters were born there) and it was pretty easy, other than it takes a bit of time, particularly on the Russian end.

[Jim Koepke]

I tried looking on line for the information but Google keeps referring me to pages of links about job transfers overseas Bing and mozilla were worthless as well.

Search engines are driven by the terms of the search. You are not going to find gold when searching for > shiny yellow rock <.

Try searching > international mail treaty < for information on international mail. Add > tracking < to the search term to find information about the tracking.

Searching on > international mail treaty tracking < will lead you to the UPU ( Universal Postal Union ) and how it all goes around.

jtk

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I used to negotiate international mail contracts. The Universal Postal Union was formed by the United Nations and requires all members to cooperate. (Very simplified version of the story.) That is how a Russian generated parcel can be tracked by the USPS. It will arrive, clear customs, and enter into the USPS system for delivery as if it was their own, but tracking info is shared from origin. Without this agreement, you can imagine how crazy things would be.