Blog

Jul 06, 2023

USPS Status and Service Disruptions on International Mail Shipments

The United States Postal Service (USPS) offers economical and express services

The United States Postal Service (USPS) offers economical and express services to more than 180 countries globally.

Unlike courier services such as FedEx, UPS, or DHL Express which have their own fleet of cargo planes, USPS contracts mostly with commercial airlines to transport mail to the foreign destination.

The Postal Service also contracts with FedEx to handle some of its express services such as USPS Global Express Guaranteed (GXG), and it may occasionally use other air cargo operators to move mail as well.

Upon reaching a foreign country, USPS letters and parcels are delivered by the postal service of that country. The U.S. Postal Service maintains partnerships with these postal operators, allowing for the seamless delivery of mail from U.S. addresses to destinations around the world.

While Covid-19 related restrictions are less disruptive to commercial air transport today, reliable air transport or regional operational challenges remain.

Other problems, such as natural disasters, weather, labor disputes, armed conflicts, and economic sanctions, can also cause delivery delays and restrictions that are beyond the control of the U.S. Postal Service.

On this page, we track reported disruptions and service suspensions that affect the international delivery of USPS mail items.

We use multiple sources to compile this information. It is updated more frequently and does not rely solely on USPS service alerts, making it one of the most comprehensive lists of potential U.S. Postal Service delivery issues globally.

This information was last updated on 5/30/2023. A lot of clean up of all alerts that are no longer active or have been resolved.

Currently, the U.S. Postal Service does not accept letters and parcels to the following countries. The most common reasons are a lack of transport or service being stopped because of a conflict or economic sanctions.

Unless noted otherwise, this affects the following mail services:

USPS asks customers to refrain from entering items into the USPS mail stream going to the countries listed above. Mail or packages will be returned to the shipper if they are dropped into a mailbox or included in daily pickups.

U.S. Post Office retail locations will not accept mail to these countries when letters or packages are presented in person.

In the event an item made its way into the mail stream, USPS will return the mail item to the sender, but this can take some time.

Once the items are returned, the Postal Service will, upon request, refund postage and fees on mail returned due to the suspension of service, or the sender may re-mail them with the existing postage, once service has been restored.

When re-mailing under this option, shippers must cross out the markings "Mail Service Suspended — Return to Sender."

Furthermore, unless noted otherwise, service suspensions to a particular country above do not affect the delivery of military and diplomatic (APO/FPO/DPO) mail or Global Express Guaranteed (GXP) Service shipments.

USPS continues to accept all mail types except USPS Global Express Guaranteed destined for Ukraine. Despite the war, the Ukrainian postal service continues to operate when and where possible.

However, sending mail or parcels to eastern and south-eastern Ukraine, and especially into areas where Russia has political and operational control, is not advisable. We believe the mail service is mostly operational in the western and central sections of Ukraine.

Please see our update on Ukraine, which explains the challenges and potential limitations of sending mail and parcels to the country in more detail.

USPS has issued mail acceptance suspension notices for the following countries:

The U.S. Postal Service temporarily suspended the money-back guarantee for USPS Priority Mail Express International shipments to all destinations on October 25, 2021.

We want to explain international tracking with USPS a bit, as it's different from private courier services such as UPS, FedEx, and DHL.

If USPS tracking shows that an item has left the United States (the last scan is from an International Service Center or ISC). Under normal circumstances, the U.S. Postal Service has no further visibility on that item until a transit country or the destination country provides updated tracking information to USPS.

Sometimes, getting more updated tracking is possible by using the destination country's postal service online tracking tools once the item has entered the country. (See This List from Wikipedia of National Postal Services to find the applicable website)

This is especially true if the shipment has delivery or routing errors, delays or exceptions. Additional comments on the country's postal system tracking detail may provide more information on the status of the shipment than the update transmitted back to the U.S. Postal Service.

Furthermore, tracking scans of individual mail pieces typically only occur at the local and regional pickup locations, when the parcel enters a country's customs facility, and at the local or regional destination locations.

For tracking information between these locations, mail pieces are typically tracked in groupings packed inside cargo containers. This can result in longer gaps between tracking events.

The U.S. Postal Service advised during the height of the Covid-19 emergency that it may take up to 60 days to process an insurance claim for lost or damaged international shipments. This may still apply depending on the destination.

Please refer to this link for more information on how filing international insurance claims with USPS has changed and how it may even affect third-party insurance services.

According to DMM 604.9.2.3, customers are entitled to a full refund of their postage costs when service to the country of destination is suspended.

The detailed procedures to obtain refunds for Retail Postage, eVS, PC Postage, and BMEU entered mail can be found in this PDF document.

On July 1, 2021, a new VAT rule went into effect when sending items to European Union (EU) member countries. The rule has caused some problems with package shipments when the shipper did not provide sufficient information.

Shipments that arrive with incomplete data may be held by customs officials for a long time or are returned to the sender. Therefore, it is imperative shippers provide accurate information about the contents and a recipient's phone number to avoid delays or a return to the sender of the shipment.

International returns can take significant time as they will not be necessarily transported at the same speed as the original mail service selected. Here are additional resources to help you navigate through this new VAT rule.

This list only includes countries for which there are known service disruptions or suspensions. If a country is not listed, the postal operator is not reporting significant service delays in its network that would affect delivery.

The date shown after the country is the last time the information for this country was updated or re-confirmed. Once a situation clears, the country is removed from this list.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Transportation Availability – Air transportation to Ascension Island & St. Helena continues to be greatly reduced due to essential runway repairs. Currently, it appears flights are about 3 to 4 weeks apart and the situation is ongoing until airport/runway rebuilding work is complete.

Note: Mail to The Falkland Island is not impacted.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Please see our special bulletin about Ukraine, Russia, and surrounding countries for more details.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Société Congolaise des Postes et Télécommunications (SCPT) advises that massive floods occurred on 4 May 2023 in Kalehe, in South Kivu province in the east of the country.

The flooding resulted in a national tragedy, with a death toll of more than 483 people and nearly 5,000 missing, as well as significant material damage.

This natural disaster may affect the collection and delivery of international and domestic mail, thereby impairing the quality of service that SCPT is committed to delivering.

New EU VAT Customs Rule – Shipments arriving in Ireland may experience customs delays as a result of changes to the EU's VAT rules for items from non-EU countries.

Delivery duties must be paid before items are released for delivery. Recipients will receive instructions on how to pay and will have 16 working days to make the payment before the item is returned. The pay-by date is included in the customer notification.

All items are held in the Dublin Mail Center Campus before being released. If payment is not received by the payment due date or the customer rejects the item, it is returned to the sender.

​Israel Postal Company advises that interruptions and delays in the distribution and collection of mail (letter-post, parcel-post and EMS items) may be experienced in the south of the country as a result of the security situation since 10 May 2023.

Poste Italiane advises following severe flooding in the Emilia Romagna and Marche regions, it has been unable to guarantee collections and deliveries (for any products) in certain parts of these regions since Wednesday, 17 May 2023. In particular:

The following postcode areas of the two aforementioned regions are affected:

Emilia Romagna:

40010, 40011, 40012, 40013, 40015, 40016, 40018, 40020, 40021, 40022, 40023, 40024, 40025, 40026, 40027, 40033, 40037, 40043, 40050, 40051, 40052, 40053, 40054, 40055, 40056, 40057, 40059, 40060, 40061, 40062, 40064, 40065, 40066, 40068, 40069, 40127, 40131, 40132, 40133, 40134, 40135, 40136, 40137, 40138, 40139, 40141, 41012, 41013, 41016, 41017, 41018, 41019, 41030, 41031, 41034, 41035, 41038, 41042, 41049, 41057, 47010, 47011, 47012, 47013, 47014, 47015, 47016, 47017, 47018, 47019, 47020, 47021, 47025, 47027, 47028, 47030, 47032, 47034, 47035, 47039, 47042, 47043, 47121, 47122, 47521, 47522, 47832, 47833, 47834, 47835, 47836, 47837, 47838, 47841, 47842, 47843, 47853, 47854, 47855, 47921, 47922, 47923, 47924, 48011, 48012, 48013, 48014, 48015, 48017, 48018, 48020, 48022, 48024, 48025, 48026, 48027, 48031, 48032, 48033, 48034, 48121, 48122, 48123, 48124 and 48125.

Marche:

60012, 60019, 61010, 61011, 61012, 61020, 61022, 61024, 61025, 61121 and 61122.

Transportation Availability– Expect slow delivery (2+ months) due to infrequent flights. Delivery delays should be expected.

Note: As of December 16, 2022, this alert was still active. We are seeking additional information as it's been over a year since this alert was issued.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Malawi Post advises that Cyclone Freddy, which hit the Southern Region of Malawi, brought strong winds, floods, landslides, and mudslides.

There is significant damage to infrastructure, including offices and houses, and some roads are also impassable. Post offices and postal staff have also been affected: for example, Muloza post office was completely submerged, and the roofs of offices at Blantyre and Chichiri were damaged, leading to damage to office equipment and furniture.

Most offices in the affected area have been closed to ensure the safety of customers and staff. Given this situation, Malawi Post has declared a force majeure situation and delays should be expected for some time.

New EU VAT Customs Rules – Shipments arriving in Malta are experiencing customs delays as a result of changes to the EU's VAT rules for items from non-EU countries. Malta Post strongly advises shippers to provide accurate phone or email information for the sender to avoid delays.

NZ Post advises that the local states of emergency in response to Cyclone Gabrielle were lifted March 14, 2023 for both the Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti/Gisborne regions.

Both regions are now in a "response and transition to recovery" phase. Owing to damage to the road infrastructure in these regions, only some roads are now open, and only during daylight hours.

NZ Post can move postal freight into these regions. But due to restrictions, it will be late to meet processing cycles, meaning that it will be carrying items over to the next day for delivery.

NZ Post has arranged a new road transport route from the lower North Island to Tairāwhiti/Gisborne which will help relieve the postal backlogs. However, both regions continue to have transport, processing, and delivery delays.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Please refer to the special bulletin about Ukraine, Russia, and surrounding countries for more details.

Covid-19 – Singapore Post advises its delivery standards are back to normal. However, restrictions previously introduced due to Covid-19 infection remain in place. Signatures are not collected at delivery.

Items that can fit into a mailbox will be deposited in the customer's mailbox. Larger items will be delivered to parcel locker stations (POP stations), post offices or collection points for pickup by the addressee.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Natural Disaster – Two large earthquakes hit the country on February 6. The Turkish government has declared a state of emergency with effect from February 8, 2023.

These devastating earthquakes have caused buildings to collapse and significant disruption to transport and travel in the affected areas.

The most severely impacted cities are Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa, as well as the surrounding districts and villages.

This has a major impact on operations and delivery delays should be expected.

Transportation Availability – Expect slow delivery (2+ months) due to infrequent flights. Delivery delays should be expected.

War – Ukraine Post (Ukrposhta) continues to collect international mail and parcels from neighboring countries for delivery inside Ukraine in areas without active hostilities.

However, the country's infrastructure continues to be attacked by Russia, resulting in the power grid and local energy facilities necessitating rolling power cuts lasting hours. In areas following a direct missile strike, power may be cut off for several days.

Delivery and uploading of tracking data in a timely manner may be impacted when power and internet access are lost. Most Ukrposhta sorting facilities are equipped with electricity generators to ensure uninterrupted work and maintain normal customs and sorting procedures.

However, due to the overall situation in Ukraine, delivery and tracking delays should continue to be expected for most international mail and packages, even in areas without active hostilities.

Crimea (2014), Donetsk (2022), Kherson (2022), Luhansk (2022) and Zaporizhzhia (2022) are generally internationally unrecognized annexed Ukrainian regions by Russia.

While portions of some of these regions may be under Ukrainian government control again, active hostilities continue and shippers should refrain from sending mail to these regions.

In addition, USPS has temporarily suspended international mail acceptance of Global Express Guaranteed (GXG) service to all regions in Ukraine.

Please refer to the special bulletin on Ukraine, Russia, and surrounding countries for more details on sending items to Ukraine.

Vanuatu Post advises that the Vanuatu Government has declared a state of emergency for the whole country following category 4 tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin, which struck the country in the first week of March. The state of emergency will last until 31 August 31, 2023.

While Vanuatu Post will continue to operate, postal service quality for international inbound and outbound mail and service delivery standards (including delivery times and other quality parameters) cannot be guaranteed. Delays should be expected.

USPS Service Suspension – Please see "Service Suspensions" information at the top of this post.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

We do not sell your information.You can unsubscribe at any time.

Head over to our Facebook Group for Small Business Marketplace Sellers and interact with us and other small business owners. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to stay up to date with relevant news and business insights for your online business.