The Expats Mailbox Built for Americans Living Abroad
Keep a real US street address while you live anywhere in the world. IRS letters, bank cards, Social Security notices and ballots get scanned the day they arrive and forwarded on your schedule to 190+ countries. From $86.95 for 3 months, run by real people since 2007.
- ★ 4.9/5 customer survey rating
- Same-day scanning across every time zone
- Sign up from abroad with online notarization
- Forwarding to 190+ countries
Personal Mailbox from $86.95 for 3 months. 1-year plans include a free month. Cancel anytime.
- Real street address, never a PO Box
- IRS and bank mail scanned same day
- Checks deposited for $3
- Free package consolidation
- Support that answers across time zones
What an Expats Mailbox Solves the Week You Land
Moving abroad breaks more paperwork than anyone warns you about. Banks freeze accounts the moment a foreign address hits the file. The IRS mails notices with 30-day response windows to an address you left. Social Security sends verification letters no one forwards. Absentee ballots go out late and come due early. Every one of those problems traces back to the same root: your American life still runs on American mail, and you are not there to open it. The fix is not chasing each institution separately. The fix is one address that never moves, backed by people who open, scan and ship on your instructions.
An expats mailbox fixes the root. Your US address stays put in Massachusetts, permanently, no matter how many times you change countries. Every letter gets logged and photographed the day it arrives. You read the scan over breakfast in Lisbon, Dubai or Tokyo and decide what happens next: full scan within hours, forward by DHL with customs paperwork we prepare, hold for a monthly batch, or shred.
Banks see a stable US street address and stop flagging your account. The IRS reaches you in hours instead of never. The occasional paper check gets deposited for $3 without crossing an ocean. And the packages from family, Amazon and US-only stores land safely at a staffed facility instead of bouncing.
One honest note before you buy anything: Massachusetts is not a tax-domicile play. If your goal is changing state residency, Florida, Texas or South Dakota fit better. Our customers pick Massachusetts for reliable mail handling, business credibility and a real staffed office in the Boston metro area, not tax positioning. Pick your domicile state with a professional, then let this address do the one job it does well: keeping your mail alive.
The mailbox app works identically from every time zone. Mail decisions take seconds, not phone calls.
IRS, Banking, Social Security and Voting, Handled
IRS and state taxes
Tax notices carry response windows that do not care where you live. Standing instructions scan everything from the IRS on arrival, so deadlines reach you in hours. Our filing from overseas guide maps the full expat tax mail workflow.
US banking
Keep accounts open with a real street address that passes bank verification, and receive replacement cards by tracked express in days. The US banking abroad guide covers which banks behave and how to switch addresses cleanly.
Social Security
Verification letters and benefit notices route through one permanent address with same-day scanning, so payments never pause over returned mail. Retired expats run this exact setup, detailed in our Social Security forwarding guide.
Voting from abroad
Ballots and election mail arrive, scan the same day, and originals ship express when your state requires paper. The voting from abroad guide walks the FVAP process alongside your mailbox.
How the Expats Mailbox Works From Nine Hours Ahead
Time difference is where most mail services quietly fail expats. A support line open 9 to 5 Eastern is closed your entire waking day in Dubai. Our system assumes you sleep while Massachusetts works.
Mail arrives and gets photographed during our business day. By the time you wake up, alerts wait in your inbox with images of every envelope. You tap decisions from your morning coffee: scan the bank letter, hold the magazine, forward the card. Our team executes during their day while you sleep again. The loop never requires both sides awake at once, which is why the service feels the same from Auckland as it does from Amsterdam.
Scan requests submitted overnight complete within business hours the same Massachusetts day, which means a tax notice mailed Monday reaches your screen in Madrid by Tuesday breakfast as a searchable PDF. Express forwards leave with the next carrier pickup and land in most of Europe in 2 to 4 days, the Gulf in 3, Asia-Pacific in 3 to 5.
Email support answers within one business day, and for the questions that need a voice, the phone line at 978-851-0199 catches the European evening and the early Asian morning at the edges of our 10 to 5 Eastern day. Text 978-528-3505 and responses queue for the next open hour.
Decisions from your phone, execution in Massachusetts, delivery wherever you are.
Common Expat Mailbox Setups, by Situation
Twenty-five years of expat customers cluster into a few repeatable patterns. Find yours.
The career move
Two-to-five-year assignment in Europe or the Gulf. Personal plan, scan-everything defaults on financial mail, one consolidated box monthly. Bank cards express-forwarded on arrival. Typical all-in cost: $55 to $75 a month.
The retiree abroad
Portugal, Mexico or Thailand on Social Security and pensions. Personal plan with check deposit at $3 each, benefit letters scanned same day, minimal forwarding. Many spend under $45 a month total.
The remote founder
US LLC run from anywhere. Business plan with the free registered agent, so state notices, lawsuits and bank mail share one accountable address. 20-page scan upgrade when paper volume grows.
The serial nomad
New country every few months. Personal plan, aggressive scanning, forwards only when settled somewhere for six weeks or more. The US address stays fixed while destinations rotate freely.
Our Germany-based customers even get a country-specific walkthrough in the Germany expats guide, and the UAE guide covers the Gulf's express-only quirks. Wherever you land, the setup conversation takes one phone call, and the plan can change as your life does without ever touching the address itself.
Pick the Plan That Fits Your Mail Volume
Personal Mailbox
$86.95 / 3 months
$169.95 for 6 months · $299.95 for 1 year + 1 month free
- Real Massachusetts street address
- Same-day photo alerts
- 10 scan pages monthly
- 30-day free storage
- Letters and very small packages only
- 1 user
- Free consolidation, every carrier
Business Mailbox
$135 / 3 months
$246 for 6 months · $450 for 1 year + 1 month free
- Everything in Personal
- Free MA registered agent
- 15 scan pages monthly
- 60-day free storage
- Letters and boxes up to 1 cubic foot
- 3 users
- Commercial shipping rates
Virtual Office
$169.50 / 3 months
$320.40 for 6 months · $599 for 1 year + 1 month free
- Everything in Business
- 20 scan pages monthly
- 90-day free storage
- Packages up to 1.5 cubic feet
- 5 users
- Dedicated account manager
- Same-day scan requests
Every plan forwards to 190+ countries through our full mail forwarding service at commercial carrier rates you approve before anything ships. Heavy scanners upgrade in one click without changing addresses.
Sign Up From Any Country in Four Steps
Already overseas? No problem. The whole process runs remotely, including the notarization.
Choose your plan online
Check out on the pricing page from any country with any major card. The process takes about 15 minutes end to end.
Notarize Form 1583 remotely
Federal law requires USPS Form 1583 with two IDs and a notarized signature. Remote online notarization connects you to a US notary by video from anywhere, in about 10 minutes. Foreign passports work. Our 1583 guide shows every field.
Update your US senders
Point the IRS, banks, brokers and Social Security at your new suite at 1215 Main Street, Tewksbury. File a USPS change of address too, and strays follow automatically for a year.
Run it from wherever you are
Photo alerts arrive daily. Scan, forward, hold or shred in taps. Standing instructions automate the routine, and real people handle the exceptions.
Your First 30 Days Abroad, With the Mailbox Doing the Work
Week one, before or right after the flight: your suite number goes live within 48 hours of notarizing Form 1583. You update the addresses that carry teeth first, banks, brokerages, the IRS, insurance, payroll if it still applies, using the priority checklist from your welcome email. Most people finish that list in one focused hour, and the mailbox catches whatever the hour missed.
Week two: file the USPS change of address pointing at your new suite. Everything you forgot, and everyone forgets a few, follows automatically for the next year. Strays arrive, get photographed, and remind you which senders still need direct updates.
Week three: the first real test. A bank confirms the new address by mailing a verification letter. It scans to you the same day it lands, you click the confirmation link from another continent, and the account note about a foreign address quietly disappears.
Week four: your first consolidated shipment. The replacement card, two letters worth keeping and a package from family travel as one tracked box with customs forms we prepared. The quote came first, you approved it from your phone, and the box beats the postcard you mailed the same week.
From month two onward the whole system runs on habit: a two-minute morning glance at alerts, a monthly forward, and the occasional same-day scan when a deadline shows up. That is the entire ongoing workload of your American paperwork.
Set these standing instructions on day one
Scan on arrival: anything from the IRS, your state tax agency, Social Security or any bank. Shred on arrival: catalogs, credit offers, marketing mail. Hold for monthly batch: everything else. Express immediately: replacement cards and anything from a court. Five rules cover ninety percent of what will ever arrive, and the remaining ten percent waits patiently in your queue for a human decision.
Five Expat Mail Mistakes We See Every Month
1. Giving banks a foreign address
The fastest route to a frozen account and a compliance review. Banks want a US street address on file, and a commercial one passes verification where a friend's apartment eventually fails.
2. Trusting USPS forwarding overseas
International USPS forwarding barely exists, expires quickly, and skips every FedEx and UPS delivery. It is a domestic moving tool, not an expat solution.
3. Using a relative's house long term
Works for a semester, corrodes over years. Envelopes pile up, photos arrive late, and one missed IRS letter turns a favor into a family incident.
4. Forwarding everything blind
Shipping unopened mail piece by piece costs triple and delivers mostly junk. Scan the urgent, batch the physical, shred the rest.
5. Waiting until after the move
Address changes from abroad mean video notarization anyway, plus weeks of mail bouncing meanwhile. Set the mailbox up before departure and land with the paperwork already solved.
The pattern underneath
Every mistake defers a small decision until it becomes an expensive one. The mailbox works because it moves those decisions to an app you check with coffee, while the mail itself sits safe in Massachusetts.
Why Expats Pick a Massachusetts Mailbox, and Why Ours
A credible, stable address
Banks, brokerages and federal agencies see an established commercial address in the Boston metro, not a warehouse suite that appeared last spring. Address stability matters most to the institutions expats depend on, and ours has not moved since 2007.
Regulated handling, real staff
As a USPS-approved CMRA since 2007, we verify every customer through Form 1583 and keep chain of custody on every envelope. Employees handle your Social Security letters, never store clerks or gig workers, and the person scanning your mail answers the phone about it.
Honesty about what this is
We tell people plainly when Massachusetts is the wrong tool: tax-domicile shoppers belong in Florida or South Dakota, and we say so on this page. Expats reward that honesty by staying an average of years, not months, because the service does exactly what it claims.
The deeper reason is simpler: mail is a trust product. You are handing strangers your bank cards, tax documents and family packages from six time zones away. Choose the operation you can call, staffed by people whose names you learn, at an address that will still exist when you move home. That has been the whole business model here since 2007, and it is the reason expat customers renew year after year without shopping around.
Students, Military Families and Everyone Else Abroad
Students overseas
A semester or degree abroad still comes with US bank mail, scholarship letters and tax documents. The Personal plan holds everything safely, scans what matters, and ships one box home at term's end for less than a checked bag. Parents like knowing nothing important sits in a dorm mailroom in another country.
Military and government families
APO and FPO addresses cover official channels, but plenty of senders refuse them: banks, subscription services, half of online retail. A commercial US address fills the gap, forwards to APO where allowed, and stays constant through every reassignment on any continent.
Dual citizens and returnees
Americans who split the year between countries, or who moved abroad decades ago and kept US financial ties, use the mailbox as their one permanent American anchor. Estate documents, pension mail and IRS correspondence all keep a reliable place to land, no matter which passport gets used at the border. Decades-long customers in this group treat the suite number like a fixture of their American identity.
Whatever brought you overseas, the shape of the problem is identical: American institutions insist on mailing paper to American addresses. Give them one that answers, and the whole category of problem retires quietly.
Shop US Stores and Ship Home for Less
The second life of an expats mailbox starts the first time a US store refuses your foreign address. Amazon third-party sellers, Costco, Walmart and half of American retail ship domestically only. Your Tewksbury address solves it: order to the mailbox, and we consolidate everything into one customs-cleared box on your schedule. The US-only retailers guide lists the workarounds store by store.
Consolidation is where the money hides. International postage prices per shipment, so five separate forwards of $30 each become one $60 box. Free on every plan, and our consolidation savings guide shows the math on real shipments.
When a store rejects foreign cards outright, the shopper assistant makes the purchase for you and adds it to your next box. Holiday season, this combination is the difference between American gifts arriving on time and apologizing by video call while a package bounces between carriers.
What ships well, what to skip
Ships well: clothing, books, electronics under battery limits, supplements, small gifts, documents. Needs care: anything with lithium batteries alone, aerosols, liquids over limits. We flag restricted items before quoting instead of after a customs seizure, which is precisely the judgment a warehouse app never applies.
Expats Mailbox Options, Compared Fairly
Every expat weighs the same four options. Here is the table we wish someone had shown us.
| Factor | getmyUSmail | Family member's house | Cheap mailbox app | Let mail bounce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Same-day scanning | Included | Depends on Mom's week | Per-page fees | Nothing arrives |
| Bank address verification | Commercial address passes | Works until they move | Often flagged | Accounts freeze |
| Relationship cost | Zero | Real and compounding | Zero | Zero |
| Who handles legal mail | Trained staff, logged | Whoever is home | Store clerks | Nobody |
| Check deposit | $3 per check | Another favor | Rarely offered | Checks expire |
| Plan cost | From $86.95 / 3 mo | Free, allegedly | $10 to $25 plus fees | $0 until the penalty |
The family option deserves the honest word: it works until it does not, and the failure lands on a relationship instead of a vendor. Most of our long-term expat customers arrived here after two years of asking a sibling to photograph envelopes. Everyone involved was relieved. The sibling usually sends a thank-you note, which we scan the same day like everything else.
Expats on What Actually Changed
★★★★★"Made our life easier. We kept in touch with our US mail while abroad, and tax season stopped being a panic."
★★★★★"Three years abroad and every tax document has reached me as a scan the same day it arrived in Massachusetts. Worth every dollar of the plan."
★★★★★"My Social Security letters stopped disappearing and my bank finally stopped threatening to close my account. That alone was worth it."
More on the testimonials page.
Expats Mailbox FAQs
What is an expats mailbox?
A permanent US street address at a staffed, USPS-registered facility that receives your American mail while you live abroad. Every item gets photographed on arrival, and you scan, forward, store or shred each one from the mailbox app in any country.
Can I keep my US bank account with this address?
Our commercial street address passes bank verification, which is exactly what a foreign address fails. Update your bank to the Tewksbury address and statements, cards and fraud alerts keep flowing. The banking abroad guide covers bank-specific quirks.
How do I receive IRS mail overseas?
File your mailbox address with the IRS, set a standing instruction to scan all IRS mail on arrival, and notices reach you as PDFs within hours, deadlines intact. Originals ship express when a wet-ink document matters.
Can I sign up while already living abroad?
Yes. Checkout works from any country, and USPS Form 1583 gets notarized by video through remote online notarization in about 10 minutes. Foreign passports are accepted ID.
How fast does forwarded mail reach me?
Express reaches most of Europe in 2 to 4 days, the Gulf in about 3, and Asia-Pacific in 3 to 5. Consolidated standard boxes run 6 to 14 days at a much lower cost. Scans beat them all at same-day.
What does it cost monthly, all in?
Plans run $86.95 to $169.50 for 3 months, less per month on 1-year terms. Typical expats add $20 to $40 of postage by scanning urgent items and batching the rest into one monthly box. Junk shreds free, so you never ship a catalog to Europe.
Can you deposit my US checks?
Yes, $3 per check. Refunds, rebates and the occasional paper payment go straight into your US account without an international round trip.
Does this change my state residency or taxes?
No. A mailing address alone does not establish domicile, and Massachusetts is not the state anyone picks for tax positioning. Use this address for mail continuity and talk to a tax professional about residency itself.
Can I vote from abroad with this address?
Your voting residence stays your last US home state under UOCAVA rules, while the mailbox receives any election mail sent to you. Ballots scan on arrival and originals ship express when your state wants paper. See the voting guide.
What about packages from Amazon and US stores?
Every carrier delivers to your address, including signature-required parcels. We photograph, store free within plan limits, consolidate and forward with customs forms prepared. US-only retailers stop being off limits.
What happens when I move countries again?
Change the forwarding destination in one click. Your US address, and everything filed under it, stays exactly the same. Serial movers keep the service for years precisely for this.
How do I cancel when I move back?
Email or call, no cancellation fee. We forward remaining mail to your new US address, and many returning customers keep the box anyway as a permanent private address after years of it just working.
More answers on the FAQ page or from a person at 978-851-0199.
The Expat Mail Library
Every guide below came from a real customer question we answered enough times to write down properly. Start with your country or your problem, whichever is louder this week. Each guide takes ten minutes and saves the average reader one expensive mistake.
Moving in the next 90 days?
Set the mailbox up before you fly and your address transition happens once, cleanly, instead of in fragments from abroad. Call 978-851-0199 with your departure date and a mailbox specialist sequences the address changes around it: banks first, IRS next, subscriptions last, with nothing left to untangle after landing.
Your US Address Should Be the Easy Part of Living Abroad
Pick a plan, notarize Form 1583 by video from wherever you are, and your Massachusetts mailbox goes live within 48 hours. From then on, American paperwork becomes a two-minute morning habit instead of a transatlantic errand.
getmyUSmail by Neighborhood Parcel · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · Mon-Fri 10am-5pm ET