Poste restante
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poste restante is a service provided by postal systems where the post office holds mail that has a notation written on it until the recipient calls for it. It is a common destination for mail destined for people who are visiting a particular location and have no need, or no way, to have mail delivered directly to their place of residence at the time. In general, this notation contains the word 'POSTE RESTANTE', the full name of the recipient (as on the identification presented to verify the identity; and with the surname (if any) listed first for ease of sorting), and the name of the destination post office. As a courtesy to the postmaster, an expected date of pick-up is also indicated. Each postal system has its own regulation on how to handle the service, including the length they hold the mail before discarding.
In the United States, the United States Postal Service uses the term general delivery and reserves the term poste restante for international mail sent to general delivery. Mail to general delivery is addressed thus:
- Jane Q. Public
- General Delivery
- Washington DC 20090-9999
In the ZIP+4 code, the add-on code for general delivery is 9999. The main post office in a community will hold general-delivery mail for up to 30 days. Note that many suburban post offices in the USA do not have general delivery and such mail will be returned to sender. Often the only post office in a larger city that has this service will be in the main section of downtown, usually with a zip code of XXX01.
