Mail Forwarding Glossary: 75 Terms Every Subscriber Should Know

Documents and Compliance Terms

USPS Form 1583

The federal form that authorizes a commercial mail receiving agency to accept mail on your behalf. It lists every person and business receiving mail at your box, requires two forms of identification, and must be notarized. Our Form 1583 walkthrough covers it field by field.

Notarization

Verification of your identity and signature by a commissioned notary, required on Form 1583. Done in person at banks and town offices, or by video through remote online notarization.

Remote Online Notarization (RON)

Notarization completed over a recorded video call, with ID verified on camera and an electronic seal applied. The standard route for applicants overseas, and the reason a mailbox can be opened from any of 220+ countries without a US visit.

Two-ID Requirement

The USPS rule that every mailbox applicant present two identification documents, one with a photo. Passports, driver’s licenses, and state IDs anchor the first slot. Leases, vehicle registrations, and insurance policies commonly fill the second.

Service Agreement

The contract between you and the forwarding service covering plan terms, storage windows, prohibited items, and liability limits. Read it once properly, especially the insurance caps.

Denied-Party Screening

The check every lawful US forwarder runs against federal restricted-party lists before exporting a shipment. Invisible to ordinary customers and mandatory for everyone.

EAR and ITAR

The Export Administration Regulations and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the two federal frameworks controlling what leaves the US. They are why weapon parts, certain optics, and some electronics cannot be forwarded. See the prohibited items guide.

Proof of Address

A document tying you to a physical location, sometimes requested by banks and agencies. A mailbox address serves as a mailing address; whether it satisfies a specific proof-of-address rule depends on the institution, so verify your use case.

Money, Duty, and Tax Terms

De Minimis Threshold

The declared value below which your destination country charges no import duty or tax. Every country sets its own. Batching shipments just under the threshold is one of the core savings strategies in our customs duties guide.

Import Duty

A tax your destination country charges on imported goods, usually a percentage of declared value that varies by product category. Paid by you at arrival, separate from shipping.

VAT / GST

Value-added tax or goods-and-services tax, charged by many countries on imports above their threshold, calculated on goods value and sometimes shipping too.

Brokerage Fee

A carrier’s charge for processing customs clearance on your behalf. Varies by carrier and service level, and worth checking when comparing quotes on higher-value shipments.

Declared Value

The value you state for a shipment’s contents, driving duty, insurance, and any claim. Declare what you paid: lowballing risks seizure and caps reimbursement at the false number.

Landed Cost

The true total of an international purchase: item price plus forwarding plus duty and taxes at your door. The number that decides whether a US purchase beats buying locally, covered in our shipping savings guide.

Disbursement Fee

A charge some carriers add for advancing duty payment to customs before collecting it from you at delivery.

Handling, Scanning, and Storage Terms

Arrival Notification

The email alert sent the day an item is logged to your account, listing sender and arrival date. The feature that closes the gap between mail arriving and you knowing about it.

Envelope Scan

A photo of an item’s exterior, showing sender, addressee, and postmark, so you can decide what happens next without opening anything.

Content Scan

Opening an item on your instruction and scanning the contents to a PDF in your dashboard. How an IRS notice gets read in Lisbon the day it arrives in Massachusetts.

Shredding

Secure destruction of mail you do not want, on request. Junk dies at the facility instead of padding a forwarding shipment’s weight.

Storage Window

The free period arriving items wait at the facility: 30 days on Starter, 60 on Silver, 90 on Gold with up to 5 cubic feet. The window is what makes consolidation batches possible.

Mail Hold

Keeping items at the facility past your usual rhythm, on your instruction, for example while you are between apartments abroad.

Package Consolidation

Repacking multiple purchases into one carton with retail packaging removed. Free on Silver and Gold plans, and typically 30 to 40 percent cheaper than shipping items separately.

Repack

Replacing an item’s original shipping box with tighter packaging to cut dimensional weight, with or without combining it with other items.

Return to Merchant

Sending an unwanted purchase back to the US retailer directly from the facility, at domestic rates, before it ever crosses a border. The cheapest return an overseas shopper can make.

Tracking, Delivery, and Problem Terms

Last Mile

The final leg from your country’s import hub to your door, handled by the destination carrier or postal service. Where most tracking gaps and delivery quirks live.

Customs Hold

A pause at your destination’s border agency for inspection, valuation questions, or missing information. Accurate declarations are the best prevention.

Return to Sender (RTS)

A delivery that fails and travels back, usually after failed attempts or an address problem. Expensive in international lanes, which is why address accuracy at checkout matters.

Proof of Delivery

The carrier’s record, signature or geotagged scan, that a shipment arrived. The document that anchors any dispute.

Dimensional Weight

Billing weight computed from a box’s volume rather than its heft. Carriers charge the greater of actual and dimensional weight, making compact packing a direct savings lever.

Tracking Number

The carrier’s identifier for a shipment, issued when your forward leaves the facility and visible in your dashboard through delivery.

Shipment Insurance

Optional coverage to a shipment’s declared value on top of the carrier’s included liability. Worth adding when a batch carries electronics or other high-value goods, and capped by category in some cases, jewelry at $500 in our lanes.

Signature Release

Your standing instruction letting the destination carrier leave a shipment without a signature. Convenient for low-value batches, unwise for valuable ones.

Dangerous Goods (Hazmat)

The carrier classification covering flammables, aerosols, batteries, and similar items with special or forbidden handling in air transport. The reason perfume and power banks complicate consolidation, itemized in the prohibited items guide.

Business and Address Terms

Registered Agent

The person or company designated at a street address in a company’s state of formation to accept lawsuits and official notices during business hours. A PO Box never qualifies. Details in our Massachusetts registered agent requirements guide.

Service of Process

Formal delivery of legal papers, summonses, subpoenas, complaints, to a company through its registered agent. Missing it can mean a default judgment.

Principal Office Address

The headquarters address a state records on formation documents. Public record, and one of the four distinct address roles explained in our LLC virtual address guide.

Foreign LLC

A company formed in one state registering to do business in another. A Delaware LLC operating in Massachusetts registers as a foreign LLC and needs a Massachusetts registered agent.

Virtual Mailbox

A real street address at a staffed facility, managed through an online dashboard: alerts, scans, storage, and forwarding. The full picture lives in our virtual address overview.

Private Mailbox Number (PMB)

Your unique box number at the facility’s street address, written like a suite number. The complete line, street address plus PMB, is what you give retailers and banks.

CMRA

Commercial mail receiving agency, a USPS-registered business that receives mail for customers. The regulatory category this entire industry sits in, explained in our CMRA guide.

Street Addressing

A USPS option at some post offices letting a PO Box holder use the post office’s street address for carrier deliveries picked up at the counter. Narrows the PO Box gap without adding any services.

Plans, Billing, and Account Terms

Starter, Silver, and Gold

Our three plan tiers: $330, $450, and $595 per year, with storage windows of 30, 60, and 90 days and free consolidation on Silver and Gold. Quarterly and semiannual billing exist for each, compared on the plans page.

Bonus Month

The extra month included with every annual term, 13 months of service for 12 months of payment.

Dashboard

Your online account view: what has arrived, what is in storage, scans, quotes, and shipment tracking, from any device.

Authorized Recipient

Any person or business listed on your Form 1583 as entitled to receive mail at your box. A spouse, an adult child, or your LLC each needs a line on the form.

Forwarding Estimate

The quote you approve before anything ships, showing carrier options, billing weight, and service tiers. Nothing moves without your approval.

Postage at Carrier Rates

The billing model where forwarding postage is charged per shipment at the carrier’s rate, separate from the subscription. You pay for shipping only when you ship.

Expat and Traveler Terms

USPS Change of Address

The postal forward you file from an old US address to your new mailbox address, catching stragglers for about a year while you update senders directly. Different from mail forwarding the service, which is permanent and worldwide.

Domicile

The state you legally call home for tax and voting purposes, which can persist while you live abroad. Address choices interact with it, as our state residency guide explains, and specific cases belong with a tax professional.

Snowbird Forwarding

The seasonal pattern of routing mail through one stable address while splitting the year between two homes, covered in our snowbird guide.

APO / FPO / DPO

Military and diplomatic post office addresses for US personnel abroad, with their own rules and rates, covered in our military mail guide.

Mail Forwarding Service

The private, permanent version of forwarding: a street address that receives everything, plus scanning, storage, consolidation, and worldwide shipping on your schedule. How it differs from the USPS option is the subject of our USPS vs private forwarding comparison.

Concierge Service

Human handling for nonstandard requests: special purchases, tricky shipments, time-critical documents. Ours is described on the concierge page.

Quick Acronym Reference

Acronym	Meaning	Why it matters
CMRA	Commercial Mail Receiving Agency	The licensed category your mailbox provider operates in
PMB	Private Mailbox	Your box number at the street address
RON	Remote Online Notarization	Opens your account from anywhere by video
RTS	Return to Sender	The failed-delivery outcome good addressing prevents
POD	Proof of Delivery	The record that settles disputes
EAR / ITAR	US export control regulations	Why some goods cannot be forwarded
VAT / GST	Value-added / goods-and-services tax	The import tax layer at your destination
SOP	Service of Process	Legal papers your registered agent must receive

How to Use This Glossary

Skim it once when you open your mailbox, then return when a term shows up on a quote, a customs form, or a state filing. The entries link into the site’s deeper guides wherever one exists, so any definition that raises a second question has a next step. If a term you hit in the wild is missing here, tell us at (978) 851-0199 or through the contact page and we will add it, this page grows the way the service does, one real customer question at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a virtual mailbox and a virtual address?

Same service, two emphases. Virtual address stresses the street address you hand out. Virtual mailbox stresses the online management, alerts, scans, storage, forwarding, behind it.

What does CMRA stand for?

Commercial mail receiving agency, a USPS-registered business authorized to receive mail on customers’ behalf under Form 1583 verification.

What is a PMB in an address?

Private mailbox, your unique number at the facility’s street address, written like a suite number so every carrier delivers to it.

What does de minimis mean in shipping?

The declared value under which your destination charges no import duty or tax. Each country sets its own, and batching around it lowers landed cost.

What is dimensional weight in plain terms?

Billing by box size instead of scale weight. Carriers charge whichever is greater, so tight repacking saves real money.

What is service of process?

The formal delivery of legal documents to a business through its registered agent. It is the reason registered agents must be staffed at a street address during business hours.

Shipping Paperwork Terms

Customs Declaration

The document describing a shipment’s contents and values for border agencies. Accuracy here is the single biggest factor in whether a parcel clears smoothly or sits in a hold.

Commercial Invoice

The detailed seller-buyer document international carriers require for goods shipments, listing items, quantities, values, and origin. Consolidated shipments carry one covering the whole carton.

HS Code

The harmonized system number classifying a product for customs worldwide. It drives the duty rate your destination applies, category by category.

Country of Origin

Where goods were manufactured, not where they shipped from. A US-forwarded parcel of Vietnamese-made sneakers declares Vietnam as origin, and some trade rules key on it.

Incoterms

Standardized trade terms defining who pays what between shipper and recipient. Forwarded consumer parcels usually travel with duties unpaid, meaning you settle import charges at delivery.

Duties Unpaid vs Duties Paid

Whether import charges are collected from the recipient at arrival or prepaid into the shipping price. Most forwarding lanes run unpaid, so budget for the arrival-side bill using our customs guide.

Restricted vs Prohibited

Prohibited never ships. Restricted ships under conditions, specific carriers, quantities, or destinations. The categories and their logic fill our prohibited items guide.

Export

Legally, every package forwarded out of the US. The word matters because export law, not postal custom, governs what can leave and to whom.

Carrier Liability

The default coverage included in a shipping rate, typically modest and weight-based. Anything valuable deserves declared-value insurance on top.

Volumetric Divisor

The number a carrier divides box volume by to compute dimensional weight. Different networks use different divisors, one reason the same box quotes differently across carriers.

Account Lifecycle Terms

Activation

The moment your verified application becomes a working address, usually within one business day of documents and payment arriving. Everything mailed to you from this day forward is protected.

Renewal

The plan term rolling over, annually with the bonus 13th month, or quarterly and semiannually for smaller commitments. Lapsed accounts risk held mail, so calendar it.

Upgrade

Moving to a higher tier mid-stream when volume grows. The address never changes, which is the point of renting an address rather than a compartment.

Account Closure

Winding down properly: update senders to your next address first, run a final forward of anything in storage, then close. The order matters, mail sent to a closed box has nowhere good to go.

Held Mail

Items paused rather than processed, most often because the recipient is not listed on Form 1583 or a payment lapsed. Preventable in both cases at signup and renewal.

Verification

The identity check behind every legitimate account: the notarized 1583, the two IDs, and the match between them. The reason institutions trust CMRA addresses, and scammers avoid them, as our reshipping scams guide documents.

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