Mail, Mail Forwarding and a Home Address for Digital Nomads

Most nomads use a parent, sibling or close friend. It is free, the address is a real home that banks and governments accept without question, and someone you trust can deal with anything urgent.

It works best when you make it easy for them:

• Go paperless first. Switch every bank, card, insurer, pension and utility to email statements before you leave. Less mail means less of a favour.
• Agree what they open. Most people say “open anything official and send me a photo”. Envelopes from the tax office, courts, banks and the DMV are the ones that matter.
• Give them a scanner app. A phone scanning app (Apple Notes, Google Drive, Adobe Scan) makes clean PDFs in seconds.
• Leave prepaid courier envelopes or cash for reshipping, for when a new bank card or a document has to reach you abroad.
• Write them a short list of your accounts, policy numbers and who to call if something looks urgent.
• Thank them properly. Years of handling someone else’s post is real work.

The downsides: you depend on one person’s time and reliability, they see your private mail, and their address can affect where you are treated as a resident for tax (see below).

A virtual mailbox gives you a real street address at a mail centre. Staff scan the outside of each envelope and upload it to an app. You then choose what happens to each item:

• Open and scan the contents, so you read the letter as a PDF.
• Shred it, or recycle junk mail.
• Forward it, singly or in a batch, to wherever you are in the world.
• Hold it until you decide, and some services can deposit cheques for you.

Costs are usually about $10 to $30 a month in the US, depending on the number of items and scans included, plus postage and a handling fee when anything is forwarded. International forwarding of a few letters often costs $20 to $50 by courier.

US Services

In the US you must sign USPS Form 1583 to let a company receive your mail. It has to be notarised, and most services accept an online notary. You will need two forms of ID, one with a photo.

Other Countries

• UK: UK Postbox and Hoxton Mix both scan and forward post.
• Germany: Caya and Dropscan scan post, though you still need a registered address (Anmeldung) for many official purposes.
• Elsewhere: search for “virtual mailbox” or “mail scanning” plus your country. Coverage outside the US and UK is thinner, and many services are aimed at businesses.

National forwarding services send mail from your old address to a new one for a fee. They suit a move, not years on the road.

• USPS forwarding only goes to US addresses, so it is useful for pointing mail at a family member or a mailbox service, not at you abroad.
• Royal Mail, Australia Post and Canada Post can redirect mail overseas for a fee, for a limited period.

A PO box is cheap and secure, but it has limits:

• Banks, card issuers and governments often won’t accept a PO box as your residential address, because KYC rules need a street address.
• Couriers such as UPS, FedEx and DHL usually can’t deliver to one. Some US post offices offer “street addressing” for PO boxes to get around this.
• Someone still has to empty it. A PO box doesn’t scan anything, so you need a person nearby or long trips home.

• Banks and card issuers check addresses. Many flag commercial mailbox addresses (the US postal database marks them as such) and may refuse them or ask questions. A family address avoids this. Don’t change your address to a foreign one unless you have to, as some banks close non-resident accounts. See the banking guide.
• Tax residency. Your address is evidence of where you live. Keeping a family address in a high-tax US state such as California or New York can help that state claim you as a resident. Many US nomads move their domicile to a state with no income tax, such as South Dakota, Texas or Florida, using a mail service there. The tax guide covers residency.
• Driver’s licence and voting. Your state of domicile issues your licence and is where you vote. US citizens abroad can vote absentee through the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
• Insurance. Health, car and home policies are priced by address and may require you to live there. Tell your insurer you travel, or use nomad insurance that doesn’t depend on a home address.
• Jury duty and official letters still arrive at your address. Whoever handles your mail should flag anything from a court or tax office straight away.

Sending things to yourself abroad is slower and costlier than people expect.

• Customs and import duty apply to most parcels, and can cost more than the item. Some countries hold parcels for weeks.
• Ask where you are staying. Many Airbnb hosts, hotels, coliving spaces and coworking spaces accept parcels for guests or members. Ask first.
• Buy locally where you can. Amazon, Lazada, Shopee and Mercado Libre cover most of what nomads need.
• Package forwarders such as Shipito and MyUS give you a US warehouse address for online shopping, then ship onwards. They suit things you can’t buy locally.
• Replacement bank cards usually go only to your registered address. Have them sent to your family or mailbox service and couriered on, or open a backup account (such as Wise or Revolut) that ships cards abroad.

1. Switch every account you can to paperless statements.
2. Choose your address: family, a virtual mailbox, or both.
3. US only: sign and notarise USPS Form 1583 if you use a mailbox service.
4. Update your address with banks, cards, tax offices, insurers and your licence authority.
5. Set up forwarding from your old address for the first months, to catch anything you missed.
6. Sign up for USPS Informed Delivery (free) to get images of incoming mail, if your address is in the US.
7. Agree with your mail handler what to open, scan and forward.

• USPS mail forwarding: forwarding and change-of-address options in the US.
• Royal Mail redirection: redirecting UK post, including overseas.
• Federal Voting Assistance Program: voting from abroad for US citizens.
• Money and banking for nomads: keeping home accounts open.