Long story, but DD needs me to send her passport to her at college. Mail gets delivered to their Student Services office, students get an email and go pick mail up there. So does that mean that it can’t be sent USPS Registered Mail since she won’t be there to sign for it? Should I send it USPS Priority, or Certified mail, or is Fedex better for documents?
I would not use USPS. so fed ex or UPS tracked delivery would be best. She could pick it up at a UPS office rather than run the gamble of it being in the mass of university mail. UPS calls it hold for pick up. I think you can just google that and designate the best option.
Thanks, but unfortunately I see a hitch for her with UPS:
“Present the following identification at the time of pickup:
Recipient: Government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, or military ID”
Fedex has the same service which also requires government ID
She has an expired license which other places have rejected as invalid ID. I told her months ago to get it renewed but of course she didn’t listen. ~X(
She’s at a small LAC, 2500 students, so at least the mailroom isn’t too gigantic.
Doesn’t the school accept/sign for packages from UPS or Fed Ex on behalf of the student, then contact the student to pick up their package which they do via their school id? That’s how it works at ours, they don’t expect students to sign for it, the kid in the mail center does. Since yours is a very small school, it shouldn’t be an issue. Just send with tracking regardless of who you use. I would never send USPS certified - even my post office said not to, ha. And they lost the last two items sent to us that way by others. Apparently, there are too many checkpoints which makes delivery super slow and more chances for it to disappear. ugh.
Any chance she has a professor who would allow this to be sent to their home?
Make sure you have a scanned copy of her passport with the number before you send it. I agree with sending fedex with signature required.
Once I needed a new credit card urgently. The bank used FEDEX overnight - it did not require a signature. I figure they know what they are doing - I would send Fedex overnight express (it will be expensive). Typically they sign for the stuff in the college mailroom, when something requires a signature. At a small school, I would suggest she visit the mailroom and tell them it is coming and maybe they can text her immediately when it arrives (instead of whatever the usual method is - in my daughter’s school it was an email). Both UPS and USPS are not used to documents in envelopes and they frequently get lost (I know the one time I sent something certified USPS in an envelope it was a disaster).
Send it priority through USPS. That’s what I was told about mailing my passport in for renewal. I confess my partiality - my son is a USPS employee. I avoid any other carrier unless I have no choice.
I just had to do this for my D. I sent it FedEx (no signature required), had no problems.
USPS Priority is fine.
“USPS Priority is fine.”
We just had a terrible experience with this. The tracking is terrible. Literally took a week to get tracking info. Do fed ex or UPS.
Ditto for horrible experiences (note the plural) with USPS Priority, with signature confirmation/return receipt, as well.
Had to send D’s passport to her school before she was taking a trip. Sent it Fed Ex when a snow storm hit Memphis. ?. It was delayed getting to the destination in Dallas. Once we told them it contained a passport they were so helpful. She ended up going to the main facility and they helped her find the package. We were very grateful.
I use priority mail on a weekly basis. I have never had a problem and it has gotten there on time. I would use that.
Tracking at USPS is horrible. If you have to send something USPS take a screenshot of the tracking information everyday. I have had items declared ‘out for delivery’ then the next day they will say it never made it to that post office. I have never seen a tracking system other than USPS where they can rewrite the history.
For anything important do not use USPS anything. Use FedEx, Ups and send to her school mail room /packager place. She will just use her student ID. You can also take a picture of the passport and send it to her prior for second ID.
Just did this and sent a credit card my son applied for when home on break. Two day sent Ups goes to his package pick up at school. They notify him he has a package /mail. He goes there and shows his ID. Done. He does this for Amazon stuff at school etc. Never a problem.
Respectfully disagree with FedEx being a sure bet. I was waiting for a very urgent document to be sent to me - someone at FedEx added D.C. to “Washington” in our address in their tracking system (no such nonsense on the actual package). Never mind there was the correct zip code!!! The package got stuck in D.C… no, they would not send it to the right address and release it to us because well, our city was not in D.C. Big eye roll. Only by pure miracle Mr. was able to negotiate the release.
I’d also use FedEx.
Thanks all! I just called DD’s school and they said that on their end the regular FedEx driver was not the most reliable, so not to send it that way.
@crepes - Send it FedEx, hold for pickup. That takes the driver out of the loop. She will just need to go to the pickup location where it’s on hold. Find out where the nearest FedEx is located, verify the hold for pickup address. Because of her expired license, call and confirm that it’s ok to use the ID. It should be ok. She’ll have the tracking number provided by you and her ID.