Post Office Forwarding Address Lookup

When you send mail to a recipient with the United States Postal Services (USPS), it doesn’t always get delivered to the intended address. Individuals and businesses can file a change of address (COA) form with the USPS to have their mail forwarded to a different address.

As the sender, you won’t know this address. The USPS will simply forward the mail you sent to the address the recipient entered on their change of address form. Although the USPS workers won’t give you this information when asked, you can find someone’s forwarding address, which might be their new address, without going to the post office. Forwarding address lookup is one of these ways, but there’s more.

In this article, we’ll teach you how to look up a forwarding address. Continue reading to know how you can find someone’s forwarding address in simple steps.

What Is a Forwarding Address?

The forwarding address is an address individuals and businesses inform the USPS of an alternate address to deliver mail when something is sent to their address. For example, an individual who lives in California during winter can file a change of address form with the USPS to forward mail sent to their New York home to their California address.

The USPS allows filing a change of address form on a permanent or temporary basis. It is up to the individuals and businesses to decide this.

Lookup Forwarding Address Without Going to the Post Office

The easiest way to find a forwarding address without going to the post office or dealing with the USPS is by running a people search. People search sites that include addresses in the results can help you find the forwarding address of an individual by scanning public databases that pull up property records.

There are many people search websites but Free People Search is the best free people search site we tested. It provides accurate and fast results – on par with people search engines you must pay to run a comprehensive search.

One feature of Free People Search we like is you don’t need to know everything about the individual to run a search. Even if you only know their first name or business information, you can use anything you have to run a reverse search.

Upon entering any information you have available, it will run a detailed search to find the person you need. Once found, it will bring up all the addresses linked to the individual from public records and databases. It can help you discover more than a forwarding address, making it an excellent free people search site for your needs.

Find Out Forwarding Address With the USPS

Although you cannot learn someone’s forwarding address by asking USPS workers, you can check this information with the postal services. However, you’ll need to send a mail to get the forwarding address of the individual or business.

The USPS has ancillary services that include providing forwarding and address correction services if the recipient has a forwarding address. When sending a mail, select the ‘Address Service Requested’ option or write this in the upper left corner of the package you’re sending.

Following this, you’ll receive a notice of the individual or business’s forwarding address. It might take a few days for the USPS to process your request and issue the notice with the recipient’s forwarding address.

Additionally, note that the USPS charges a small fee for this service. Fortunately, it is only a few dollars per request.

All You Need to Know About Looking Up a Forwarding Address

It might have seemed complicated at first but finding the forwarding address of an individual is simple. If the recipient has filed a change of address with the USPS, you can send them any mail and include ‘Address Service Requested’ to find their forwarding address.

Alternatively, you can use the people search site, such as the one we recommend above, to find it out. You can enter the individual’s name or address to pull up additional information connected to the individual, including a forwarding address.

Considering the scope of the searches it can do (and being free) Free People Search can also help you obtain additional information about the individual, making it an excellent resource.