Managing your mail

For nomads, managing your mail involves determining your Residence, your Domicile and your Mailing address. Then, you need to figure out a way to receive mail and packages while on the road.

Disclaimer This is not legal or tax advice; it is presented for your information only and may be inaccurate in your jurisdiction. Consult your attorney, accountant, or tax preparer as needed. See our disclaimer for details.

This page is focused on United States definitions and usage; other countries may differ. You can help by editing this wiki.

Basics

• Your Residence is your physical address.
• Your Domicile is your legal address.
• Your Mailing address is the address where you receive mail.

For those who live in conventional sticks and bricks homes and apartments, these three are usually all the same, though some people have their mail delivered to a PO Box or elsewhere, and some people have more than one residence. For nomads, things are more complex. Society is set up for conventional living situations, so a little extra work is required for those who wish to live on the road full time. If you live on the road part time, your Residence and Domicile are already established, but you may need to use mail forwarding services while traveling.

Establishing Residence, Domicile, and Mailing address

Approaching these choices methodically will keep mistakes and distress to a minimum. If your sticks-and-bricks address was acceptable from a domicile/residence point of view it is probably best to keep them. You already have official ID, etc. Mail forwarding can be anywhere.

1. Pick your domicile state first. Common criteria: income tax, health insurance, auto registration costs, auto insurance costs, auto inspection requirements, sales tax, absentee voting.
2. Pick your legal residence second. Common criteria: local sales tax (which will apply to purchases mailed to you), emissions testing in particular metro areas.
3. Pick a mail forwarder third. Common criteria: same state as domicile, pricing, reputation, etc.

Residence

Your residence (physical address) is the place you would call home if you lived there full time. It is important that all your contacts know that you do not receive mail at this address, unless the person who lives there is your de facto mail forwarder; you receive mail at your mailing address instead.

For those who live in conventional homes and apartments, the state where their home is located is automatically their domicile. Nomads may not be at home or have a home but must still have a legal residence.

In the United States, the Patriot Act requires all financial institutions (banks, investment companies, etc.) to collect identifying information on their customers. This is known as Know Your Customer, or KYC. Many of these institutions have interpreted KYC to disallow mail forwarders and mailbox services as legal residences. There is a houseless way to help the institution satisfy KYC. The guidance is given in FINRA regulations: "for an individual, a residential or business street address, or for an individual who does not have a residential or business street address, an Army Post Office or Fleet Post Office box number, or the residential or business street address of a next of kin or another contact individual ..."

Domicile

Your domicile is the state where the legal residence is. Your domicile will be where your drivers and concealed carry licenses are issued, where you can be registered to vote, where your vehicles are titled, where you pay state income tax (if applicable), and the location used to calculate base sales tax for online or mail order transactions (if applicable).

Domicile is a combination of two factors namely, residence and intent to remain... An individual may have several residences whereas; s/he will have only one domicile. Domicile is more used in reference to personal rights, duties and obligations

• State income taxes range from 0% to 7% or more. If you have high earnings, this variation could make a significant difference in your tax expenses. Wikipedia: Income tax by state
• State sales taxes vary from 0% to 8% or more. If you spend a lot, or purchase a vehicle in these states, this variation could make a significant difference in your tax expenses. Tax-Rates.org: Sales Tax by State
• Vehicle inspections vary by state. Wikipedia: Vehicle inspection in the U.S.
• Handgun carry laws vary by state. Wikipedia: Concealed carry in the U.S. USACarry.com: CC permit reciprocity
• Residency Requirements vary by state. South Dakota and Florida are generally recommended as having low residency requirements, which make them convenient for nomads.

Resources:

• Technomadia's take on domiciling in South Dakota, then later in Florida.
• Kirk's take on domicile.

Mailing address

Your mailing address is the place your mail should be sent. This is usually a mail forwarding service for most nomads, but may also be the home of a trusted relative or friend who preferably does not expect to move for a long time.

A mail forwarding service provides a mailing address (usually in your #domicile state) and collects your mail. You let the forwarder know where you are (or will be) and they bundle your mail and send it to you. Some services will scan mail for viewing on the web, watch for critical pieces of mail to come in, etc.

If you intend to use your mail forwarding service address as your domicile address take note of the county where the forwarded is located. There are reports that many mail forwarding service addresses have been blacklisted and may not suffice as a residence or physical address.

USPS

The United States Postal Service runs a forwarding service called Premium Forwarding Service (PFS). It is limited in usefulness, as it is very expensive and can be active for only a year.

The USPS may provide P.O. Boxes to homeless persons under certain circumstances, or they can use General Delivery to send things to some Post Offices. With General Delivery, mail is sent the Post Office itself, and you must pick it up there during business hours; it's essentially having a shared P.O. Box and the staff find your mail in it when you request it.

Mail Services

Mail services allow you to receive mail and packages and have them re-mailed to another address for a fee; many services will allow you to view scanned mail online or by email. These services charge monthly fees and/or per-item fees.

• United States mail services:
  • iPostal1
• Florida mail services:
  • American Home Base (Good Sam) - Pensacola, Escambia county.
  • My RV Mail, Crestview, Okaloosa county.
  • St. Brendan's Isle, Jacksonville, Duval county.. SBI may reject those who do not have a "registered RV".
• Nevada mail services:
  • Mail, Messages, and More, Pahrump, Nye county.
• Oregon mail services:
  • Mail Forwarding Services, Jefferson, Marlon county.
• South Dakota mail services:
  • America's Mailbox, Box Elder, Pennington county.
  • Dakota Post, Sioux Falls, Minnehaha county.
  • My Home Address, Emery, Hanson county.
  • Your Best Address, Sioux Falls, Minnehaha county.
• Texas mail services:
  • Escapees, Livingston, Polk county..
  • Texas Home Base, Wichita Falls, Wichita county.
  • My Local Mailbox, San Antonio, Bexar county.

Homeless shelter addresses

If you are eligible to receive services from homeless shelters, some allow clients to use the shelter address to receive mail. This can help when setting up legal documents like licenses and insurance.

Receiving packages

You can receive packages through your mail forwarding service, although this results in paying two shipping fees.

Amazon maintains a large number of Amazon lockers and Amazon Counters, usually located inside retail businesses, where most Amazon orders can be delivered. LockerMap.com maintains an easy map of locations. You may also search for "amazon locker" with Google Maps or other mapping services.

Many chain retail stores offer ship to store service for online purchases of their products, usually at no additional charge. It may be also be called order pickup, in-store pickup, free pickup, etc. Chains that offer this service include: Bass Pro, Home Depot, Sears, Staples, Target, Tractor Supply, True Value, Walgreens, Walmart.

USPS General Delivery

If the local Post Office agrees (ask the postmaster first), you may be able to send your package there as General Delivery]. USPS offers GD as a service to transients. Once received, the package will not be held longer than 30 days, and 14 days is a common limit. The mailing address is like any other, but the number and street is replaced by the words "General Delivery". Be sure to ask if the postmaster has any special address or other instructions. Call or look online first to see if the PO in question accepts General Delivery; some places with multiple POs only accept General Delivery at one location. UPS/FedEx/etc. might deliver to the USPS if the post office's street address is included. This is highly variable and depends on local relationships between the entities. For package tracking, General Delivery shipments may show "out for delivery" in the post office's city as the last step until actually picked up. Pick up your package as soon as you can. The PO may have limited space, and some will return packages to the sender before the required holding period expires.

Local mail services

Local services like UPS stores may accept packages for a fee. UPS and FedEx hubs may be able to hold packages for you to pick up (bring ID).

Some or all of the content on this page was originally sourced from RVWiki