Moving to Spain

At times you may find the need to use the Spanish postal service (Correos) to send off or receive snail mail. Thus, it won’t hurt to know a few tips to save time and make sure your mail does go through.

It will be advantageous for you to smile and say hola when your delivery person comes around.  This is especially true if you relocate within the same small town.  When my wife and I moved from one place to another we went down to the post office and filed a change of address form.  Unlike in the U.S., we learned that this is not free and you must pay more than a nominal fee to do so.  The longer you want them to redirect your mail, the more it will cost you.

Fortunately for us, even though the allotted time expired, our mail carrier has continued to transfer some of the mail from our prior address to our current one.  This redirecting of mail has continued for over two years which obviously is a benefit to us.

And a simple wave to our mail carrier has benefited us in another way.  When we first moved into our house she would leave a notice when packages had been sent to us.  We would then need to drive down to the post office and retrieve them.  But not anymore.  Now, if they are small enough, she will drop them off at our doorstep.  Nice of her to go the extra mile…er… kilometer.

Mail at our urbanization is delivered to boxes in a central location. When the mail carrier cannot find the appropriate address the letter is not stamped "return to sender". Instead, she deposits it in a unique spot. She sticks it under a rock above the boxes. Eventually, the wind blows the envelope onto the ground and from there it is delivered to the occupant living at 111, Intheweeds Drive, Goneforever, España. Is this form of delivery due to Correos cost cutting measures? I must confess and say it's a mystery to me.