Addressing Guide

By ensuring that you have properly addressed your envelope or parcel you can help Canada Post to deliver your mail to the right place, faster.

Start with the basics

Whether you're handwriting an address, typing it or adhering a pre-printed label to the front of your letter or parcel, always follow the addressing guidelines  

Here are some things to remember:

• Write STREET ADDRESS in upper case letters
• Write POSTAL CODES in upper case letters and separate the first three characters from the last three characters with one space. (No hyphens! Hyphenating postal codes could cause delays)
• Place the municipality, province (or territory) and postal code on the same line
• Separate the municipality from the province (or territory) with one space; separate the province (or territory) from the postal code with two spaces
• Don't use punctuation unless it is part of a proper name, e.g., ST. JOHN'S
• Format the return address the same way as the destination address and place it in the top-left corner of the envelope or package OR on the back of the item at the top

Visual Examples

For your reference we are pleased to provide examples of properly addressed envelopes along with detailed explanations and helpful tools in the addressing guidelines .

The illustrated examples show how to correctly format address types such as:

• U.S
• International
• Bilingual
• General delivery
• Post office box
• Rural route
• Civic / Street Addresses
• Military

Symbols and abbreviations

Addresses should be easy to read and concise and should not run off the edge of the envelope. This means you should abbreviate—properly—whenever possible. The addressing guidelines include a complete list of symbols and abbreviations recognized by Canada Post for:

• Street types
• Street directions
• Unit designators for apartments and suites
• Provinces and territories
• U.S. states, territories, and possessions
  

Double check with the addressing guidelines

Sending holiday cards or wedding invitations to addresses that may be in an unfamiliar format? Need to know the proper formatting for U.S , international or military addresses ? Review the addressing guidelines .