Ok, first off, MODS, if this is in the wrong place, please move it.
Now to the issue at hand:
I am a US citizen and am married to a Taiwanese citizen. We have been living in Taiwan (I have a JFRV).
I was using my mother’s home as my permanent US address. She has recently passed away (cancer) and we will most likely have to sell her house through the probate process.
This leaves me without a permanent address in the US. Any suggestions on what I should do?
If / when the day comes that I am in the same situation, I guess I would use one of my sisters’ homes as my permanent address…what do you need a permanent address in the States for, banking?
Yeah, mostly banking and stocks. And I have been able to keep my driver’s licence current. I may see if I can use my sister’s address, but she is a bit snippy about some things (life insurance) and not very reliable.
How about opening up a P.O. Box next time you are home? Or maybe you could do that online?
TimmyJames -
I suggest you look into a local, long-established Law Office in your hometown (or wherever is most convenient for you) for this requirement.
Preferably one who specializes in Civil Law rather than Criminal Law. You might ask several about providing this service for you. Your local bar association, back in the USA - not Taiwan, of course - would be a place to start. This can easily be done over the internet now.
This is a method that I have used in the past. The cost is minimal and it will provide an actual street address; a P.O. Box address is not acceptable for some matters.
Be certain to ask about their ability to “forward” mail to you - either on a bulk basis every 1, 2 or 3 months or on a weekly basis. It will depend on how often you will need this service.
Some Law Offices will not want to get involved in this - Some will find it a perfectly acceptable service to offer.
===
ATTN: Mr. Timmy James
c/o The Law Offices of
Dewy, Cheatem & Howe
19 Wisteria Lane
Anytown, USA 92646
====
Good Luck
Good point about the PO Box, TC. I just googled this topic and came up with this:
[b]Sometimes also called Virtual Offices, many companies specialize in forwarding mail to expatriates (individuals, families, and companies). For a monthly or annual fee they offer you a physical address at which to receive mail in your homeland. They collect your mail and forward it periodically to you.
Many of these companies, according to your instructions, also sort out and destroy junk mail and provide check deposit services. One very interesting option is mail scanning. The company opens your mail, scans it, uploads it to a secure FTP website, and it’s available to you within hours. You can see your mail online, then instruct them further (forward it, throw it out, etc.) This saves shipping time and costs, and the environment!
Because their services and fee structures vary and some offer services only to certain countries, it’s a good idea to carefully read about each one before making a choice.
usa2me.com
usabox.com
usamail1.com
Earth Class Mail
Mailbox Forwarding
mfexpress.com
pmipmi.com
expatmail.co.uk
usglobalmail.com
sosmail.com.au
myukmailbox.co.uk
ipsparcel.com
mailboxrentals.us
yourcityoffice.com/expat-services.php
expataddress.com
bongous.com
dublinmaildrop.com/
anpost.ie/AnPost
usglobalmail.com
paperlessmail.com
myus.com/index.shtml
my-mail-service.com
ukpostbox.com
transexpress.com[/b]
(Website: gosouthexpat.com/mail.html)
Hmm. I think I would avoid lawyers as this isn’t really a legal service. If a lawyer were to do this, they would likely charge more than a mail forwarding service.
I have never used a mail forwarding service, but I have known others who have. The benefit of using a mail forwarding service is that it is not a P.O. box. As TC mentioned, there are plenty of financial institutions that simply will not allow you to use a P.O. box; they wan’t a proper address. Most mail forwarding services use addresses that satisfy the requirements of financial institutions.
Timmyjames, I noticed that you said you hold some investments in the US and that you have a Taiwanese wife. If your wife is not also a US citizen, you might want to familiarize yourself with the implications of the US estate tax for surviving non-US citizen spouses of deceased US citizens. Keeping it short, if you were to have any sort of assets in the US above US$60K at the time of your death, your non-US spouse would be pretty heavily taxed before being allowed to take control of those assets. Non-US citizen spouses are treated completely differently from surviving US citizen spouses.
hey everyone, just arrived in the US today to sort some things out.
Thanks for all the info, I will check it out, and let you know what happened.
Thanks again, as this is a rough time, and you really helped out a stranger. Very nice!
[quote=“Jive Turkey”]Hmm. I think I would avoid lawyers as this isn’t really a legal service. If a lawyer were to do this, they would likely charge more than a mail forwarding service.
I have never used a mail forwarding service, but I have known others who have. The benefit of using a mail forwarding service is that it is not a P.O. box. As TC mentioned, there are plenty of financial institutions that simply will not allow you to use a P.O. box; they wan’t a proper address. Most mail forwarding services use addresses that satisfy the requirements of financial institutions.
Timmyjames, I noticed that you said you hold some investments in the US and that you have a Taiwanese wife. If your wife is not also a US citizen, you might want to familiarize yourself with the implications of the US estate tax for surviving non-US citizen spouses of deceased US citizens. Keeping it short, if you were to have any sort of assets in the US above US$60K at the time of your death, your non-US spouse would be pretty heavily taxed before being allowed to take control of those assets. Non-US citizen spouses are treated completely differently from surviving US citizen spouses.[/quote]
hey, this is very good info
my mom passed away without a will, and wow, what a mess
i am not that old, but i am thinking about getting paperwork and what not situated
my wife and i do have a daughter, so we could leave her some assets too, but i will have to really sit down and figure this out
Timmyjames,
First off, my condolences on the passing of your mother.
Next up, thanks for bringing this topic up. It is something that many of us will probably have to deal with at some point in the future, if we continue to live here in Taiwan.
Please do keep us posted on what you end up doing. It seems as if an actual address in America (and not just a P.O. box) has almost become a necessity these days.
And thanks to Jive Turkey for bringing up such good points, as well. I need to get my estate planning up-to-speed soon.
My very sincere condolences for your loss, Timmy.
This is an issue for me, too, as my mother is in a nursing home and I will also not have a permanant address in the States now. I’m planning to ask an aunt or a friend to use their address.
Thanks for bringing this up, as now I see that I have some more options.
UPDATE:
Ok, I have decided to go with the usamail1 forwarder for now (although it doesn’t totally solve the address issue, but it should work for a year or two). They have been pretty decent service wise during the set up, but the USPS lost some paperwork in the mail, so the set up has been delayed (by fault of the USPS, not usamail1).
I still have to work out some banking issues that I am sure will pop up in the future, but I will take them as they come.
Does anyone have any experience with a USA mail forwarding service in the USA that is available to non-USA citizens? I am not a US citizen but want to buy things online and then get them shipped to Taiwan. Also I will need an address not a PO box, prepaid option (instead of a standard monthly rate) and preferrably a smaller operator so I don’t have to deal with call centres.
There are loads of private mail box services who provide a street/suite address and would probably forward the items wherever you want, for a fee. I can’t imagine that citizenship matters in the least.
I can’t share any personal experience with any of them since I use my brother’s address as my US address, but every time I’m in San Francisco, I see such businesses all over the place. Have you tried checking on Google?
I am in the process of selling my permanent residence in the US and moving back to Taiwan to be close to an ailing parent. I don’t want to burden my friends and use their addresses. I read about virtual mailbox services, but can they be used as a permanent address (like on a driver’s license)? I read horror stories about banks/brokerages closing accounts if they detect that the addresses are commercial, or not a street address. I’d appreciate it very much if you have had experiences (good or bad) with any of available services. Ideas and suggestions are also appreciated! Thank you!
Business address or unimportant? Works np. Bank and important? Don’t use it.
AnytimeMailbox is great~ it’s not a PO box, but most systems can detect it’s not a “real” address. It’s like a VPN: Fools most sites, but not all.
I think you can go to those UPS or other physical (as in a branch) mailbox services that you find in the U.S.
Call them up. Some may just have their own address like:
123 Maple Street Box 345
Anywhere, State 98765
The Box 345 is your box. You can even ask if you can change “Box” to “Unit” to look like a condo. A phone call can clear up the details.