MUST HAVE Tool (USPS Informed) *Free Signup

[millefleur 5,034]

Great to know! Thanks for sharing.

[Scandi 3,970]

For those of us who can't be verified and therefore can't get a MyUSPS account - can our spouses see it on their accounts? Or does the mail go by name, so since the MyUSPS account is in my husband's name, nothing with my name on it will show up despite us living on the same address?

[TL2016 208]

I tried to get verified so many times but it always fails because there aren't any questions even related to us. It gives me the option to go and get verified in person somewhere but I don't even know if that'd end up working. 

[Scandi 3,970]

2 minutes ago, TL2016 said:

I tried to get verified so many times but it always fails because there aren't any questions even related to us. It gives me the option to go and get verified in person somewhere but I don't even know if that'd end up working. 

I have the same issue and went to he local uSPS office today but they had no idea how it works, so basically there's no way I can get a MyUSPS account. It seems like a very flawed system.

[geowrian 22,335]

2 hours ago, Scandi said:

For those of us who can't be verified and therefore can't get a MyUSPS account - can our spouses see it on their accounts? Or does the mail go by name, so since the MyUSPS account is in my husband's name, nothing with my name on it will show up despite us living on the same address?

The data is linked to an address (technically a ZIP11: ZIP5 + ZIP4 + DPV). So if somebody lives at the same address as you, they can signup and will see the exact same data.

 

Nothing with your account will show up on your husband's account, but the packages and mailpiece images will be identical for a given address.

 

1 hour ago, TL2016 said:

I tried to get verified so many times but it always fails because there aren't any questions even related to us. It gives me the option to go and get verified in person somewhere but I don't even know if that'd end up working. 

Hmm...that is odd. Unfortunately, that's a bit of a black box to us on the ID side of things. The data is from Equifax directly (USPS doesn't have nor retain any of it).

 

The backup if you cannot verify online should be going to the nearest USPS location with identity proofing. Unfortunately, this is not available near everybody.

 

https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/faq

If you are unable to verify your identity within your Informed Delivery account online, you may do so at specific USPS locations that provide Identity Verification Services. To locate the nearest Identity Verification Service locations, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your personal usps.com^® account.
2. Hover over your name in the top right corner and select My Profile, then select Preferences.
3. Select "Informed Delivery", located in the "Account Management" section.
4. Select “Enroll in Informed Delivery.”
5. If you have already failed to verify your identity online, you will see an "Opt In" button. Select this button and scroll to the bottom of the list of USPS locations offering Identity Verification Services in the table titled "Nearest USPS Identity Proofing Facilities". If you have already chosen to "Opt In", you will automatically be directed to the page displaying nearby Identity Verification Services locations.
6. Select "Continue to In-Person Proofing." You will be redirected to a page with more information and receive an email with further instructions.
7. In the search box below the table, you may type in a new ZIP Code to search for additional Identity Proofing Facilities.

1 hour ago, Scandi said:

I have the same issue and went to he local uSPS office today but they had no idea how it works, so basically there's no way I can get a MyUSPS account. It seems like a very flawed system.

Yeah....not every post office supports the in-person verification. I can imagine there's still a bit of catchup for the men/women on the ground. Keep in mind that it grew from a handful of PDCs being supported to the vast majority of the country within the past month.

 

Flawed? Absolutely!  But the overwhelming majority of users can successfully verify online. It's when that is unavailable (which can be for all types of reasons), that there's really an issue. Other identity proofing options are being examined, but I can't go into any details.

1 minute ago, CookieCat said:

What am I missing? I see all the packages I received last week (like from Amazon) but I don't see any letters I received. For example, USCIS sent me an interview notice but it doesn't show up in my USPS account? Do I need to change some setting?

It sounds like you might only be signed up for My USPS, not Informed Delivery. You can opt-in here: https://reg.usps.com/preferences. If you are opted in but just signed up, you won't see mailpieces for anything prior to when you signed up (we don't collect that kind of data in the ID system until you give us permission to do so).

 

[cdneh 3,112]

Thanks for this! What a great little tool!

[geowrian 22,335]

1 minute ago, CookieCat said:

+100 points to you! Thank you, I got it now! You're an engineer who worked behind this? Thank you for making our lives easier! 

Awesome! Thanks! I was a solutions architect and occasional a software engineer when needed, actually. haha I was on this project from it's post-POC until just recently (focusing on the Windows 10 app now).

[Scandi 3,970]

I'm looking at my husband's account that has been active for a long time and that has been "signed up for" all kinds of tracking, informed delivery, package dashboard, mail dashboard etc for about a week or two now - there's no info at all, why is that? Every tab just says "there are no reported deliveries for this day" despite the fact that we get mail everyday. 

 

I was under the impression that you will be able to see mail already the day before it shows up, is that incorrect? Because I can only choose today's date and older dates in the drop down menu, nothing for tomorrow. 

 

It's a pretty useless tool if it doesn't show anything at all? And yes, both person, zipcode and address have been verified and are valid in the USCIS account.

[geowrian 22,335]

1 minute ago, Scandi said:

I'm looking at my husband's account that has been active for a long time and that has been "signed up for" all kinds of tracking, informed delivery, package dashboard, mail dashboard etc for about a week or two now - there's no info at all, why is that? Every tab just says "there are no reported deliveries for this day" despite the fact that we get mail everyday. 

 

I was under the impression that you will be able to see mail already the day before it shows up, is that incorrect? Because I can only choose today's date and older dates in the drop down menu, nothing for tomorrow. 

 

It's a pretty useless tool if it doesn't show anything at all? And yes, both person, zipcode and address have been verified and are valid in the USCIS account.

I'll have to decline any detailed response on the package side of things. That's from the My USPS original features, which is separate from the ID service that I worked on. From a very high level, it uses the ZIP11 of the destination for the package and displays it to any account with a matching ZIP11. These do roll off after a while, but I have a delivered USPS package from almost 2 weeks ago still on my dashboard. If you're not seeing packages that you should be seeing, then It sounds like your account may not have a matching ZIP11. I have no idea if that's on the package side or account side, but I would lean towards the account side given the data you've disclosed. It might not hurt to check that the address on file with your USPS account is correct and CASS standardized (it normally does this for you, but it permits you to use an address in other formats). I'm not sure how identity proofing would complete without having this in order already, but that's handled upstream from us as well so it might not hurt to check.

 

That is incorrect. There is (at least currently) no way for it to display regular mail in advance as that's a function of so many different, various factors. The actual data comes in overnight (i.e. midnight onwards) in terms of what is being delivered that same day. There may or may not be something upstream that tracks it prior to this, but the data that reaches ID is for the mail that is going to be delivered on the next delivery date (i.e. in the AM on the same day). There is not a strict timeline for this, but fairly early in the AM is the goal. It's mostly a human-limited process. When they finish loading up mail to be delivered for a given day, we get the data and make it available shortly afterwards. Some of this may change in the future as new products are integrated (i.e. the new traceable stamps would be a great add-on IMHO), but that's beyond anything I know about or could discuss even if I did.

 

Agreed. If it's not showing anything, then something isn't syncing up correctly. That's not how it's supposed to work. While certain type of mail is not currently imaged, general letters and postcards and such should be appearing. Unfortunately, I am unable to look into your individual case (sorry!), but if you wouldn't mind passing along your 5 digit ZIP code in a PM, I can at least ask somebody to do a precursory check that data in general is coming in. USPS customer service would need to make any kind of request at an individual account level, but I assure you they are actively addressing reported issues.

[Scandi 3,970]

Thank you for all the helpful info, geowrian. Too bad this didn't work out for me, hopefully it works better for the rest of you. I will just have to go the traditional way and wait by the mailbox in case I expect something special to show up (like an EAD or a greencard, that would be nice!).

[narakthisud 174]

2 hours ago, geowrian said:

Awesome! Thanks! I was a solutions architect and occasional a software engineer when needed, actually. haha I was on this project from it's post-POC until just recently (focusing on the Windows 10 app now).

Kudos to you and the rest of the team at USPS who developed this awesome tool! It's great to be able to see a preview of the mail being delivered that day. As an IT guy myself, I can only imagine the challenges you and your team faced to implement something like this on such a large scale in an organization not typically known for being tech-savvy! Please keep the innovations coming. 

 

(It's also great to interact with a fellow I-129F petitioner in the Philly area!)

[geowrian 22,335]

6 minutes ago, narakthisud said:

Kudos to you and the rest of the team at USPS who developed this awesome tool! It's great to be able to see a preview of the mail being delivered that day. As an IT guy myself, I can only imagine the challenges you and your team faced to implement something like this on such a large scale in an organization not typically known for being tech-savvy! Please keep the innovations coming. 

 

(It's also great to interact with a fellow I-129F petitioner in the Philly area!)

Thank you! I've passed along this thread to my coworkers on the project. While management is very supportive, it's great to hear from users of the system as well...we are fairly isolated from that kind of feedback (both good and bad, I'm assuming!).

 

Awesome! There's not a whole lot of us in the Philly area from what I've seen.

Edited May 18, 2017 by geowrian

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Been using both tools throughout the AOS process and arriving in the US, and it's been great. Always knowing that now I have mail from SSA or USCIS or bank or insurance or whatever with so many accounts and things being opened and papers being sent back and forth it's been awesome. Anyone who hasn't got it set up, it's well worth doing! Ofc the package one is the one that will let you trace your EAD/AP/GC on the way but I agree with the OP that the mail one is a must have too

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

18 hours ago, geowrian said:

I hear ya. haha Trust me, we have mentioned the idea of alerts when mail actually arrives...there's just some technical (and likely non-technical that I cannot discuss) hurdles doing it on the largest ground force within the US.

 

As for the bulk mail and flats, I don't foresee that changing as that's a large potion of the revenue-generating business model. I have no real/official info on that topic, but it'd be a tough sell to those business customers to allow residents to opt out of actually delivering certain types of mail.

In Sweden we can just put a note on our mailboxes for "no commercial flyers"... but it only takes away the stuff that's not addressed to you - the rest you have to contact the actual company sending it (I mean you can opt in and out of e-mail newsletters so I don't see the problem? it's my mailbox...). Does it work similar here or no?

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

 

11 hours ago, geowrian said:

Hmm...that is odd. Unfortunately, that's a bit of a black box to us on the ID side of things. The data is from Equifax directly (USPS doesn't have nor retain any of it).

 

Might I suggest having more than one supplier of personal data for a more stable verification set-up?

Equifax is in fact the credit bureau that most ppl moving to the US have problems with - I know this after research since I Myself have problems with them. They "can't find my credit file". Been trying to get them to find it for the last few MONTHS... Experian and TransUnion have no problem whatsoever and all my creditors have verified multiple times over that they do report to Equifax and that my data is being reported correctly. I have now gotten the advice from Equifax to ask each of my creditors to personally call their business hotline to confirm me - sigh -

 

 anyhow - funny that I could verify through USPS website if Equifax can't find me  and yes "shout out" to the USPS team behind this tech. development