LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > Cross-border business mailing
It's simpler than it sounds: the letter is priced in the recipient's currency: USD for US recipients, CAD for Canadian ones, and senders can be anywhere, so a US business can mail Canadian customers with no Canadian office. The real work is on the page: invoice currency, addressing formats, and making a cross-border letter look trustworthy.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a local office to mail business letters? | No. Senders can be anywhere in the world; only the recipient's address has to be in the US or Canada. Your US company can mail Canadian customers directly. |
| What currency is the letter billed in? | The recipient's country decides: letters to US addresses are billed in USD, letters to Canadian addresses in CAD (with Canadian sales tax added at checkout). The invoice or PO inside the letter is a separate matter: price it however you and the customer agreed. |
| How do I address the letter? | Follow the destination country's format. For Canada: recipient name, street, then city + province + postal code on one line with two spaces (Toronto ON M4B 1B3). For the US: name, street, city, state abbreviation, ZIP. |
| Do letters need customs forms? | No: ordinary business letters and documents don't need customs declarations. That's for goods, not paper. |
| How long does it take? | Longer than domestic mail: budget extra days beyond what you'd expect for a letter inside one country. If timing matters, send it earlier than you think you need to. |
The currency on the invoice is a business decision, not a postal one, but it's the decision recipients notice. A US business invoicing Canadian customers in USD forces the customer to convert, usually at their bank's rate plus a spread, which reads as a hidden surcharge. Invoicing in the recipient's currency (CAD for Canadians, USD for Americans) removes that friction and makes you look like a company that actually does business in their country. State the currency explicitly on the invoice: "Amounts in CAD": because ambiguous invoices across the border are how payment disputes start.
One non-obvious trap: if you invoice in USD but the recipient pays in CAD through their own bank, the conversion rate the bank applies on payment day may not match the rate you used on invoice day. Either accept payment in the invoiced currency only, or invoice in the recipient's currency from the start.
Yes. US Certified Mail and Canada Registered Mail are the respective countries' tracked, proof-of-delivery services, and they're the right choice for cross-border documents where timing or receipt matters: contract notices, tax documents, legal deadlines. For routine invoices and POs, ordinary first-class mail is fine.
A useful detail: if you're a US sender mailing to Canada, your Canadian recipient's address shows through the window envelope just like a domestic letter: the addressing format is the only thing that changes, not the mechanics.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it's printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com