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It is a mailing instruction printed on the envelope that tells the USPS what to do if the piece can't be delivered. With 'Return Service Requested,' the post office does not forward the mail; instead it sends the piece back to you with the reason it failed or, in many cases, the recipient's new address attached.
| Endorsement | If undeliverable | Do you get the new address? |
|---|---|---|
| Return Service Requested | Piece returned to sender, not forwarded | Yes, when a forwarding order is on file |
| Address Service Requested | Forwarded; sender notified of new address separately | Yes, by separate notice |
| Change Service Requested | Not forwarded; piece disposed of | Yes, by separate notice |
| Forwarding Service Requested | Forwarded | Only if undeliverable as addressed at the new address too |
With no endorsement at all, undeliverable First-Class mail is generally returned to the sender anyway, and lower classes of mail are often discarded. "Return Service Requested" makes that explicit and adds the valuable part: the address correction. If the recipient filed a change-of-address order, the post office attaches the new address to the piece it returns. For businesses, that returned address is the point: it lets them clean up their mailing list instead of sending the next letter to the same dead address.
The endorsement goes on the envelope below the return address, in capital letters. It is part of USPS's ancillary service endorsements, a small family of printed instructions that control forwarding and returns. They date back to the days when forwarding was a manual decision at each post office, and they still govern what happens to a piece after the carrier discovers it can't be delivered as addressed.
The endorsement works on the mainstream classes: First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and USPS Ground Advantage. It does not work on every bulk or marketing class, where the sender has usually already accepted that undeliverable pieces will be discarded. If you are mailing in bulk and care about address hygiene, ask about the endorsement before you print; adding it after the fact means reprinting the envelope.
One combination worth knowing: certified mail plus "Return Service Requested" gives you proof of mailing and delivery attempts along with the address correction if the piece fails. Lawyers, landlords, and anyone sending notices with legal consequences pair the two routinely.
Printing the endorsement itself is free: it is just ink on the envelope. The costs, when they come, arrive with the returned piece. If an undeliverable item comes back, the post office can charge for the return on some classes, and address-correction notices carry their own small fees on certain mail. For everyday First-Class letters, a returned piece generally comes back without a separate charge. The honest answer is that the endorsement is cheap insurance: the price of one returned piece is far less than months of mail vanishing into a forwarding black hole.
Use it when the recipient's address might be stale and you want to know about it: billing statements, account notices, legal correspondence, anything where an unreceived letter becomes your problem later. Election offices use these endorsements heavily for exactly this reason: a ballot that can't reach a voter needs to come back with an explanation, not disappear.
Skip it when forwarding is what you want. If the recipient just moved and you would rather the letter follow them than come back, "Address Service Requested" or "Forwarding Service Requested" is the better instruction. Pick the endorsement that matches the outcome you want, because the post office will follow it literally.
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