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Home > Guides > Temporary forwarding
Yes. Both the USPS and Canada Post let you forward mail to a temporary address with an end date you choose, so your mail follows you south (or wherever) and then stops when you return. It is different from a permanent change of address: your home address stays your official address, and forwarding simply ends instead of moving your records.
| Temporary forwarding | Permanent change of address | |
|---|---|---|
| Your official address | Stays the same | Changes to the new address |
| Duration | Ends on a date you choose | Stays in effect until you change it again |
| Best for | Snowbirds, extended travel, temporary work assignments | Moves |
| When it ends | Mail goes to your home address again, automatically | Not applicable |
The key difference is what happens to your records. A permanent change tells the postal service you've moved. A temporary forward says "same home, just send it here for a while." When the end date passes, forwarding stops and your mail goes home again, with no second form to file.
With USPS, file the change of address as temporary and pick your start and end dates. Identity verification is part of the process, which is also what blocks fraudulent forwards filed in someone else's name. With Canada Post, buy the mail redirection service for the period you'll be away. In both cases, set the start date a few days before you actually leave: mail already in the pipeline to your home address needs time to catch the forward.
Treat forwarding as a safety net, not a plan. Tell your bank, your insurer, your tax agency, and anyone who sends time-sensitive mail directly, because first-class mail is what reliably follows you, and some senders' mail doesn't forward at all. The forward catches what you forgot; it shouldn't be the only thing standing between you and a missed bill.
Parcels from private carriers are the big gap. UPS, FedEx, and Amazon deliveries don't follow a postal forward, so reroute those with each sender individually before you leave. Magazines and catalogs often don't forward either, or only do so briefly, and obvious junk mail never forwards at all. Anything addressed to someone who didn't set up forwarding, like a houseguest's mail arriving at your address, stays put.
If a housesitter or neighbor is watching your place, ask them to glance at the mailbox anyway. Forwards are good, not perfect: the occasional piece slips through, and a full mailbox is also a signal to anyone watching that nobody's home.
October is the natural month to set this up: file before you head south, not after you arrive. Overlap the start date with your departure by a few days so nothing sits in an empty mailbox during the transition. Before you return in spring, check the end date on your forward: if your plans slip by a few weeks, extend the forward rather than letting it lapse while you're still away.
And keep one trusted person with a key. Forwarded mail covers most of it, but a package left at the door covers none of it, and neither does anything a sender addressed by hand to your home after the forward expired. A human backup is the cheapest insurance in the whole setup.
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