LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Home > Guides > Track an international letter
No, a plain international letter cannot be tracked. Once it leaves your country there is no scan trail: foreign posts do not scan ordinary letter mail the way they scan parcels. If you need proof it arrived, your real options are registered or certified mail, which produce a signed delivery record.
Tracking is built on barcode scans, and ordinary letters never get a unique barcode. Domestic USPS tracking works because parcels and some mail classes carry tracking numbers that get scanned at facilities along the way. A plain international letter carries only postage and an address. When it leaves the US, it is handed to the destination country's post in bulk, with no per-piece scanning, no checkpoints, and nothing to look up. The letter is not lost: it is simply invisible to the tracking systems.
This surprises people because parcels are so well tracked now. The difference is volume and price: the world's posts process billions of letters a year, and per-piece scanning of every ordinary letter would cost more than the postage pays for. Tracking is a paid feature of the mail class, not a property of the paper.
| Option | What you get | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| International Registered Mail (USPS) | A barcode, chain-of-custody handling, and a signature record on delivery | The strongest proof for a cross-border letter; asked for at the post office counter |
| Canada Registered Mail | Signature on delivery and a delivery record within Canada and to some destinations | The Canadian equivalent for letters mailed in Canada |
| Certificate of mailing | Proof you mailed it on a certain date, nothing about delivery | Cheap; useful when the deadline that matters is the sending date |
| Keep your own evidence | A copy of the letter, the receipt, and the date mailed | Not proof of delivery, but strong evidence of sending if a dispute arises |
USPS Certified Mail is a domestic service: it does not go to Canada or anywhere else. For cross-border letters, the equivalent is International Registered Mail, which is a separate service under the Universal Postal Union's rules and works at post offices worldwide. Do not let a clerk (or a website) sell you "certified" for a letter leaving the country: you want registered. In Canada, the domestic certified-style service also stays domestic; international proof means Canada Registered.
Registered international letters are typically handed over with a signature, not dropped in the mailbox. That is the point: someone at the destination signs, and that signature becomes your proof. It also means delivery takes longer than ordinary mail, because the piece is handled separately at every step, and the recipient may have to collect it from their local post office if nobody is home to sign.
Then proof and speed are two different problems, and you should solve them separately. For speed, international courier services (or the post office's express international options) move the letter faster and include tracking as part of the service. For proof of a legal or contractual deadline, registered mail gives you the delivery record while a courier gives you speed: pick the one your deadline actually needs. Many people want both and end up paying for neither by choosing the cheapest option and hoping.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is 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