Prepaid return postage from Italy

[jduvall]

Hi, all:

You have been incredibly helpful with my questions so far, so I come to you with another. I contacted via email the comune where my great-grandfather was born (Bari, Ceglie del Campo delegazione) and asked if they could send a certified copy of my great-grandfather's birth certificate. I found an image of my great-grandfather's birth record online at antenati.san.beniculturali.it and included that as well as a completed request for birth certificate as provided by the US embassy with a copy of my driver's license. In response, the comune stated that I needed to submit a written request to the comune with a stamped envelope ("una busta afrancata") with the return address pre-filled out.

Does anybody have an idea as to how to obtain prepaid return postage from Italy? Thank you so much!

[erudita74]

Unfortunately, the U.S, postal service discontinued International Reply Coupons several years ago. Purchase of the coupons used to allow individuals in a foreign country, such as Italy, to go to their local post offices and exchange the coupons for their stamps to be used on international mailings back to the U.S. But those IRCs are no longer available. Possibly someone at your local post office though might be able to suggest an alternative to you.
Erudita

[Rossonero3]

The comunes always require a written request. When I requested a birth certificate from my comune, along with the letter I sent a self addressed envelope and 5 euros for 'postage' or whatever they wanted to use it for. A month or so later I received the certificate and to my surprise they gave me the 5 euros back. So maybe you could attempt the same and add an additional note saying there's no way for you to obtain italian postage, but here are some euro's to pay for it.

[jduvall]

In case anybody runs into this question again, I am posting what I ended up doing. Following Rossonero's advice, I sent a written request to my comune requesting a copy of the birth certificate along with a letter, a return envelope with my address, copy of my photo identification, and 15 euros. I dropped my request into the mail on March 15th and received a copy of the birth certificate yesterday (April 2nd)--a faster turnaround time than my request for documents from the USCIS, which was made the same day. 15 euros was more than enough to cover return postage as the Italian post mark indicated the cost for return postage was 4.5 euros from Bari to my home in Fort Collins, CO. I hate sending cash in the mail, but it ended up working out this time.

[Gags]

Good info - thanks for posting!!

[KathyLPV]

I had the same problem, sent an E-mail to Prato for my husband's nonno - to apply for IT citizenship - got the same response. This is a reply to all here:
1st, I checked our postoffice & USPS does have "universal reply stamps" But they only apply to "send" to foreign countries? Why is that when a US stamp does the same? Dumb.
2nd You can't get Euro's even at a foreignly owned Bank, tried that too! Nor can you get Euro's at a coin shop [they only sell old stuff]. My daughter gave me a link to someone who will "sell" you 5 Euro's - but he charges $20 dollars? NO way would I do that. Then a friend said you can go to NYC or a big city & get Euros, but I forgot where you could get those? NYC is a short train ride from me, so could make a day of it, but it''s likely not soon enough for me. I've been trying to do this for years & hope to get it done within a few months.

So now, my question for those who've done that is, How n where did you get the Euro's to send?

Greatly appreciate this post & all I've seen, done & answers gotten from ITGEN. Thanks to all here for your helping. Buon anno a tutti.

[ljg]

Hello,

I recall ordering euros from our local credit union before a trip at a reasonable price.

If you are willing to pay more, there is a provider on the fiverr website who will send you an envelope and Italian postage for the return label. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post information here, but if you do a search you should be able to find him and see the positive reviews. For about $30 (+ tip) I received the envelope with postage, and the cost included a letter to the comune and he sent a PEC email notifying them of the request being mailed.

The provider mailed the stamps and letter to me quickly. I mailed my requests to the comunes, and while I have not received the hard copies back yet, one wrote back to his PEC email to state that the relative I was looking for was actually the older brother of the one I requested who had died at age 9. It was well worth it for me but of course YMMV.

[SteveS]

Last June (2023) I used Rob (usernale: avepally) at fiver.com, which is an online small-freelance-task website.

https://www.fiverr.com/avepally/send-yo ... for-a-sase

For $20 he'll send you 4 euros worth of Italian Postage, and a correctly addressed envelope. If you need it he'll fill out a request form in Italian for $10 more. Takes about 4 days.

[ljg]

Thanks, SteveS. This is the same provider I used. I was very pleased with his service. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to make recommendations when I made the earlier post.