components of a Canadian postal address
Like our addresses, a Canadian postal address must have at least three lines to be deliverable.
If your address doesn’t have three lines, you probably don’t have the full details. or there are chances that you are using the wrong format.
Here are some components to include when writing Canadian postal addresses:
recipient name
Type the recipient’s full name in capital letters on the first line. use an appropriate prefix, such as “sir”, “mrs”, “mrs”, “dr”, etc., followed by the name.
It is mandatory to mention the name of the recipient in the first line unless you are sending a commercial email. in this case, you can write the company name instead.
Also, it’s best to write the recipient’s name even when writing business addresses, so you can direct mail to the right person within a company.
for example, you want to send an email to a person named mr. William, who is the head of human resources at company xyz which has 50 employees. If you leave out his name on the first line, his correspondence could go to the wrong recipient within the company.
so please be honest and write the recipient’s full and correct name to begin your address.
again, like our addresses, you can start typing in the middle of the envelope.
additional address details
You can add an extra line to your mailing address if there’s anything you’d like to add.
sometimes you may need to include the name of the department within an organization, such as sales and marketing department, purchasing department, etc.
You can also add the person’s designation as additional address details. all this information makes the delivery process more accurate.
Be sure to add these additional details on the second line, below the recipient’s name. furthermore, you should include this line only when required or necessary.
civic leadership in usa. us, we mention the street address on the second line. carries the apartment or unit number along with the street name.
Similarly, the Canadian address format requires that you mention the civic address on the third line. If you don’t add any secondary address details, type the civic address on the second line.
remember that there are several types of streets such as alleys, avenues, avenues, roads, etc. everyone has an abbreviation that you should use in your civic addresses.
find some examples below:
*the above list is not exhaustive.
You should also mention the correct street addresses, such as n, s, e, w, nw, se, sw, ne, etc.
if you want to mention the apartment or suite number, you can use the following abbreviations:
- apartment: apt
- unit: unit
- suite: suite
you can follow the following Canadian street address formats:
- 101 jasper ave sw
- 25-108 cedar st
- suite 5 birchmount rd
name of the municipality and province or territory
the next line must consist of the name of the city or municipality. but, a single city can have more than one municipality functioning in the area.
Canada has a total of 3,573 municipalities. so make sure you type the correct name.
leave a space after the city name and type the province or territory to which your address belongs. write your abbreviations instead of the name, exactly like our addresses.
here is the list of all the provinces and territories of canada with their 2-digit abbreviations:
zip codes
Before we continue discussing how to format Canadian addresses, let’s talk about Canadian postal codes.
the canada postal address format requires you to write the postal code on the same line as the city and province.
You must leave two spaces after the province abbreviation before entering your postal codes.
Unlike ZIP codes in the United States, ZIP codes are alphanumeric and have six digits. postal codes follow the ana nan format, where a is an alphabet and n is a number.
they are divided into two main segments: direct sorting area (fsa) and local delivery unit (ldu). the fsa defines a major geographic location, while the ldu identifies small delivery units.
please find below an example for better reference:
Each province and territory has a code letter that is the first character of the fsas. here is a list of these code letters:
In the example above, m4b 1g5, it is clear that the mail is going to the Greater Toronto Area.
Likewise, the other characters also help postal services to deliver your mail to the exact destination.
then the whole line should look like this:
montreal qc h1a 0b7
country name
If you are sending your mail from Canada to a Canadian address, you do not need to enter the name of the country. but you must always write the name of the destination country for international shipments.
when using the united states canada postal address format, you must type the word “canada” on the last line.
No matter how many lines you use in your usps canada address format, mention the country name at the end.
here is an canada address example to help you better understand:
mr kevin dias 978 argyle st n halifax ns b3j 2b3 canada
If you don’t know the correct postal code or province, you can check the Canada Post website. but, you may or may not get the details you are looking for to type in the correct mailing address.
so postgrid’s usps and canada postal address lookup helps you verify any address you want.