Mumbai - Post Report Question and Answers
How do you send and receive your letters and package mail? Are local postal facilities adequate?
I use the US consulate. - Jul 2023
The US Consulate receives diplomatic pouch letters and packages. It is expensive and challenging to ship anything more than a letter out. Local postal facilities are interesting, but I wouldn't trust them to get mail to a destination outside of India. FedEx and DHL have offices here. - May 2023
Outside of alcohol, diplomatic mail is next best thing for morale. Usually takes about two weeks to arrive. - Aug 2021
I don't get letters, mainly email. I receive my packages from the mail room at work. Never been inside a local postal facility. - Nov 2020
We have a Diplomatic Mail system. I don’t know anything about local postal services. - Aug 2019
Pouch mail through the consulate takes about ten days from the US. - Mar 2019
Pouch - May 2018
I use diplomatic pouch. From what I understand the Indian postal service is very unreliable, and addresses don't seem to be standardized. - Jun 2017
DPO. - Aug 2015
Through work. - Nov 2014
Email or nothing. Shops usually can send stuff to the USA via their own courier connections, which are not that expensive. FedEx is here but is pricey. - Mar 2014
Fedex for packages. India Post is not the worst. - Feb 2014
I use the school's pouch. For bigger items, I use fedex. I've never had a problem having food, toiletries, books, or anything delivered, but I usually have to pay a couple thousand rupees in duty fees, so I only order when necessary. Flipkart.com has a good selection of books and other items and deliver quickly and for free within India. - May 2013
Diplomatic pouch -- a drag because it is extremely slow and has severe limitations on content (such as no liquids, no electronics with lithium batteries) and on size (outgoing packages cannot be bigger than a VHS cassette). - Feb 2013
Through diplomatic pouch we can send letters but not packages. I've heard of someone successfully using Indian mail to send packages back to the US. - Dec 2010
Pouch. - Nov 2008
Pouch. DHL for super-urgent mail, gets to US in about 5 days. - Aug 2008
We use pouch. Customs duties are 30+ percent on all goods coming in. So do not anything here unless willing to pay the customs. - Jul 2008
