What kind of post does admission office use? Regular or express?

[Mr. Giz]

Hello everybody!

I'm an international student waiting a documentation from admission office for getting a visa. They told they would send it at the end of April, I wonder how long it will pass. Some usual papers as an offer letter come to my town from US for about 1 month. But if they use express post (particularly, for I-20 form) I will have a chance to get it in a few days.

So, what's an usual practice?

[origin415]

Everything I've gotten has been normal usps mail. If you are abroad, this might be different. Ask the department, if its important you get it soon, say so.

[Grad Hopeful]

How you receive your I-20 and other admissions documents will be highly dependent on the school so you should contact the office that deals with sending out the I-20 documents.

Below is my personal experience and may not apply to your situation:

At the International Admissions Office I worked at they sent the admission letter and I-20 (along with any scholarship information) in the same package by UPS, where it would reach most places within 3-7 business days. Our office would tell students this and even email the tracking number and SEVIS number if requested. This was all sent without cost to the student, however if the school you are contacting does not send it by a courier service you may be able to request such a service if you are willing to pay the costs. Documents not included in the I-20 package were sent by regular post/mail.

[fromeurope]

My I-20 took some 35 days to arrive -- I was just about to pay for my school to express mail me a new copy when it finally did. Although, I suspect that it was lost in the mail for a bit, since I've received other materials in 10 days or so... But at any rate, if you're not getting it, and you're worrying, do pay for them to express it. (I'm in Europe.)

Edited April 10, 2010 by p7389

[metasyntactic]

One of the schools I heard back from used FedEx for their documents. Another used normal postal service (Canada Post).