I have sent some letters and articles to friends in BON and 3 out of 4 came back. I addressed them:

name
street address
Bonaire
NA

So, this letter I wrote

name
street address
Bonaire
Dutch Caribbean per directions from a friend.

Also, a card I sent on July 20 got to BON Aug. 27th when I was at his house!!

Others come back 6-7 weeks later..

UGHH..what gives??

Annie
Cape Cod

The "NA" abbreviation is not recognized by the US Post office (or probably anywhere outside of the NA), though the full spelling 'Netherlands Antilles' is; it is the official name of our 'country'--My mother takes my mail to the post office, and makes sure they look up 'Netherlands Antilles' (I believe the US Postal code is 240-though this is never put on the envelopes-it's some internal USP thing for calculating postage (?)). Addressed: Name, Street, Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean, Netherlands Antilles. From NJ to here has been averaging 10 days (before 9/11). I get the feeling that most mistakes are made w/in the USP....I also have a whole collection of "missents" (envelopes stamped "Missent to Borneo" or whatever country my mail took a tour through, but it's been awhile since one of those.

Also missent to the Netherlands (people stop reading at Netherlands and don't see the "Antilles" some times).

Jake

Dutch West Indies works. Remember, almost all mail is read by a machine looking for numbers and those without or illegible are kicked out to be read by humans.(Lorraine please comment and give us the right postal code)

I could be wrong but I believe the code on the PO machine is for postage, not a delivery code. Antigua's is 107 and I never put it on..oh well.

Annie
Cape Cod

The postage code is for internal use, every country has a code assigned to it. yes Michael is right ,240 is Bonaire's #
I believe the best way to address something to Bonaire is:
John Doe
E.G.G. Boulivard #46
Belnam, Bonaire
(Dutch Netherland Anntillies
SOUTHERN CARRIBEAN )
This way you can avoid mistakes all around it goes thru so many hands and machines. I believe the mail goes thru Cuaraco too.
Make it very ledgibile. Have customs forms filled out on all packages. Masha danke for letting me share this info to make "snail mail" better.

Thanks, Lorraine, I have made a note of it for future use. Still thinking of you and Jim every time I see the Firefighters on the news.....cb

I have always added "Dutch Netherland Antillies", and have even used one of those bright yellow underliner pens. This draws attention to the country. I also have the clerk look up the country code and make sure that it is not the Netherlands - it will end up in Holland! If you are sending to a resort - you can just indicate which one without a street address.

I note that the US Navy, in the link Jake put in the following thread, uses Aruba, Dutch Caribbean and Bonaire and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, as island addresses.

Can't swear to its accuracy but,

from: ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/doc/iso/iso3166-countrycodes

Newsletter III-47 1993-07-12
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES changed numeric code from 532 to 530

NETHERLANDS ANTILLES

Two letter code- AN

Three letter code - ANT

Three digit code - 530

It will probably still go to the Netherlands!!

Cheers,

Bill

Just one other item.

NA in the ISO-3166 system
is.

NAMIBIA NA
So your mail can take a REALLY long time to be returned to you!!

Bill

I suggest you add Dutch West Indies or Dutch Caribbean to the address for a better chance of mail being delivered on a timely basis.