Mailing Addresses in the Middle East

This is the post office building on Tahlia Street in Jeddah.This isn’t a tiny little street where there is a few stores here and there. This is the “main drag” of the city and is lined with every store you can think of from Dior and Bulgari to Starbucks and Payless Shoes.

At our last Visa Briefing in Beirut, Lebanon the AMIDEAST country director Ms. Barbara Batlouni bluntly said to the group “Guys, please stop trying to mail stuff to these students. A few years ago the government decided to name all the streets, no one in Beirut knows the name of their street. I’ve lived in my house for 13 years and I can tell you exactly how to get here, but I have no idea the official name of the street or my house number”.  She is not exaggerating. Students use the AMIDEAST office PO Box to receive their I-20′s and SAT/GMAT results.

Here are my suggestions for working with students from the Middle East:

1. Do not ask students for their mailing address during your Initial Point of Contact – whether its a form on your website, a booth at a fair in the country

2. Request a phone number, students are always happy to give you their cell phone number

3. Ask for the student’s mailing address ONLY once their application is started: this will ensure that no made up address ends up in your database.

4. FedEx delivers to PO Boxes in the Middle East. Always. They do not deliver to PO Boxes domestically but do in the entire Middle East.

The mail system in the entire region is a complete disaster. Mail can arrive if you send something via regular post, however, if you are sending the students anything time sensitive (such as their housing forms) please either consider sending it along with the I-20 in the courier package OR switch to an online form.

In the past I had often been required to fill out an address for my (parent’s) home in Saudi. I used a hodgepodge of close by street names and no-longer-in-existence landmarks to complete that part of the form. Once I knew I needed to make sure the address was 100% correct and deliverable I would call Dad and ask for his office PO Box.  Its easier to rely on email and phone rather than post. Let’s not even discuss the big name school that spent $60K on a direct mail campaign to Saudi Arabia.  Yeeesh…

If you are traveling with us this Fall expect that the student registrations from the fair will NOT have  a mailing address included – just all the more important contact information and student data you need to collect

- Wassan

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