Living life as a dual-citizen ex-pat or an international business leader is the dream for many successful Americans. Making a name for yourself in the United States is one thing, but being able to see the world off the back of that is another. When you can use this to build a better life for your family, it’s even sweeter. It can be tough, however, to stay connected to life back in the States when working in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East.
One factor that’s overlooked is mail services. As a citizen, you’ll still get a lot of important correspondence in the United States. There are also online purchases and packages from family at home. So, what’s the best way to handle all this? Well, it might be best to have everything delivered to a virtual address in America. These companies specialize in setting up physical locations with real business addresses where clients can receive all their mail with ease. While they are typically used for startups and home businesses within the country, they also have their benefits for Americans abroad.
How Can Americans Abroad Benefit From Virtual Addresses?
There are some pieces of mail you don’t want traveling across an ocean while you are away. In some cases, the sender might not even agree to do so if there’s important documentation. Vital information about your business, documents from the government, or anything from medical providers is better off staying within the United States until you return. However, you don’t want it all piling up in your residential mailbox. You also don’t want masses of mail going to friends and family. A secondary address with a mail-handling facility could be the answer.
Then there’s the issue of dealing with purchases and packages. Let’s say you and your immediate family are all out of the country for 6 months while you work on an international project. Over those six months, you are sure to want to buy things from your favorite American companies. You can order clothes, toys, and gadgets for everyone to look forward to when they get back. A third-party location in your home city, or close to family, could be the perfect way to keep them all safe until you return.
There is also a completely different side to these virtual addresses that makes them highly valuable for international businesspeople. You don’t have to give up on your American companies and any secondary home business just because you are an ex-pat or away from a long time. Virtual office spaces can act as business addresses, giving you somewhere to register your business in a different market. You can have clients, suppliers, and other associates send mail to this new address without it affecting your home life or your work in another country.
What Makes These Virtual Addresses So Beneficial?
One reason people love these virtual addresses is that you can receive packages from all kinds of carriers. This isn’t always the case when working with PO Box locations or other addresses. Therefore, you can have all your business and government mail, and all your packages in one convenient place. This is great when trying to manage a home life and home office at once.
Another benefit of these companies is the amount of information you can receive about the mail. The concern here is that you will end up collecting mail at your US address with no idea what is waiting for you. That could be torture if you have important documents but won’t be back to read them for a few months. The best companies will have your back with informative online portals and mobile apps. You will get a notification for each piece of mail to keep track of it all. You can also have them scan items and turn them into a digital PDF. This lets you have an official copy to use while you are abroad. On top of that, you can even ask the team to shred unwanted items to stop them from taking up storage space.
Whatever you receive in these virtual address locations, you can be sure that everything will be secure and taken care of until you return. The best companies will hold on to an agreed-upon volume of mail, with fees attached for different handling services. You could go for the highest capacity option to keep as much in storage as possible until you return. You could also save on the monthly rates by having items redirected to someone else. For example, if you know you will be in the country on a work trip in a month, you could arrange to have important mail sent to someone you trust in the area. Alternatively, you could have a virtual mailbox close to your immediate family who could help organize everything.
The final benefit here, and one that is helpful for ex-pats, is that most companies will offer a choice of locations across the country. The bigger and more successful the company, the broader the options. This means that you can set up an address anywhere you like. It could be a location close to the family home, where you plan to return after your time aboard. It could be close to another family member, such as the kid’s grandparents, to offer a convenient place to pick up items while on vacation. Or, it could be somewhere better suited to another home business. If you aren’t sure which way to go, you may even be able to go to multiple locations and divert your mail accordingly.
A Virtual Mailbox Could Make Life Easier
Whatever your reason for spending so much time outside the United States, you should still be able to handle your American mail and packages with ease. Set up a plan with a virtual office space in a suitable location and make the most of all the services they offer. You can stay up-to-date with everything you receive while still waiting months to handle it at a home office. It could make a massive difference to your family as you juggle life between two countries.
