Sao Paulo
Moving in
Mail, Post office
There are over 3,800 post office outlets across Brazil, employing almost 100,000 people and distributing 34 million items daily. Post offices are open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, although post offices in shopping malls are usually open later. There are no fixed opening hours at the weekend as this depends on the individual post office owners themselves, but some are open till 1pm on Saturdays. For more information you can call the following toll-free number: 0800 725 0100 (during office hours only). You can locate a post office near you via the following site:
Brazilian post codes (or Códigos de Endereçamento Postal, CEP) are formed of a series of 8 digits, e.g. 10021-358. The first digit of the post code represents one of the ten postal regions in Brazil; this is followed by another digit indicating the sub-region. The following three numbers represent respectively the sector, sub-sector and sub-sector division. The last three digits after the hyphen indicate avenues, roads, parks and squares within a municipality and they range from 000 to 999. To find a post code in Brazil go to http://www.correios.com.br/ and type in the street name where it says “Endereço”.
Standard Brazilian letters are rectangular in shape, should not exceed a thickness of 5mm and should be sealed without the use of staples or clips. Larger sized packages will cost more to send. When writing the address on an envelope or package use blue or black ink and write in capital letters the person’s or company’s name, the name and number of the road, the name of the district (or Bairro), the city or region name, the code for the state and finally the post code. The sender's address should be written on the back of the envelope or parcel.
Regular and priority mail letters can be sent using pre-paid envelopes, stamps or franking machines located at post offices. Domestic delivery of regular mail takes from one to three days. Various express delivery options also exist including SEDEX 10 (guaranteed next-day delivery on weekdays and Saturdays), SEDEX HOJE (same-day recorded mail delivery service) and the international registered mail service SEDEX MUNDI. Delivery time to Europe is four to six days and items may be tracked online.
13/12/2010