Problem with delivery of international registered letters to US?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am in the middle of a very prolonged battle between the IRS and my bank in the US about the loss of a covid stimulus check in 2021. On January 3 2026 I sent registered letters (with signature requirement) from Switzerland to two IRS address (one in Austin TX and one in Philadelphia) and one to my bank (Richmond VA). According to the USPS tracking, my Philadelphia letter arrived on January 19. But the other two seemed to get stuck at the final destination city (Richmond and Austin) at about the same time. The status of both reads “In Transit to Next Facility” .

After about a month more of waiting I initiated a traced on the two missing letters, which found nothing.

I know that USPS is not in the best of shape in recent years, but to lose the letter in the final stages in two out of three attempts seems unlikely. Can anyone offer any explanation? Is there any reason that the final delivery and signature of a registered letter to a government facility/large bank might not get recorded? Or refused?

2

Depending on where you got that IRS address from, it might actually be a truckload address. IOW, once mail gets to the servicing PO, it’s all heaved onto a truck by the sackload. Which then drives to the IRS facility and dumps the load on their dock. Except the registered ones, which need a sig. But nobody from the PO takes the letter to an IRS office and nobody who works in the IRS office knows to come to the PO and sign for it. Not that they ever would.

So there it sits at that PO until it’s eventually misplaced. Catch-22.

3

thanks. This is kind of what I have imagined as well.

But are you just hypothesizing or have your heard or experienced this somewhere? I can imagine the IRS ignoring/losing registered letters, but would a bank do the same thing? It seems a bank would stand to lose more if they didn’t receive an important letter.

4

Just about 10 days ago i put my passport and application for renewal by mail in an envelope and tried to send it by registered mail only to be told that the Canadian PO cannot (or will not) send registered mail to the US. So I sent it regular mail and hoped for the best.