M-Bags

[Argentina 0]

Hi Guys!

I'm starting to think ahead about how I'm going to get my and my husband's stuff to the US from Italy.

Every time I fly back between now and his eventual arrival I'm going to check an extra bag or two, and I'm looking into shipping companies for the big stuff (if you guys have an recommendations that would awesome too).

My big problem is what to do with all of our books (we have a lot). Within the US I always used Media mail. As I was snooping on the Poste.it (Italian Postal Service) website I found something called M-Bags. Apparently they give you a canvas sack, you put a box of books in it, and depending on whether you get the economy or premium M-bag service, gets there within a few weeks to a few months. M-bags are used in a lot of countries, not just for Italy (although I read that the US got rid of the cheapest version, but they still have them).

Now, here are my reservations. After a lot of google-ing and forum searching on other websites, I've found a lot of people whose bags were lost/stolen/never arrived/arrived terribly delayed. Now I'm not sure if its because people have a tendency to post things on the internet when things go bad that maybe all the horrible things I've read about them are skewed; that is, that there are probably hundreds of examples of nothing happening but I'm not reading those. So thats why I'm asking you guys to see if anybody has ever used an M-Bag and what your experiences were with them.

If anybody is interested, here are the links for the Poste Italiane pages with info on them (in English)

http://www.poste.it/en/postali/mbagseconomy/a_index.shtml

Also, would anyone know what 150 DTS is? It says that is what you're refunded if you register the bag and its lost. Is that declared value? When I declare the value on an M-bag would it be $0 since they're all used books (and would I pay customs on them).

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, hopefully someone has used this system before and could inform me or give me their 2 cents.

[GheTToJaTTi 0]

sorry! i havent heard about that but why dont your husband go to the postal office in italy and find out for sure how it works! thank god my husband dont have a lot of stuff hahha and oh yah we never even received the AOS package in the mail til this day i had just printed the document cover sheet after the fee was showing PAID.. and sent in all the documents with it..i think u should do the same dont wait around for them mostlikly they are not gonna send it to u

[Argentina 0]

sorry! i havent heard about that but why dont your husband go to the postal office in italy and find out for sure how it works! thank god my husband dont have a lot of stuff hahha and oh yah we never even received the AOS package in the mail til this day i had just printed the document cover sheet after the fee was showing PAID.. and sent in all the documents with it..i think u should do the same dont wait around for them mostlikly they are not gonna send it to u

Thanks GheTToJaTTi! Have you sent in your DS-230 yet? I read somewhere that for Naples we should fax it directly to them. I'm a little confused about that. Are you going to fax the form to Naples (but then what about all the other information like birth certificate, police records, etc) or does NVC send us a packet of information and we sent it to them and they'll send it to Naples?

Good luck with everything and thanks for the info about probably not getting an AOS packet!

[GheTToJaTTi 0]

sorry! i havent heard about that but why dont your husband go to the postal office in italy and find out for sure how it works! thank god my husband dont have a lot of stuff hahha and oh yah we never even received the AOS package in the mail til this day i had just printed the document cover sheet after the fee was showing PAID.. and sent in all the documents with it..i think u should do the same dont wait around for them mostlikly they are not gonna send it to u

Thanks GheTToJaTTi! Have you sent in your DS-230 yet? I read somewhere that for Naples we should fax it directly to them. I'm a little confused about that. Are you going to fax the form to Naples (but then what about all the other information like birth certificate, police records, etc) or does NVC send us a packet of information and we sent it to them and they'll send it to Naples?

Good luck with everything and thanks for the info about probably not getting an AOS packet!

ur welcome.. and yah we sent our ds-230 on April 23rd.. we never received anything in the mail for that either after the IV bill showed as PAID i printed out the document cover sheet for that but had to wait for my husband to send me the police certificate... after i received the stuff from my husband i went and sent out the ds-230 packet which included my own cover sheet explaining whats in the packet, the document cover sheet, 2 passport style photos, copy of biographic page from his passport, our original marriage certificate in italian, english, and the paper from our temple where we got married, his police records from italy and india, and his original birth certificate with english translation...

the nvc should be forwarding all of this after they have completed the case.. i think you would have to fax it only if you were in italy and applying from there.. where does your husband live in italy?

[GheTToJaTTi 0]

oh and yah if i were you i would just send everything in dont wait for them to send u anything in the mail the sooner u send stuff in the sooner he'll be here

[milimelo 4,481]

I used M-bag to ship mu books from US to Bosnia after I was done with college. Not sure if you can use it for other items as it is for media (books, magazines, other printed materials). You may want to check with your post to see how much it will cost you and how long it takes.

[Argentina 0]

I used M-bag to ship mu books from US to Bosnia after I was done with college. Not sure if you can use it for other items as it is for media (books, magazines, other printed materials). You may want to check with your post to see how much it will cost you and how long it takes.

Thanks Milimelo! Yeah, they work like Media Mail in the US. Did everything you send with an M-bag arrive okay in Bosnia? The rates are incredibly cheap compared to what it would cost to ships book normally so I'm pretty excited about that.

[Argentina 0]

sorry! i havent heard about that but why dont your husband go to the postal office in italy and find out for sure how it works! thank god my husband dont have a lot of stuff hahha and oh yah we never even received the AOS package in the mail til this day i had just printed the document cover sheet after the fee was showing PAID.. and sent in all the documents with it..i think u should do the same dont wait around for them mostlikly they are not gonna send it to u

Thanks GheTToJaTTi! Have you sent in your DS-230 yet? I read somewhere that for Naples we should fax it directly to them. I'm a little confused about that. Are you going to fax the form to Naples (but then what about all the other information like birth certificate, police records, etc) or does NVC send us a packet of information and we sent it to them and they'll send it to Naples?

Good luck with everything and thanks for the info about probably not getting an AOS packet!

ur welcome.. and yah we sent our ds-230 on April 23rd.. we never received anything in the mail for that either after the IV bill showed as PAID i printed out the document cover sheet for that but had to wait for my husband to send me the police certificate... after i received the stuff from my husband i went and sent out the ds-230 packet which included my own cover sheet explaining whats in the packet, the document cover sheet, 2 passport style photos, copy of biographic page from his passport, our original marriage certificate in italian, english, and the paper from our temple where we got married, his police records from italy and india, and his original birth certificate with english translation...

the nvc should be forwarding all of this after they have completed the case.. i think you would have to fax it only if you were in italy and applying from there.. where does your husband live in italy?

Thanks GheTToJaTTi! I'm glad to hear that you never received anything in the mail either, I'll go ahead and tell my husband to start collecting his documents! Anyway, he lives in Siena. I'm here with him now too. I met him here in 2006 during a summer I studied here - and from then on I've been making trips back & fourth from Siena & the US. I'm headed back to the US in about 2 weeks to start a new job - so that'll definitely be a toughie (it seems like it gets harder everytime I leave!) but I'm excited for my new position. How about you? Where does you hubby live?

[GheTToJaTTi 0]

ohh niceee.. my hubby lives close to Brescia! we actually know each other from india..our moms are best friends!! lol i move here to us and he went to italy a while later and we still kept in touch so finally got married last year!! yah i been to italy twice already and then we just came back from india.. ur right waiting freaking suckz!!!! i wish he was here alreadyyyy

[milimelo 4,481]

I used M-bag to ship mu books from US to Bosnia after I was done with college. Not sure if you can use it for other items as it is for media (books, magazines, other printed materials). You may want to check with your post to see how much it will cost you and how long it takes.

Thanks Milimelo! Yeah, they work like Media Mail in the US. Did everything you send with an M-bag arrive okay in Bosnia? The rates are incredibly cheap compared to what it would cost to ships book normally so I'm pretty excited about that.

They are cheap because it's shipped on a ship and arrives at least a month after you send it, but it worked for me as I didn't need the books right away. Everything arrived ok, nothing lost or taken.

[ExSaffer 0]

I am not sure how long ago you guys used the M-bags, but I was told here in San Francisco, that they dont do that anymore.

[Argentina 0]

I am not sure how long ago you guys used the M-bags, but I was told here in San Francisco, that they dont do that anymore.

Hi ExSaffer!

From what I've been able to gather, most countries still offer boat and airmail M-bags. The US only discontinued the really cheap M-bags, and now only offer the Airmail version.

Here is a link to the USPS website

http://www.usps.com/international/mbags.htm

[milimelo 4,481]

I am not sure how long ago you guys used the M-bags, but I was told here in San Francisco, that they dont do that anymore.

I used it back in 2002 - so long time ago.