USPS Form 1583, Explained: The Mailbox Form Everyone Asks About

Somebody asks about Form 1583 at our counter almost every week. Usually it’s right after they find out they can’t rent a mailbox without one. The form isn’t complicated. It just has a reputation, mostly because people meet it for the first time on a virtual-mailbox website that tells them to go get it notarized.

Here’s what it actually is and what it takes.

What the form is

PS Form 1583 is the Postal Service’s “Application for Delivery of Mail Through Agent.” Any business that receives mail for other people is what USPS calls a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency, or CMRA. That covers mailbox stores like ours and the online mail-scanning services too. Before a CMRA can accept mail in your name, USPS requires a signed 1583 for you, backed by two IDs.

It isn’t optional and it isn’t a store policy. The rule lives in the Postal Service’s own regulations, the Domestic Mail Manual, section 508.1.8. The store enters your information and uploads copies of your IDs to the USPS CMRA customer database, and keeps the signed form on file where a postal inspector can ask to see it.

The two IDs

You need two current, unexpired IDs: one with your photo, and one that shows where you live.

The photo ID. The USPS list includes:

• a state driver’s license or state ID card
• a U.S. passport, passport card, or foreign passport
• a military or uniformed-service ID
• a permanent resident card or certificate of citizenship or naturalization
• a tribal ID, a Matricula Consular card, or a NEXUS card
• a U.S. university ID or a U.S. corporate ID

The address ID. This one proves your home address. It can be a second photo ID from the list above, or a current document like a lease, mortgage or deed of trust, voter registration card, vehicle registration, or a home or vehicle insurance policy.

What does not count: Social Security cards, birth certificates, and credit cards. USPS rules those out by name. An expired ID doesn’t count either, even if it only lapsed last week.

The home address you write on the form needs to match the address ID. That trips more people up than anything else. If you moved last month and your license still shows the old place, bring the new lease.

Who signs it, and where

The rule says you sign in front of the mailbox store, or acknowledge your signature in front of a notary.

At our counter you sign in front of us, so no notary is needed. We check both IDs, watch you sign, sign as the agent on the same day, and it’s done in a few minutes. The notary step only comes into it when the store isn’t in the room with you, which is why the online-only services send people looking for one.

Who needs their own form

• Each adult who gets mail at the box. Spouses each fill out their own form and bring their own two IDs. USPS spells that out.
• Anyone you add later. Another adult who’ll pick up or receive mail is listed on the form with their own IDs.

We rent mailboxes to adults only.

How to write your new address

This is the part that saves you returned mail. When the store’s street address already has a suite number, USPS requires the word PMB (private mailbox) in front of your box number, on its own line. Ours does, so a box here is written like this:

JANE SMITH
PMB 123
9311 FM 1488 RD STE 30
MAGNOLIA TX 77354

Put it the same way on your bank, your subscriptions and your LLC paperwork, so every carrier reads it the same way. FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS all deliver to a street address. A PO Box can’t take a FedEx or UPS package. We cover that difference in Private Mailbox vs PO Box.

When you close the box

When a box closes, the store keeps the signed form for at least six months afterward, as the rule requires. Update your address with the senders before you close it. Mail that keeps coming after the box is gone has nowhere to land.

Ready to set one up?

Bring your two IDs to the counter at 9311 FM 1488 RD, Suite 30 in Magnolia. We’re open Monday through Friday 9 to 6 and Saturday 10 to 4. We have the form on hand and fill it in with you. Box sizes, terms and what’s included are on the mailbox rental page. Questions first? Call 936-444-9711.

Sources: USPS Domestic Mail Manual 508.1.8, Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies and 608.10, Identification, checked October 3, 2026.