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Here we wish to dispell the myth that one needs additional postage to cover the costs to send their seed from the USDA to their home address. When the SLSP was created, some of the information on the USDA site concerning the redirecting of mail was a little 'ambiguous', and since the USDA doesn't handle cash in any form, the USPS was a little jumpy in their concerns in loosing revenue. Rightly so, as no one likes to be on the loosing end. But this is redirected mail, which is an entirely different catagory. This is the link to the article from the USDA's own site: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/permits/downloads/q37-2circular.pdf The specific passage on page 4 states: After agricultural clearance at the inspection station, mail shipments are returned to the mails and go forward to the destination under the original postage. An email from NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) who fought long and hard to open up the US border to seed importation said: Due to some hard work by Joyce Fingerut, the USDA/APHIS Inspection Stations and the US Postal Service have come to an agreement that packages sent through the postal system that go through the Inspection Stations can be put back into the postal system after inspection without any additional postage. The three Inspection Stations that NARGS is using this year are all aware of this, and hopefully the other Inspection Stations in the US have also received the directive. This agreement is only for packages that go through the postal system-any that use FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. are a different matter.... I heard there had been some problems earlier at the Seattle station (which we don't use), but that should be resolved by now. If you hear of any continuing problems with Inspection Stations please contact Joyce and she will let her contact at USDA/APHIS know about it. So no additional postage is needed. Regards, Laura So there you have it. If need be, print out the necessary bits and use them to enlighten folks who say otherwise.
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