Certified Mail

Certified Mail is not a mail class — it is an extra service bought on top of First-Class or Priority Mail postage. What you get for the fee is a receipt showing the date you mailed the piece, a tracking number that follows it to delivery, and a delivery record USPS retains.

It is the default choice for legal notices, demand letters, and anything with a deadline attached, because it produces evidence at both ends: proof you sent it on a given date, and a record of what happened when it arrived. A signature copy is a separate add-on — see return receipt.

See also

• Return receipt — A USPS add-on that sends the sender a copy of the recipient’s signature as proof the piece was delivered and to whom.
• Certificate of Mailing — A USPS receipt proving you mailed a specific piece on a specific date. It does not track the piece and it does not prove delivery.
• Registered Mail — USPS’s highest-security service: each piece is individually tracked and signed for through every transfer, and can be insured for high-value contents.
• Proof of mailing — Documentation that a piece of mail was handed to USPS on a given date — the sending half of the evidence, not the delivery half.

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