Overseas mail deadlines approach

With the holiday season soon approaching, it may be difficult for college students to remember to mail holiday gifts. But for international students, planning is a feat of logistics and strategy.\nSimply sending a package or letter via the U.S. Postal Service at economy price would require allowing four to six weeks for the package to arrive. However, the postal service offers a faster service at correspondingly higher prices. \nHowever, most international students don't send mail by the postal service. Most students said they send electronic cards or order gifts off the Internet and arrange to have them be delivered directly to the recipient.\n"I don't send letters or packages by U.S. mail -- I do it by the net," said Sandeep Singhal standing just outside Foster Quad. "It is just too expensive and risky to send it by mail."\nAs a general rule, when international students need to ship something, they will send it through the global shipping company DHL, said Ketan Chhatpar, a student from Bombay.\n"It is like the Asian FedEx," said Chhatpar. "You can track the location of your package at anytime online through DHL."\nAccording to the company's Web site, DHL is "the global market leader of the international air express industry." The corporation operates in over 20 countries and territories.\nThough international students may not see themselves as frequent users of the U.S. postal service, employees at the Bloomington post office say they do not seem to see companies such as DHL to be much of a detriment to their business. \n"We are more worldwide than FedEx, our rates are more competitive than other companies, if not less expensive," said Bill Hawkins, supervisor of customer service at the main branch in Bloomington.\nFor students who intend to send holiday mail overseas by the U.S. postal service, the deadlines are quickly approaching. The deadline to send holiday mail to Asia and the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand is Oct. 30, according to The Associated Press. Gifts being sent to the Middle East should be out by today, and surface mail to Central and South America should be on its way by Nov. 1. The cut-off date for the Caribbean, Mexico and Europe is Nov. 7. \nHoliday parcels must be shipped this far in advance because they are going overseas and must be handled by multiple countries, Hawkins said. Recent increases in security have also added shipping time.\nJunior Karisha Babani, an international student from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, said she has planned ahead with her holiday mail.\n"I would send any international mail three and a half weeks in advance," Babani said.\n-- Contact staff writer Lauren Schaefer at lamschae@indiana.edu.