Postal Explorer > Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards > 2 Postal Addressing Standards > 29 Puerto Rico Addresses

29 Puerto Rico Addresses

291 Format

Puerto Rico's common addressing consists of various formats, such as:

Apartment Building with Street Address

Number, Street, and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

1234 AVE ASHFORD APT 1A
SAN JUAN PR 00907-1021

Condominium with Street Address

Condominium Name
Number, Street, and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

COND LAS AMAPOLAS
1230 CALLE AMAPOLAS APT 103
CAROLINA PR 00979-1126

Exception

Name
Number and Urbanization
City, State, and ZIP+4

MR JOHN DOE
1234 URB LOS OLMOS
PONCE PR 00731-1235

Four-line Address

Name
Urbanization
Street and Number
City, State, and ZIP+4

MRS JANE DOE
URB LAS GLADIOLAS
150 CALLE A
SAN JUAN PR 00926-0221

Three-line Address

Name
Number and Street
City, State, and ZIP+4

MR JOHN DOE
1234 CALLE AURORA
MAYAGUEZ PR 00680-1234

Exception

Name
Number and Urbanization
City, State, and ZIP+4

MR JOHN DOE
1234 URB LOS OLMOS
PONCE PR 00731-1235

Apartment Buildings - Condominiums

Number, Street, and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

1234 AVE ASHFORD APT 1A
SAN JUAN PR 00907-1021

Condominium with Street Address

Condominium Name
Number, Street, and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

COND LAS AMAPOLAS
1230 CALLE AMAPOLAS APT 103
CAROLINA PR 00979-1126

Exception

Name
Condominium Name
Building No. and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

MR RALPH DOE
COND GARDEN HILLS PLAZA
TORRE 2 APT 905
GUYANABO PR 00966-2325

Exception

Name
Condominium Name and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

D MR JOHN DOE
COND DEL MAR APT 103
SAN JUAN PR 00907-1112

Certain condominiums are not located on a named street or have an assigned number to the building. The name of the condominium is substituted for the street name.

Name
Residential Name
Building No. and Apt. No.
City, State, and ZIP+4

MR JUAN DOE
RES LAS MARGARITAS
EDIF 1 APT 104
CAGUAS PR 00725-1103

The word CALLE is commonly placed before the street name and number. CALLE means STREET in Spanish, and placing the word CALLE prior to other address components is proper use based on Spanish composition. In addition to the word CALLE, the word AVENIDA or its abbreviation AVE may also appear in this position.

292 Urbanization

Urbanization denotes an area, sector, or development within a geographic area. In addition to being a descriptive word, it precedes the name of the area. This URB descriptor, commonly used in urban areas of Puerto Rico, is an important part of the addressing format, as it describes the location of a given street.

293 Common Translations

The following is a list of commonly used phrases that may appear in Puerto Rico addresses:

The following is a list of Spanish words and their corresponding abbreviations:

294 Spanish Directionals

Directionals are not commonly used in Puerto Rico addresses because other descriptions, such as urbanization, identify geographic areas. When they do appear in addresses, however, they may appear as follows:

295 Delivery Address Line

295.1 General

The components of the Delivery Address Line are the primary address number, street name, secondary address identifier, and secondary address range.

Note: In Puerto Rico there are usually no directionals or suffixes. Additionally, most apartment buildings do not have a street address. In this situation, the building name is part of the primary address identifier. If directionals are present in an address, they are part of the street name. Do not translate to directionals.

295.2 Street Names

Do not abbreviate street names if at all possible. Consult the abbreviation tables prior to making any abbreviation. For matching purposes, eliminating the word CALLE from named streets is recommended. Always print CALLE, AVENIDA, etc. on the mailpiece.

295.3 Numbered Streets

Numbered streets must always contain the word CALLE. This avoids misinterpretation of the delivery information between numbered streets and house numbers.

Note: Do not translate CALLE to the suffix ST. This translation makes the address undeliverable.

295.4 House Numbers

House numbers may have fractional or alphabetic modifiers. To make an address more deliverable because of alphanumeric ranges, place the house number before the street name.

Due to the amount of numbers within a block and a house number in Puerto Rico addresses, many identifiers are used to separate address elements, including BLOQUE, NUM, NO, CASA, and LOTE. None of the identifiers are part of the address, and they are not in the AIS files.

Certain rules have to be established to eliminate these identifiers from address files. Placing the house number before the street name is recommended.

When placing alphanumeric house numbers prior to the street name, avoid using hyphens.

However, hyphens in the address range may be significant. When addresses contain up to three-digit numeric block numbers, it is necessary to include a hyphen.

This process facilitates matching customer files against AIS since hyphens are present in the AIS files.

295.5 Urbanization

Because urbanizations are the most important part of the address, they are abbreviated to URB followed by the urbanization name.

Urbanizations are not repeated within five-digit zones and in most cases are served by one single carrier route. Therefore, a list of urbanization names serves for Five-Digit ZIP Code verification.

Note: Certain urbanizations are known as extensiones, mansiones, repartos, villas, parques, and jardines. When these names are present, there is no need to place the abbreviation URB prior to the name of the urbanization.

Note: Some areas in Puerto Rico served in urbanizations do not have a street name. The urbanization becomes a street name and is located in the primary identifier of the AIS files.

295.6 Post Office Box

Print Post Office Box addresses as PO BOX on the mailpiece.

PO Box addresses often appear with the words CALLER, CALL BOX, GPO BOX, PO BOX S-1190, APTDO, APARTADO, BOX, BUZON. These are changed to PO BOX as output to a mailpiece.

In certain areas, the station name appears in the line above the city, state, and ZIP Code. We recommend that it is either eliminated from the output address or relocated, placing PO BOX above the city and state and placing the station name on the line above. Station names are not present on the ZIP+4 file.

295.7 Rural Route

Rural route addresses are output on a mailpiece as RR N BOX NN. Do not use the words RURAL, RUTA RURAL, BUZON, or BZN.

A leading zero before the rural route number is not necessary.

The designations RFD, RD, and RT (meaning rural route) are changed to RR.

There should be no additional designations, such as sector names, on the Delivery Address Line of rural addresses. Sector names used together with route and box numbers can create potential matching difficulty. Mailers are encouraged to use only one style of addressing. Eliminate this information in Puerto Rico addresses.