No 'AP' or 'AE' option for state in MLS

We are a US military branch in Korea. We have USPS addresses. Instead of using one of the 50 states or other territories for our state we use AP (meaning Armed Forces Pacific) or AE (meaning Armed Forces Europe). This is the state that we write when using the US mail system. However, MLS will not allow that option. That means that we cannot accurately record the address in MLS nor can we use MLS to print labels, etc. Our workaround is to include the state along with the city (i.e. APO, AP) and leave the state blank. It is doable, but is problematic for the reason stated above.

I sent a message regarding this via MLS and the response I received in return was that MLS uses the USPS codings. I do not understand this response as 'AP' and 'AE' are included as part of USPS' normal state coding.

I am not really sure what else can be done to get help getting these state codes included in MLS.

Thank you!

lboggs wrote:We are a US military branch in Korea. We have USPS addresses. Instead of using one of the 50 states or other territories for our state we use AP (meaning Armed Forces Pacific) or AE (meaning Armed Forces Europe). This is the state that we write when using the US mail system. However, MLS will not allow that option.

This issue was noted over three years ago in this post.

lboggs wrote:That means that we cannot accurately record the address in MLS nor can we use MLS to print labels, etc. Our workaround is to include the state along with the city (i.e. APO, AP) and leave the state blank. It is doable, but is problematic for the reason stated above.

I understand that this workaround is not a clean solution, but I don't see why using the workaround would stop you from using MLS to print labels or do most anything else you need to do with addresses.

Another workaround (mentioned in the previous thread linked to above, and also noted here) is to use CA for AP, FL for AA, and NY for AE. You might consider that option.

lboggs wrote:I sent a message regarding this via MLS and the response I received in return was that MLS uses the USPS codings. I do not understand this response as 'AP' and 'AE' are included as part of USPS' normal state coding.

My guess is that the person who responded didn't understand that these really are equivalent to "States" for USPS purposes.

lboggs wrote:I am not really sure what else can be done to get help getting these state codes included in MLS.

You could send a request to MLS support; given the response to your previous question, that might not be very effective, but you might get lucky and have your question handled by someone who understands the issue. You also could escalate the issue through your stake clerk, who could escalate it further through the stake president.

the address in MLS should be the address where the member living not the mailing address. How else is the HT and VT going to know where where to go to accomplish their assignment. And AP only gets them to the base mail room.

Gary_Miller wrote:the address in MLS should be the address where the member living not the mailing address. How else is the HT and VT going to know where where to go to accomplish their assignment. And AP only gets them to the base mail room.

There are two addresses for each household in MLS -- the residential and the mailing address. I'd agree that the residential address needs to reflect where the members live, but in cases such as armed forces serving oversees, mail generally can't be delivered to such addresses. Thus the mailing address (which is the address used by the Print Mailing Labels feature) needs to be correct as well.