Does the Certificate of Mailing or Transmission apply to foreign mailings?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

The Certificate of Mailing procedure does not apply to papers mailed from a foreign country. However, the Certificate of Transmission procedure can be used for correspondence transmitted to the USPTO from a foreign country, with some conditions. The MPEP states:

The Certificate of Transmission procedure for both facsimile transmissions and transmissions via EFS-Web, however, also applies to papers transmitted to the Office from a foreign country provided that the correspondence being transmitted is not prohibited from being transmitted by facsimile or via EFS-Web and is not otherwise precluded from receiving the benefits under 37 CFR 1.8.

This means that while you can’t use a Certificate of Mailing for papers sent by postal mail from outside the United States, you can use a Certificate of Transmission for faxes or EFS-Web submissions from foreign countries, as long as the specific type of correspondence is eligible for the certificate procedure.