An American woman living in France ran into a strange problem when she tried to send greeting cards to her loved ones back in the United States. The woman, who shares her life on TikTok under the name Moved to Europe, went to her local post office with a Halloween card for her parents and a sympathy card for a friend. But when she tried to pick the United States as where to send them, the machine told her it wasn’t available.
She didn’t understand what was wrong, so she asked someone who worked there for help. But they couldn’t tell her why mail to the United States was being blocked. She looked it up online and found some information saying tariffs might be stopping packages, but she couldn’t find anything about regular letters being blocked too. She even tried going to a different post office, but the same thing happened there.
In her TikTok video, which now has over 151,000 views, she talked about how worried she was. “It’s very concerning considering what the F is going on in the United States right now,” she said. “The fact that we can’t even send our loved ones cards.”
This Is Affecting Way More Than Just Greeting Cards
The mail problems started because of recent changes to United States import rules. Many countries have stopped sending letters to the United States after the Trump administration got rid of low-value duty exemptions for imports. Since nobody really explained the new rules clearly, postal services in other countries are confused about what to do.
More than 25 countries have now stopped all packages and letters to the United States through their postal services. If people need to send mail from these countries, they have to pay a lot more to use private delivery companies instead. The problems are part of bigger worries about the Trump administration’s controversial tariff policies and the problems they’re causing.
The TikToker finally managed to send her letters on her third try by going to yet another post office and waiting in line to talk to someone face to face instead of using the machines. A lot of people related to what happened to her and shared their own stories.
One commenter asked, “Is this going to impact mail-in voting from citizens abroad?” The TikToker responded saying she gasped when she read that comment because she hadn’t even thought about voting when she was worried about Halloween cards. Another viewer wrote, “It’s so scary here. To think we’re being cut off from outside communication is… devastating.”
Other people shared similar problems they’ve been facing. One person said, “Yup. Tried to send documents and got them returned. It’s insane.” A commenter from Canada wrote, “Pretty much the same thing in Canada…tariffs!! My poor grandchildren are not getting goodies from Grammy.” Someone else added, “In Switzerland, you can’t either.”
More than 25 countries have now stopped sending mail to the United States because of the confusion around the new import rules. People who want to send even simple cards now have to pay much more to use private shipping companies. For Americans living abroad and their families back home, it has become expensive and complicated to stay connected through the mail.
Published: Oct 14, 2025 05:00 pm