Create a schema design for a postal address that is flexible enough to be a global standard and which may be used within other HR-XML Consortium schemas.

1.2 Relationship to Business Processes

The Postal Address schema attempts to create a generalized container that will allow business processes to pass address information reliably and completely, and in a format that can be efficiently processed.

To this end, the container is to be designed to clearly house the various sections that make up a postal address as it is used from country to country, while allowing the country code to indicate to the business process how the address is to be formatted, according to local postal rules.

1.3 Scope

1.3.1 Within Scope

The project will define the Postal Address, which may be used to globally send mail to individuals or organizations.
The deliverable will be a schema, which may be transformed by a system to a format required for mailing.
Internal routing will not be defined as separate elements. Information such as mail stop will be included as part of Recipient.
Some countries can validate an address number within a street if they are separate elements. Version 1.1 will provide for this feature.

1.3.2 Outside of Scope

This project will not define a location or geo code. These codes typically define latitude and longitude locations.
Effective dating will not be addressed within this proposal. When effective dating is resolved, this proposal will be re-evaluated to assess the impact.
This proposal does not recommend nor imply how an address should be stored in a database. It also does not address sorting or reporting formats for an address.

1.4 Design Requirements

· Syntax must be self-documenting.

Must have enough information to be used for global mail delivery.

1.5 Mail Delivery Service

2 Schema Design

2.1 Schema Elements Explained

Component Name	ContentModel Data type Occurrence: Sequence \| Choice \| All (minOccurs/maxOccurs) Attributes	Definition
/ PostalAddress	- PostalAddressType - (1/1)	Describes a postal address used for delivery of mail.
/ PostalAddress/ CountryCode	xsd:restriction base: xsd:string	Contains the ISO 3166-1 two-character country code.
/ PostalAddress/ PostalCode	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Codes established by postal authorities for purposes of sorting and delivering mail.
/ PostalAddress/ Region	- xsd:string - S (0/*)	Represents the State, Province, and/or County. Military addresses should be stored in multiple regions (hierarchy region from highest to most specific): 1 st region = APO (Army/Airforce Post Office); FPO (Fleet Post Office). 2 nd region = 2 letter designator for part of world (AE Œ Europe, AA Œ Americas)
/ PostalAddress/ Municipality	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Represents the city, town, village, or hamlet.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress	AddressLine - xsd:string - S (0/*) StreetName - xsd:string - S (0/1) BuildingNumber - xsd:string - S (0/1) Unit - xsd:string - S (0/1) PostOfficeBox - xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains one formatted address line with all of its pieces in their proper place. This includes all of the necessary punctuation. This de-normalized form of the delivery address cannot be easily parsed. AddressLine is used for delivery by the postal service. May contain the name or number of the building, house, and/or street. If the address is decomposed into StreetName and BuildingNumber, do not use AddressLine to store the address. Examples may include: Hancock Building; 5223 Oak Street; 213; East 23rd Avenue; P.O. Box 241; Suite 200.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress/ AddressLine	- xsd:string - S (0/*)	AddressLine is used for delivery by the postal service. May contain the name or number of the building, house, and/or street. If the address is decomposed into StreetName and BuildingNumber, do not use AddressLine to store the address. Examples may include: Hancock Building; 5223 Oak Street; 213; East 23rd Avenue; P.O. Box 241; Suite 200.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress/ StreetName	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains the street name or number. This may be used for verification, building the address, or storing in a database. If the address is decomposed into StreetName, BuildingNumber and Unit, do not use AddressLine to duplicate that part of the address information. Examples may include: Oak Street; East 23rd Avenue.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress/ BuildingNumber	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	This element is defined as a string to handle "numbers" such as 7A or 15/III. The term "BuildingNumber" was also used instead of HouseNumber so all types of buildings could apply (house, building, warehouse, tower, etc). This may be used for verification, building the address, or storing in a database. If the address is decomposed into StreetName, BuildingNumber and Unit, do not use AddressLine to duplicate that part of the address information. Examples may include: Hancock Building; 5223.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress/ Unit	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains the Apartment, Suite, Unit, Room, Floor, Trailer, Level, Hanger, etc. This may be used for verification, building the address, or storing in a database. If the address is decomposed into StreetName, BuildingNumber and Unit, do not use AddressLine to duplicate that part of the address information. Examples may include: Apt. 124, Ste. 300, Upper, Hanger A.
/ PostalAddress/ DeliveryAddress/ PostOfficeBox	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains the Post Office Box. This may be used for verification, building the address, or storing in a database. Example: P.O. Box 241.
/ PostalAddress/ Recipient	PersonName - PersonNameType - S (0/1) AdditionalText - xsd:string - S (0/*) Organization - xsd:string - S (0/1) OrganizationName - xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains information about the recipient. This may include a person's name, an organization name, and/or additional information.
/ PostalAddress/ Recipient/ PersonName	- PersonNameType - S (0/1)	The name of a person.
/ PostalAddress/ Recipient/ AdditionalText	- xsd:string - S (0/*)	May contain other recipient routing information in addition to organization and person name. AdditionalText is used for further routing after it has been delivered by the postal service.
/ PostalAddress/ Recipient/ Organization	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Information identifying the organization for which the enrollment data is being transmitted.
/ PostalAddress/ Recipient/ OrganizationName	- xsd:string - S (0/1)	Contains information about the recipient. This may include a person's name, an organization name, and/or additional information.
/ [PostalAddressType] / type	xsd:restriction base: xsd:string [Enumerations]: postOfficeBoxAddress, streetAddress, militaryAddress, undefined	Defines if the postal address is a street address, military, or post office box. type = postOfficeBoxAddress type = streetAddress type = militaryAddress type = undefined

3 Reference Examples

Contains examples for sending mail within the same country or sending from country to country. When sending mail from one country to another, the country must be written in the sender’s language. All other parts of the postal address may be written in the receiver’s language. When sending mail within the same country, the country name may or may not be used.

United States	Mailstop: B1-210 Karen Barber Market Surveyors 2455 University Blvd Denver, CO 80237 USA <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>US</CountryCode> <PostalCode>80237 </PostalCode> <Region>CO</Region> <Municipality>Denver</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>2455 University Blvd</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Karen Barber</FormattedName> </PersonName> <AdditionalText>Mailstop: B1-210</AdditionalText> <OrganizationName>Market Surveyors</OrganizationName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> Santhi Mwanza MinnBest Corp. 4982 E Beauregard Ave. Minneapolis, MN 50493-1234 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>US</CountryCode> <PostalCode>50493-1234</PostalCode> <Region>MN</Region> <Municipality>Minneapolis</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <StreetName>E Beauregard Ave.</StreetName> <BuildingNumber>4982</BuildingNumber> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <GivenName>Santhi</GivenName> <FamilyName>Mwanza</FamilyName> </PersonName> <OrganizationName>MinnBest Corp.</OrganizationName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> Sarah Olson c/o Mrs. Cole 2000 Merrill Lane Sunnyvale, CA 93121 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>US</CountryCode> <PostalCode>93121</PostalCode> <Region>CA</Region> <Municipality>Sunnyvale</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>c/o Mrs. Cole</AddressLine> <AddressLine>2000 Merrill Lane</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Sarah Olson</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> H.L. Mencken PO Box 350 Hollywood, CA 93029-1200 <PostalAddress type="postOfficeBoxAddress"> <CountryCode>US</CountryCode> <PostalCode>93029-1200</PostalCode> <Region>CA</Region> <Municipality>Hollywood</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <PostOfficeBox>PO Box 350</PostOfficeBox> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>H.L. Mencken</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> Major Carmen Li 111th Maint Co Unit 342 APO AA 00932 <PostalAddress type="militaryAddress"> <CountryCode>US</CountryCode> <PostalCode>00932</PostalCode> <Region>APO</Region> <Region>AA</Region> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>111th Maint Co</AddressLine> <AddressLine>Unit 342</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <GivenName>Carmen</GivenName> <FamilyName>Li</FamilyName> <Affix type="formOfAddress">Major</Affix> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress>
Germany	Ringstr. 25 D-80395 Frankfurt am Main <PostalAddress type=”streetAddress”> <CountryCode>DE</CountryCode> <PostalCode>80395 </PostalCode> <Municipality>Frankfurt am Main</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <StreetName>Ringstr. </StreetName> <BuildingNumber> 25</BuildingNumber> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress> Note. The ‘D-’ is a European country code prefix that is added in front of the postal code and is not part of the postal code.
Finland	From outside of Finland: Hallituskatu 6 B 27 FIN-33200 TAMPERE FINLAND From within Finland: Hallituskatu 6 B 27 33200 TAMPERE <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>FI</CountryCode> <PostalCode>33200</PostalCode> <Municipality>TAMPERE </Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Hallituskatu 6 B 27</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
Japan	456-0042 Tokyo-to Shibuya-ku Shibuya 4-5-5 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>JP</CountryCode> <PostalCode> 456-0042</PostalCode> <Region>Tokyo-to </Region> <Region>Shibuya-ku</Region> <Region>Shibuya</Region> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>4-5-5</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
France	Paul Dupont 66, rue de l’église 750026 Paris (France) <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>FR</CountryCode> <PostalCode>750026</PostalCode> <Municipality>Paris </Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>66, rue de l’église</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Paul Dupont</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress>
Switzerland	Georges Dupuis Route des Clos 7 2012 Auvernier (Suisse) <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>CH</CountryCode> <PostalCode>2012</PostalCode> <Municipality>Auvernier </Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Route des Clos 7 </AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Georges Dupuis</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> If the letter is mailed from French speaking countries, add Suisse on the last line. If sending from English speaking countries, add Switzerland on the last line.
Belgium	Albert Dupontel Avenue Lebon 112 boîte 7 1160 Bruxelles (Belgique) <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>BE</CountryCode> <PostalCode>1160</PostalCode> <Municipality>Bruxelles</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Avenue Lebon 112 boîte 7 </AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Albert Dupontel</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> If the letter is mailed from French-speaking countries, add Belgique on the last line. If sending from English speaking countries, add Belgium on the last line.
China	In Roman alphabet: Mr. Wang, Tai-sheng 4^th Floor, #6, lane 15, Alley 283, Section 1, Hsin Sheng South Rd., Taipei, ROC 12345 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>CN</CountryCode> <PostalCode>12345</PostalCode> <Municipality>Taipei</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>4^th Floor, #6, lane 15, Alley 283,</AddressLine> <AddressLine>Section 1, Hsin Sheng South Rd.,</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Mr. Wang, Tai-sheng</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress>
South Korea	Outside of South Korea: 345 Bomun-Dong Sungbuk-Gu Seoul, Korea 136-086 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>KR</CountryCode> <PostalCode>136-086</PostalCode> <Region>Seoul</Region> <Region>Sungbuk-Gu </Region> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>345 Bomun-Dong </AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
Mexico	Hacienda de Corralejo Nº 5 Bosques de Echegaray 13355 Naucalpan, Edo de México <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>MX </CountryCode> <PostalCode>13355</PostalCode> <Municipality>Naucalpan</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Hacienda de Corralejo Nº 5 </AddressLine> <AddressLine>Bosques de Echegaray </AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
Spain	28 C/Alameda 28034 Colmenar, Madrid <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>ES</CountryCode> <PostalCode>28034</PostalCode> <Region>Colmenar</Region > <Municipality>Madrid</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress>* <AddressLine>28 C/Alameda </<AddressLine>* </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress> These abbreviations stand for: Avenue = Avda Boulevard = Blvr Street = C Paseo = Pº Should be written in front of the name, followed by /.
Argentina	Las Heras 1045 piso 3 departamento A 1181 Buenos Aires Argentina <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>AR</CountryCode> <PostalCode>1181</PostalCode> <Municipality>Buenos Aires</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Las Heras 1045 piso 3 departamento A</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
Brazil	Rua Francisco Deslandes, nº 470 apto. 201. Bairro Anchieta. Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Brasil. 30320-500 <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>BR</CountryCode> <PostalCode>30320-500</PostalCode> <Region> Minas Gerais.</Region> <Municipality>Belo Horizonte</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Rua Francisco Deslandes, nº 470</AddressLine> <AddressLine>apto. 201. Bairro Anchieta.</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress>
Italy	Via Trento 34 43036 Fidenza (PR) Italy <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>IT</CountryCode> <PostalCode>43036</PostalCode> <Region>PR</Region> <Municipality>Fidenza</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>Via Trento 34 </AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress> First line contains the street address (name and number) Second line contains the C.A.P (postal code), City, and province (in parenthesis). Third line contains country, if mailed outside of country.
Canada	Paul Mercier 101, rue des Pins, app.10 BEAUPORT, Québec G1E 1K3 (Canada) <PostalAddress> <CountryCode>CA</CountryCode> <PostalCode>G1E 1K3</PostalCode> <Region>Québec</Region> <Municipality>BEAUPORT </Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine>101, rue des Pins, app.10</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> <Recipient> <PersonName> <FormattedName>Paul Mercier</FormattedName> </PersonName> </Recipient> </PostalAddress> Canadian postal codes are always listed in the same format: The sequence is always Alphabetical character/Number/Alpha (full space) Number/Alpha/Number. Each code represents a specific geographic location, ranging from one side of a city block to a specific organization, which receives large volumes of mail.
Russia	308061, Belgorod А.Я. 495 <PostalAddress type=”postOfficeBoxAddress”> <CountryCode>RU</CountryCode> <PostalCode>308061</PostalCode> <Municipality>Belgorod</Municipality> <DeliveryAddress> <AddressLine> А.Я. 495</AddressLine> </DeliveryAddress> </PostalAddress> In the example above, “А.Я.” stands for “abonentny yashik” which is Russian for “Post Office Box”. The format is inverted – postal code and municipality are on the first lines, followed by the street address and finally by the recipient. The above example is for a delivery address – in a return address the city comes before the postal code.
Simplified Chinese (Mainland China)	Typical Chinese envelopes have zip code (six digits) boxes at the left upper corner. You should fill them out with recipient’s zip code. Address can consist of three lines or four lines, depending upon your need. First line contains country, city and organization (or “unit” as most Chinese would call it). Second line consists of street and number. The third line prints the recipient’s name. There should always be one or two space between name and the address. The sender’s address should always be printed at the right lower corner on the envelope. The format is the same as above except that the zip code appears at the end of the address and there is no space needed between the name and address

4 Implementation Considerations

When generating a mailing label, the country code may be translated into a country name based upon the language of the postal sender.
Recipent is optional because many business processes store the intended recipient name separately from postal address. If your schema handles the recipient information elsewhere, avoid redundancy by not populating Recipient in PostalAddress elements.
The order of the elements within PostalAddress often matters when transforming elements for presentation purposes. For example, multiple AddressLine elements typically will be rendered on separate lines in the order that they where given in the XML.
If the PostalAddress includes the name of a person, that information should always be within the Recipient/PersonName element and sub elements, never in the DeliveryAddress element or Recipient/AdditionalText element. The Recipient/PersonName/FormattedName element may be used if the XML sender cannot break out individual recipient name parts. Although not preferable, all other recipient information may be sent in AddressLine elements when the XML sender does not have enough information to build recipient elements or chooses not to use the Recipient/PersonName/FormattedName element. This allows parties receiving XML to safely determine whether or not an address includes the name of the recipient simply by checking for the presence of a Recipient/PersonName element.
The country names are inferred from the ISO 3166 country code standards. It is up to the implementer to provide the cross-reference between the ISO country code and the country name.
Some shipping companies will not deliver to post office boxes. The PostalAddress type is used to differentiate mail sent to a post office box address versus mail send to a street address. This should assist the sender in selecting the appropriate shipping company for delivery to the different types of addresses.
If an organization has a street and a post office box address, use multiple postal address elements.

Formatting characters should be left out of the postal codes.
Organization has been deprecated and is no longer used. The OrganizationName should be used instead.

StreetName, BuildingNumber, Unit and PostOfficeBox allow countries to validate a post office box or an address number within a street.

· Systems that recognize the StreetName, BuildingNumber, Unit and PostOfficeBox should use these separate elements accordingly and only use AddressLine for additional information. A receiving system may use the separate elements for validation purposes, to build the entire address, or to store in the corresponding fields of their database.

· Systems that don’t recognize the separate elements should use the AddressLine.

· Addresses that are decomposed into StreetName, BuildingNumber and Unit should not also be stored in AddressLine. It is redundant and may be confusing to send the address using both methods.

The PersonName v01.01 module has been inserted into the PostalAddress module to replace the PersonName v1.0.
‘Care Of’ data should be part of the DeliveryAddress, not part of Recipient. When using ‘care of information, it should be held in the AddressLine element to avoid problems when building the address.
If Mailstop is used internally to further define where the recipient is, Mailstop should be held in AdditionalText element. If Mailstop is used as part of an external mail company, Mailstop should be held in the AddressLine.

· The US Postal Service would parse an address as follows:

1. AdditonalText 1 to many in order given

2. PersonName

3. Organization

4. AddressLine 1 to many in order given

5. BuildingNumber StreetName Unit

6. Municipality, Region PostalCode

7. Country substitution for CountryCode

5 Appendix A – Schema Revision History

Date	Revisions
2001-08-20	Initial draft based on version 1_1 specification
2001-09-04	Modified Schema design to change PostalAddress type to PostalAddressType. Updated all references throughout the document. Also update schema design to include PersonNameType (was PersonName type)
2001-Oct-16	Approved Recommendation by HR-XML Consortium
2003-Jan-31	Changed default/target namespaces.
2003-Feb-26	Approved recommendation by HR-XML Consortium. The default and targetNamespaces of all HR-XML schemas have been standardized to "http://ns.hr-xml.org". This recommendation is available as part of the HR-XML 2_0 architecture.
2006-Feb-28	Approved by Consortium
2007-Apr-15	Approved by Consortium

6 Appendix B – Mailing label transformation reference table

This table provides implementation considerations on how to print the labels.

ISO 3166-1 contains a two-letter code (Alpha-2-code), a three-letter code (Alpha-3-code) and a three-digit numeric code (Numeric-3-code) for every entry in its list of country names. The HR-XML standard will utilize the ISO 3166-1993 (E) two-letter alpha code.
This table is a representative sample of mailing label transformations. For current and complete information, please refer to:
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html

Country	ISO 3166-1
Argentina	AR
Australia	AU
Belgium	BE
Brazil	BR
Canada	CA
China	CN
Cuba	CU
Finland	FI
France	FR
Germany	DE
Hungary