Section title: Requests for Interpretation
RFI #
2020
US Zip Codes International
Description

lease review answer to RFI-1731. The Canadian zip code is coming from an External body and does have spaces. Entering a Canadian zip code without spaces, fails to find the code.
The TR3 has the following note for zip codes as applies to the United States:

SITUATIONAL N403 116 Postal Code O 1 ID 3/15
Code defining international postal zone code excluding punctuation and blanks (zip code for United States)
They are only not allowing punctuation for United States Zip Codes. The official list of Canadian codes has spaces and will fail when spaces are omitted. From the TR3 there is no mention of spaces not being allowed in an ID type: B.1.1.3.1.3 Identifier.
X12 - 3.5.1.3 Identifier The representation for this data element type is ID. ::= {} {} ::= |
Space in an ID field seem to be allowable for non US postal codes.

RFI Response

We have reviewed RFI 1731.   The RFI's scope only addressed the BNF (Backus-Naur Form).  This is correct.  Only U.S. Postal Codes can be sent using N403 because it is the only code source associated with data element 116 in the 005010 Standard.   The Code list 932 was published in the 005010X222  TR3 in error.  Foreign Postal Codes might be sent using N406 with an N405 qualifier.  However those data elements are not used in this implementation guide (TR3).

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