# `missing_administrative_area`: a country with no postcodes needs the state or province

The operator requires an administrative area and the country has no postcodes, so the address carries no geographic anchor at all.

- Appears in: `reason`
- Billing: Free. An address that cannot stand as written never costs a credit.

A missing state or province only breaks an address where the postcode cannot stand in for it. In countries with postcodes the postcode already carries the geography and mail arrives without the province written out, so Spaw does not answer this reason there.

In a country with no postal code — the United Arab Emirates, for example, where post is addressed to a box in an emirate — the administrative area is the only thing that says where the address is, and an address without it cannot be routed.

**What to do.** Send `administrative_area` (the emirate, state or province). It is accepted as a code or a name, and folded to the spelling that country uses.

```json
{
    "valid": false,
    "reason": "missing_administrative_area",
    "country": "AE",
    "po_box": "PO BOX 111",
    "administrative_area": null,
    "risk_score": null
}
```

Reference: https://spaw.co/docs/reasons/missing_administrative_area