The Container Cannot Sail Until Someone Files the Entry Data

Who Is Allowed to Import

An American importer of record is a legal person holding a US employer identification number, an address in the United States where a customs notice can be served, and a bond. The three go together. A Shenzhen factory cannot be the importer of record on a US entry, even when it sells the goods with delivery included, and neither can a Hong Kong trading company with no US presence.

This is where a first order usually divides. Bought FOB Shenzhen, the buyer is the importer and everything below lands on the buyer. Bought DDP, the seller has to find a US entity or buy the service from someone who has one — and the price then carries the duty, the bond and the cost of an exam the buyer never sees.

Two consequences follow immediately. The consignee named on the bill of lading has to relate to the importer of record; a Hong Kong consignee shipping to a US importer is a routine cause of holds, because the documents describe two different parties and the manifest describes a third. And the entry is filed by a licensed customs broker under a power of attorney from the importer. The broker is not a convenience. Filing an entry yourself requires a broker licence, which is a tested qualification, not a form.

The Filing That Happens Before Loading

The Importer Security Filing, called ISF or 10+2, is due at least 24 hours before the container is loaded on the vessel at the foreign port. Not 24 hours before arrival. By the time the ship sails, the filing should already have been accepted, and a late filing is not something that can be fixed at sea.

Ten elements, of which the importer supplies most:

• Manufacturer or supplier name and address. The factory, not the trading company that issued the invoice.
• Seller and buyer name and address. Both, in full.
• Ship-to name and address. The warehouse that will receive the goods, which is often not the buyer's office.
• Country of origin. Where the goods were made.
• Six-digit HS code. For every line, not the first line only.
• Container stuffing location. The warehouse where the cartons were loaded, which may be neither the factory nor the port.
• Consolidator. Whoever put the box together.
• Importer of record number and consignee number. EIN, and the bond reference.

The supplier's job is to send four of those in writing with the booking: factory name and address, origin, HS code, stuffing location. A factory that will only give a trading company name produces a filing that is complete and wrong, which is worse than a late one because it looks finished.

ISF is not an entry. It pays no duty, releases no cargo, and does not replace the entry filed on arrival. It is a security filing, assessed against the importer, carrying liquidated damages of up to $5,000 per violation when it is late, missing or materially wrong. The forwarder files it because the importer is not set up to, and the liability stays with the importer.

Single Entry or Continuous

A bond guarantees that duty will be paid. It comes in two shapes. A single-entry bond covers one shipment and is priced against the duty on that shipment, with a stated minimum premium. A continuous bond covers every entry for twelve months; the amount is calculated from the duties, taxes and fees paid in the preceding year, with a floor of $50,000 for most importers.

One container from one fair is usually a single-entry bond. A buyer expecting four or more entries a year is usually better on a continuous bond, both on cost per entry and on time: a single-entry bond has to be arranged before every booking, and the request always arrives on the day the vessel is loading.

Two things trip buyers here. The bond is not insurance; it is a guarantee of payment, and CBP can draw on it. And a continuous bond calculated on last year's duty can be too small in a year when volume doubles or when an additional duty raises the bill — the fix is an increase in the bond amount, which takes time and cannot be done after the container is on the water.

Ask for a bond amount in writing before the first booking. The number should reflect the duty on a full container of the actual product, not a round figure chosen to keep the premium down.

What the Duty Is Actually Made Of

Four separate charges arrive together on a US entry, and buyers who priced only the tariff rate are consistently short.

The additional duty has been revised several times and exclusion lists expire. Confirm the current rate for the exact HTS line before you quote a landed cost to anyone.

Two complications sit outside that table. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties apply to specific products from specific countries, and where an order covers the goods the rate can be far larger than the tariff and is collected at the border, with the final figure determined months later on review. And the customs value is not the invoice total: it is the price actually paid or payable, adjusted for assists, royalties and the cost of packing, and it is built on the transaction value of the goods, not on what the buyer wishes they had cost.

A quotation that says "duty is about 5%" without naming the HTS line is not a landed cost. It is a guess.

Formal, Informal, and the Small-Shipment Route

Above $2,500 in value, CBP requires a formal entry: a bond, a broker, an entry summary, and duty paid. Below $2,500, an informal entry is available, which needs less paperwork but still needs a broker or a carrier authorised to file. Samples and spare parts often fall into the second category, and buyers are frequently surprised to find that a carton of samples is not free to import.

The de minimis route for low-value shipments has been amended more than once and remains under active change. Any threshold or eligibility rule you read about is worth confirming with your broker against the date of shipment, because a shipment qualifying in one month may not qualify in the next. Building a business model on a low-value exemption is a decision to accept that risk knowingly, not a way to avoid customs.

Anything sent by express courier is not outside the system either. The courier files an entry, collects duty and tax, and charges a disbursement fee for doing it.

The practical rule for a first order: assume a formal entry, and treat anything cheaper as a pleasant exception rather than the plan.

When the Box Is Pulled

Three things can happen to a container after discharge, and only one of them is about your goods specifically. A non-intrusive inspection is an x-ray of the box, done without opening it. A contraband enforcement team exam opens it and looks. A manifest error or document discrepancy triggers a hold while the paperwork is corrected.

The cost of an exam is rarely the exam. It is the demurrage that accrues while the container sits at the terminal, the storage at whatever facility the exam happens in, the chassis or per-diem charges, and the trucking to move it there and back. For a single container a routine exam typically adds three to ten days, and the charges land on the importer regardless of the outcome.

Some of this is preventable. The manifest, the bill of lading, the invoice and the entry must agree on quantity, description, weight and consignee. A description of "plastic products" on a manifest and "PP injection-moulded food containers, 24 sets per carton" on the invoice invites a second look. A weight on the bill of lading that does not match the weighing at the terminal is a standing invitation. Consistency is the cheapest exam insurance there is.

What is not preventable: a random selection, or a strike by one agency on one commodity in one month.

Beyond Customs: FDA, CPSC, EPA

Customs release is not the same as admissibility. A list of other agencies has a say over what enters, and each files its own data set against the entry. A shipment can be customs-cleared and still held because a partner government agency has not issued its release.

Food, beverages, dietary supplements and cosmetics go to the FDA. Food requires prior notice before arrival and the facility that made it must be registered. Cosmetics now carry their own registration and listing obligations, introduced relatively recently, and a buyer importing a private-label product should confirm who holds them: the brand owner, which is you, not the factory.

Children's products go to the CPSC, which requires a Children's Product Certificate based on third-party testing at an accepted laboratory. Consumer products generally may need general certification of conformity. Electronics with radio transmitters need FCC authorisation, and lithium batteries travelling by air sit under dangerous goods rules that apply to the carrier and to the shipper.

Where a product is regulated by more than one agency, the entry has to satisfy all of them, and a missing certificate stalls the container at the same rate as a missing invoice. The question to put to a supplier is not "do you have certificates" but "which certificate, issued by whom, for which model".

What the Supplier Has to Put on Paper

The entry is built from the invoice and the packing list, and a thin invoice produces a thin entry that customs will question. What the commercial invoice needs, line by line: a specific description, the HS code the entry will use, the country of origin, quantity, unit price, the Incoterm and the named place, currency, and the marks and numbers that appear on the cartons.

The packing list needs cartons, dimensions, net and gross weight per carton, and how the cartons are distributed across pallets. That is the document the broker and the warehouse both work from, and the one that decides whether a delivery appointment is realistic.

Two more that are easy to forget. The bill of lading consignee has to match the importer, and the notify party has to be someone who answers a phone in the destination time zone. And the ISF data has to reach the forwarder before the cut-off, which on a Shenzhen booking is usually several days before the vessel sails.

Build the request into the purchase order. A supplier who knows on day one that the factory address, HS code and stuffing location are conditions of the order will supply them; one who is asked at the end of production will send a photograph of a business card.

The full set of documents for an American import is worth assembling once as a template and reusing. Our China to USA shipping page sets out the routes and transit ranges behind this paperwork.

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