How to import goods into the US

Most guides to importing start at the port. By then every decision that determines what the shipment costs has already been made. So this one runs on the clock instead, from the purchase order forward, marking the points where a missed deadline turns into money.

Before you buy: know the code and the rate

The ten-digit HTSUS classification sets the duty rate, decides which agencies have jurisdiction, and determines whether a trade remedy attaches. Work that out before you agree a price, not after the goods ship. In 2026 the ordinary column 1 rate is often the smaller number on the line. Section 232 duties on steel, aluminium and copper content attach by where the metal was melted and poured or smelted and cast, not by where the finished article was made. Section 301 attaches by origin under the substantial transformation test, which is not the same thing as the country you bought from. AD/CVD orders are written in words, so an order can cover your product even when your HTS number is nowhere in it.

Check too whether the goods need a licence, permit or registration before arrival: FDA facility registration and Prior Notice, USDA permits, EPA and DOT declarations for vehicles and engines, TTB permits for alcohol. These gate the release. They are not documents you can chase afterwards.

Identity: the importer of record number

To import commercially you need an importer of record number, which for a US business is its IRS employer identification number, filed with CBP on the Create/Update Importer Identity Form, CBP Form 5106. A foreign company can be the importer of record with no US entity at all, but a nonresident corporation generally has to designate a resident agent in the state where the entry is filed, authorised to accept service of process. See 19 CFR 141.18.

The bond

Entry of merchandise requires a bond under 19 CFR 141.4, filed on CBP Form 301. A bond is not insurance. It guarantees CBP that the duties, taxes and penalties will be paid, and if the surety has to pay, the surety comes after you.

• A single transaction bond covers one entry and is usually written at the value of the goods plus duties, taxes and fees, with higher multiples for certain regulated commodities.
• A continuous bond covers every entry for a year, sized at ten percent of the duties, taxes and fees you paid over the previous twelve months, subject to a floor. It covers your ISF filings too.

If your duty spend rises sharply, as it has for many importers since the 2025 tariff actions, a continuous bond can saturate mid-year and CBP will demand it be replaced. Solvable if you see it coming, shipment-stopping if you do not. The bond guide covers the sizing.

Twenty-four hours before lading: the ISF

For ocean cargo, the Importer Security Filing under 19 CFR part 149 has to be transmitted at least 24 hours before the container is loaded at the foreign port. Ten data elements come from you, two from the carrier. Liquidated damages run to $5,000 per violation, and CBP can hold the container on arrival until the filing is fixed. This is the single most common way a first-time importer loses a week.

What we need from you

• Commercial invoice with a real description, quantities, unit values, currency, Incoterm and country of origin per line. A description reading general merchandise is a hold waiting to happen.
• Packing list at carton or pallet level, with weights.
• Bill of lading or air waybill, and the arrival notice once the carrier issues it.
• Mill certificates where Section 232 is in play, showing the country of melt and pour or smelt and cast.
• Origin documentation if you are claiming preferential treatment under USMCA or another agreement, in hand rather than promised.

Entry and release

We transmit cargo release through ACE, the data set behind CBP Form 3461, before the vessel arrives, so CBP can act at discharge rather than days after it. CBP either releases, holds for a document review, or refers the container for examination. An X-ray or VACIS exam might cost you a day. An intensive exam at a Centralized Examination Station costs a week and a bill.

Merchandise not entered within fifteen calendar days of arrival goes to a general order warehouse at your expense. That deadline is real, and it arrives fast on a shipment where the paperwork is still being argued about.

Paying

The entry summary, CBP Form 7501, is due within ten working days of release, and duty is payable then unless you are on periodic monthly statement, in which case the month's duties clear by ACH on the fifteenth working day of the following month. On top of duty, most formal entries carry the merchandise processing fee at 0.3464 percent of entered value, bounded by a minimum and maximum CBP adjusts annually, and ocean cargo carries the harbor maintenance fee at 0.125 percent.

One 2026 note that catches e-commerce sellers: the $800 de minimis exemption under 19 U.S.C. 1321 was suspended during 2025, first for shipments from China and Hong Kong and then across the board. Low-value parcels that used to arrive duty free now need an entry. If your landed-cost model still assumes de minimis, rebuild it, and confirm the current position before you quote.

After release the file stays open

An entry is not finished when the truck leaves. CBP liquidates it, usually within about a year, and liquidation is what fixes the duty finally. Before that, errors are corrected with a post-summary correction. After it, your route is a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, filed within 180 days of liquidation. If you export or destroy imported goods, some of the duty may come back through drawback. None of this is automatic, and all of it depends on records you have to keep for five years.