February 4, 2010     

Any shipment sailing to the United States from an overseas port must have an ISF (10+2) transmission made at least 24 hours prior to the sailing - No Exceptions.

Penalties…..

The 10 fields of information in the past were rarely made available to the Customs Broker let alone the Buyer/Importer more than several days before arrival at a U.S. Port.  In some cases, Brokers never saw this information until after the arrival of the goods.  

Now this ISF 10 + 2 information is mandatory and, if it is not filed prior to the 24 hour sailing window it will result in a $5000.00 fine for the Importer.  Whether it is the Exporter, Shipper, Forwarder who makes the arrangement for the ISF, or the Customs Broker or Agent, any problems with the ISF will result in the penalty being sent to the Importer.

If the Importer has their own bond - they can file the ISF under that security.  If they do not have a bond, then a single entry bond is possible to do.  However, it can not be done if the sailing has occurred; the sureties have stated that they will not provide security for something that is guaranteed to be a penalty situation.  

Please note that customs will hold these ISF filings open for six (6) years and Customs have advised that they could very well go back to day one and determine if a penalty should be filed/issued for any problems surrounding a shipment.  Also, you can have up to two $5000.00 penalties on the same shipment 
Example: non file, late file, not updated file, or duplicate filings...... just to name a few.

Finally, we urge any Importer planning on importing from overseas via ocean to contact Dell Will Customs Brokers as soon as possible and to obtain their own customs bond.  We anticipate more issues and problems as we move toward a more enforcement stance to be taken by Customs.