CBP closes the mail entry window October 22: tariffed parcels need bonds

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has set October 22, 2026 as the day a temporary grace period ends for the international mail stream. From that date, two provisions of the agency’s rewritten mail regulations switch on, and a large share of low-value parcels arriving by post lose access to the simplified postal entry process they have used since July.

The provisions are narrow on paper and sweeping in practice. Under 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi), formal entry becomes mandatory for any mail shipment subject to another government agency’s requirements, and for any merchandise subject to duties under Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, or claiming duty-free treatment under Chapter 98 or a free trade agreement. Chapter 99 is where the current generation of trade remedies lives, which is why the date matters well beyond the handful of regulated categories it appears to describe.

Two days before the countdown reached its final fortnight, CBP published a separate notice of proposed rulemaking that would make the whole architecture permanent and extend it to the commercial express stream as well. The proposal, titled “Low-Value Shipments” and published at 91 FR 64532 on October 8, 2026, carries CBP’s own estimate of the burden: a present value net cost of $9,298,017,345 in 2026 dollars over 2026–2035 at a 3% discount rate. Comments close on December 7, 2026.

In short

  • October 22, 2026 is the compliance date for 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi). Mail parcels with partner government agency requirements or Chapter 98 and Chapter 99 duties must then use formal entry.
  • Chapter 99 is the wide door. Section 201, Section 232 and Section 301 duties are all assessed through Chapter 99 subheadings, so the rule reaches ordinary consumer goods, not just regulated ones.
  • Entry Type 13 is the alternative, a voluntary CBP test in the Automated Commercial Environment that began on September 22, 2026 and waives the formal entry requirement for participants.
  • The Consumer Product Safety Commission starts requiring eFiled certificates of compliance for mail shipments on the same date, October 22, via a Full or Reference Message Set.
  • CBP’s October 8 proposal would require bonds on all informal entries, set a $1,000 floor on liquidated damages, move filing to the date of importation, and deem unentered mail abandoned after 15 days.

What changes at the mail facilities on October 22

The sequence began on June 24, 2026, when CBP published an interim final rule at 91 FR 37801 (CBP Dec. 26-13, RIN 1685-AA45) that made the suspension of the $800 de minimis exemption for postal imports a matter of regulation rather than executive order. The rule took effect on July 24, 2026 and rewrote 19 CFR part 145, the part of the customs regulations that governs merchandise arriving by mail.

That rule did two things at once. It closed the duty-free channel, and it opened a replacement: a postal informal entry process for shipments valued at $2,500 or less. The replacement has a hard boundary written into it. By the rule’s own terms the new process is “available only to shipments of merchandise valued at $2,500 or less, that are sent to the United States via mail, and are classifiable only in Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) chapters 1–97.”

Chapters 1 through 97 are the ordinary tariff schedule: food, textiles, machinery, toys, electronics. Chapters 98 and 99 sit outside that range. Chapter 98 holds special classification provisions such as American goods returned. Chapter 99 holds temporary modifications, which in 2026 means the trade remedies. Anything that touches either chapter was, by design, excluded from the new postal process on day one.

CBP did not enforce that exclusion immediately. Instead it set a compliance date, stated plainly in the rule’s DATES section: “The compliance date for 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi) is on October 22, 2026.” The agency described the window as “flexible and narrow,” granted “in order to provide the trade with sufficient time to adjust to the new requirements and in consideration of the business process changes that may be necessary to achieve full compliance.” The window has run for three months. It closes in under two weeks.

The policy direction behind it is no longer in doubt. The Court of International Trade has already upheld the de minimis repeal, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act wrote the statutory termination of the exemption into law with an effective date of July 1, 2027. October 22 is an administrative milestone on a path that is already set.

Which mail parcels lose the informal pathway

The two provisions that switch on cover three overlapping populations of goods. Each is defined by the paperwork attached to it rather than by what it is.

Goods with partner government agency requirements

Provision (v) is the shortest sentence in the rule and the broadest: “Formal entry is required for any mail shipment subject to the requirements of another government agency.” In customs practice that means a partner government agency, or PGA, data set has to accompany the entry. The Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture all sit in that category.

For a cross-border seller the practical reach is wider than the list suggests. Dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices, laser pointers, children’s products, textiles containing animal fiber and anything with a lithium battery can pull a PGA requirement onto an otherwise unremarkable parcel. The test is not value. A $14 skincare sample and a $1,400 diagnostic device land in the same bucket.

Goods carrying Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 duties

Provision (vi) is where the population expands. The Entry Type 13 test notice at 91 FR 38007 spells out what Chapter 99 contains in the current environment, naming “goods subject to trade remedies, such as Section 232 duties, Section 201 duties, or Section 301 duties.” Those measures are not assessed as a separate bill. They are assessed by adding a Chapter 99 subheading alongside the ordinary Chapters 1 to 97 classification.

That is the mechanism that makes a technical compliance date a commercial event. A cotton t-shirt from a tariffed origin is still a Chapter 61 or Chapter 62 article, but the duty is collected through Chapter 99, so the parcel is “subject to duties under Chapter 98 or Chapter 99” and provision (vi) applies to it.

The third population is defined by what the filer asks for rather than what the parcel owes. Provision (vi) also captures merchandise “for which duty-free treatment is claimed under Chapter 98 of the HTSUS or pursuant to a Free Trade Agreement.” A returned item coming back to a US seller under a Chapter 98 provision qualifies. So does a parcel claiming preference under an agreement such as USMCA.

The result is an awkward incentive. A filer who claims a legitimate duty saving on a low-value mail parcel triggers a more expensive entry process than a filer who simply pays the duty. CBP has not addressed that asymmetry in either document.

What formal entry demands from a low-value parcel

Formal entry was not built for a $20 package. It is the process used for containerized commercial cargo, and it carries the apparatus that goes with it: an entry and an entry summary, a continuous or single transaction bond, a bonded party acting as importer of record, liquidation, and the possibility of protest.

Three of those requirements bite hardest in the mail environment. The first is the bond. The June rule added a new section, 19 CFR 145.15, which states that a shipment entered through the new postal process “will not be released from CBP custody, and the entry will not be accepted” unless a single transaction or continuous bond with the conditions in 19 CFR 113.62 has been transmitted to CBP, executed by an approved corporate surety or secured by cash deposit. Our explainer on the importer of record and customs bonds sets out how that obligation normally attaches.

The second is the right to make entry. Under 19 CFR 143.26(a) only an owner or purchaser of the merchandise, or a licensed customs broker properly designated by the owner, purchaser or consignee, may file. A foreign postal operator cannot self-file. Neither can the US Postal Service, a freight forwarder or a carrier, unless it happens to own or have purchased the goods, which it does not.

The third is classification. Formal entry requires a 10-digit HTSUS classification, plus any Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 secondary classification. On a container of one product that is one decision. On a mail sack of several hundred unrelated consumer items it is several hundred decisions, each of which determines a duty rate and each of which is auditable.

Customs brokerage guidance circulated in late September describes the operational shape of the formal route for mail: an electronic entry in ACE flagged with the mail transport mode, with CBP notifying the addressee of the arrival and the method of entry, and the addressee given a defined window to respond. The June rule’s own text requires that when a formal entry is needed, “the addressee will be notified of the arrival of the shipment and of the method by which entry is to be made.”

Entry Type 13 is the escape hatch, and it is not automatic

CBP did not leave formal entry as the only option. Concurrently with the June rule it announced a voluntary test of a new electronic informal entry type for mail, published at 91 FR 38007 and authorized under 19 CFR 101.9(a). The mail entry test opened on September 22, 2026 and runs until CBP ends it by notice in the Federal Register.

The test’s value is precisely what it waives. For participants, the notice states, “the formal entry requirement in 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v), for goods subject to PGA requirements, and 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(vi), for goods subject to duties under Chapters 98 and 99, HTSUS, will be waived.” In other words, Entry Type 13 is the route that keeps PGA-regulated and tariffed mail parcels out of formal entry after October 22. The alignment was deliberate: CBP wrote that “the opening of the Entry Type 13 test will coincide with the end of the delayed compliance window.”

Who may file, and who must hire someone

Eligibility mirrors the formal route. The test is open to owners and purchasers of merchandise being mailed to the United States, and to licensed customs brokers properly appointed by the owner, purchaser or consignee. CBP lists the consignees that will need a broker explicitly: foreign postal operators, USPS, freight forwarders and carriers.

The bond consequence follows the filer. The notice states that if a broker files the type 13 entry, “the broker, as the IOR, will have their bond obligated.” That shifts a real exposure onto brokers at parcel volumes, and it is one reason brokerage capacity, not regulation, may end up setting the pace of adoption.

Carriers have a separate role. They may elect to participate in order to transmit the foreign postal operator’s tracking number on the inward manifest. CBP’s stated purpose is matching: if both carrier and filer participate, the agency can reconcile the manifest tracking number against the entry and establish the precise arrival time of each parcel.

Entry Type 13 requires twelve data elements, including a filer code, importer of record number, merchandise description, country of origin, all applicable 10-digit HTSUS classifications, duty rate, value, total duty owed, carrier, the foreign postal tracking number and the arrival port. Quantity and weight are conditional, required only where a specific duty rate is used. Shipments subject to PGA requirements or non-Chapter 1 to 97 duties must transmit the additional data those regimes mandate, under the CATAIR technical guidelines.

Two exclusions survive the waiver. Merchandise subject to antidumping or countervailing duty orders and merchandise subject to quota remain ineligible for informal entry entirely and must be formally entered. CBP also retains discretion under 19 CFR 145.12(a)(1) to require formal entry of any mail shipment regardless of value where necessary to protect the revenue.

The three routes now differ on almost every operational dimension, and the differences decide which one a given parcel can use.

Feature Postal informal entry (19 CFR 145.12(b)) Entry Type 13 test Formal entry
Value ceiling $2,500 or less $2,500 or less No ceiling
HTSUS scope Chapters 1–97 only after Oct 22 Includes Chapters 98 and 99 All chapters
PGA-regulated goods Excluded after Oct 22 Permitted (requirement waived) Permitted
AD/CVD or quota goods Excluded Excluded Required
Who may file Owner, purchaser or licensed broker Owner, purchaser or licensed broker Owner, purchaser or licensed broker
Bond Required (19 CFR 145.15) Required; broker’s bond if broker files Required
Filing channel Excel spreadsheet by email Electronic in ACE Electronic in ACE
Deadline 7th day of month after arrival Per test terms in ACE Standard entry timeframes
Status Regulatory, narrowed Oct 22 Voluntary test since Sept 22 Permanent

The contrast in the filing channel row is the most revealing detail in the June rule. The postal informal process it created is not an electronic entry at all. Filers transmit fourteen data elements to CBP in an Excel spreadsheet by email, no later than the 7th day of the month following arrival, and pay duties through Pay.gov on the same monthly cadence. Entry Type 13 replaces that with a per-shipment electronic filing in ACE, which is why CBP expects it to cost more per parcel and to be held to a higher accuracy standard.

The CPSC switches on certificate eFiling the same day

October 22 is not only a CBP date. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued guidance on September 1, 2026 stating that “CPSC will require eFiled certificates for mail shipments, via a Full or Reference Message Set, beginning on October 22, 2026.” The guidance ties the requirement to Entry Type 13 and to CBP’s new postal entry framework.

The effect is to close a gap rather than open a new burden. CPSC-regulated consumer products already require a certificate of compliance. What changes is that for mail shipments the certificate data must be transmitted electronically through ACE rather than existing on paper somewhere upstream. Children’s products, toys, furniture, electrical goods and a long list of general-use consumer categories fall inside the scheme.

For a seller shipping CPSC-regulated goods by post, the two requirements stack. The parcel needs an entry pathway that accepts PGA data, which after October 22 means Entry Type 13 or formal entry, and it needs the certificate transmitted in one of the two permitted message sets. Missing either one is enough to hold the shipment.

CBP’s October 8 proposal would make the architecture permanent

The Entry Type 13 test is, formally, a test. The October 8 notice of proposed rulemaking is the instrument that would turn it into regulation and extend the same logic to the commercial low-value stream. Published at 91 FR 64532 under RIN 1685-AA38 and docket USCBP-2026-0298, it proposes amendments to 19 CFR parts 113, 128, 141, 143 and 145. The Office of Management and Budget has reviewed it as an economically significant action under section 3(f)(1) of Executive Order 12866.

Four proposals in it matter most to anyone shipping low-value goods into the United States.

Filing moves to the date of importation

Today an informal entry can be made within 15 calendar days after merchandise lands, under 19 CFR 141.5. CBP calls that “traditional entry timeframe” a problem in the low-value environment because it leaves no room for risk assessment before arrival. The proposal would require Entry Type 11 informal entries to be filed electronically “upon or prior to the date of importation,” the same discipline that applied to the suspended Entry Type 86 test. Entry Type 13 would inherit the deadline.

The agency also proposes a new data element for both types, the “final deliver-to party,” to be reported when it differs from the ultimate consignee on the entry summary. Entry Type 13 would carry one more: a shipper or sender element capturing the identity and address of the party causing the goods to be shipped.

Bonds on every informal entry, with a $1,000 floor on damages

The proposal would require a basic importation and entry bond for all Entry Type 11 and Entry Type 13 filings, not only mail. Where a consignee that is not an owner or purchaser appoints a broker, CBP proposes that the broker act as importer of record, so the broker’s bond is the one obligated.

It then addresses the arithmetic of enforcing those bonds. Liquidated damages are normally set at the value of the merchandise involved in a default. On a $12 parcel that is not a deterrent, and CBP says collection would cost more than the recovery. The agency therefore proposes amending 19 CFR 113.62(n) to impose “a new minimum amount of $1,000 for each breach of a listed bond condition” on Entry Type 11 and Entry Type 13 shipments. For a seller shipping thousands of low-value parcels a month, that converts a rounding error into a material compliance risk.

Fifteen days to entry, then abandonment

Moving the filing deadline to the date of importation creates a storage problem: parcels will arrive before anyone has filed for them. CBP’s answer is a new section 19 CFR 145.6, under which mail articles valued at $2,500 or less with no timely and proper entry “will be considered by CBP to be voluntarily abandoned at the expiration of a 15-day period, beginning on the date of importation.” Abandoned articles would then be processed under USPS procedures, which the agency says “may include destruction or returning the shipment to the sender.”

That is the sharpest consumer-facing consequence in the proposal. A shopper who buys from a foreign seller that does not arrange entry would not simply face a delay or a duty bill. The parcel could be destroyed or returned without the buyer ever being asked for anything.

Not every proposal tightens. CBP proposes removing the long-standing $250 limit in 19 CFR 143.21, and parallel references in 141.82 and 143.23, that bars merchandise classified under Chapter 99 Subchapters III and IV from informal entry above that value. Goods worth between $251 and $2,500 and subject to measures such as Section 232 duties would no longer be forced into formal entry on that basis. CBP notes the change “mirrors the same change made to other informal entry regulations in 2012,” citing 77 FR 72715.

The relief is real but narrow, and it sits inside a proposal that the agency itself scores as one of the more expensive customs rules of the decade.

What the paperwork costs per parcel

CBP’s regulatory impact analysis puts a number on the new mail process, and the number is the clearest argument in the docket for why postal volumes are unlikely to recover.

The agency assumes that every importer or sender using Entry Type 13 will hire a broker, “since brokers have the expertise to determine product classification and handle various entry requirements.” For the broker fee it adopts the express carriers’ brokerage estimate of $30 per shipment from Fajgelbaum and Khandelwal (2024), published as National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 32607. It then adds the filer’s own time on the two entry forms.

Cost component Basis Cost per entry
Broker fee Express carrier brokerage estimate, NBER WP 32607 $30.00
CBP Form 3461 (entry) 10 minutes at $38.88 per hour $6.48
CBP Form 7501 (entry summary) 5 minutes at $38.88 per hour $3.24
Total per Entry Type 13 filing CBP regulatory analysis $39.72

Set that against what is actually in the mail. CBP reports that from September 2025 through May 2026, postal shipments valued at $30 or less made up 79% of all postal shipments by volume but only 16% by value. For four parcels in five, the compliance cost of entry would exceed the declared value of the goods inside.

The aggregate follows from CBP’s own figures. The agency annualizes the post-suspension flow at 32,659,725 postal shipments a year. At $39.72 per filing that is roughly $1.3bn a year in entry costs on the mail stream alone, before duties. Across the full regulatory period CBP puts the present value net cost of the rule at $9,298,017,345 at a 3% discount rate, or $7,715,548,573 at 7%, discounted to 2026.

The agency is candid that the estimate is conservative in one specific way. Its analysis assumes the rule has no effect on the quantity of imports. CBP writes that if imports fall, costs would be lower than modeled but society would bear a deadweight loss on top, “increasing the total cost of the rule to society beyond CBP’s cost estimates.”

How the parcel flows have already moved

The redirection of volume is not a forecast. It is already in the entry data, and the direction is consistent: out of the postal channel and into the commercial express channel.

Measure Postal entries Entry Type 11 (commercial informal)
Actual, Sept 1 2025 to May 31 2026 24,427,685 52,450,418
Annualized at that rate 32,659,725 70,126,017
Compound annual growth, FY2021–FY2024 -11.63% +3.14%
Manual filings in the period Spreadsheet by email, all filings 73,534 of 52,450,418 (0.14%)

CBP’s reading of the shift is explicit: the suspension of de minimis “led to a fall in postal shipments but an increase in ET11, as many would-be de minimis shipments shifted to ET11.” The agency does not expect either channel to return to pre-2025 levels, and it argues that the heavier Entry Type 13 data load makes a postal rebound “all the more unlikely.”

The baseline that volume has fallen from is worth holding in view. In fiscal year 2024 CBP processed over 1.36 billion de minimis shipments, which the June rule describes as almost a ten-fold increase over the 139 million processed in 2015. The low-value channel that built a decade of cross-border direct-to-consumer retail is being dismantled at both ends, by duty and by paperwork.

The pattern is not confined to the United States. The European Union’s customs overhaul has moved on a parallel track, with a parcel handling fee landing on November 1 and platforms pushed toward importer-of-record status. Sellers facing both regimes are now redesigning fulfillment for two separate low-value entry systems rather than one.

What sellers and platforms should do before October 22

The window is short enough that the realistic options are triage rather than redesign. Four questions decide where a given SKU lands.

First, does the item pull a PGA data requirement? If yes, the postal informal process is closed to it from October 22 and the only routes are Entry Type 13 or formal entry. Sellers of supplements, cosmetics, children’s products, electronics with batteries and anything FDA-regulated should assume they are in scope until a classification review says otherwise.

Second, is there a Chapter 99 subheading on the entry? For goods from origins facing Section 301, Section 232 or Section 201 measures the answer is usually yes, which puts most tariffed consumer goods in scope regardless of category.

Third, is anyone with the right to make entry actually standing behind the shipment? A foreign seller that has been relying on a postal operator or a forwarder to handle the US side needs a licensed customs broker appointed and bonded, because under 19 CFR 143.26(a) those intermediaries cannot file in their own name.

Fourth, is the classification data good enough to survive an electronic filing? The postal spreadsheet process tolerated monthly batch submission. Entry Type 13 is per-shipment, in ACE, with CBP able to monitor accuracy directly. Product data that was adequate for a customs declaration is often not adequate for a 10-digit classification plus a Chapter 99 secondary line.

Platforms face a fifth question that sellers do not: whether to take on the entry role themselves. The economics favor concentration. A marketplace filing at scale can amortize brokerage and system work that no individual seller shipping a few hundred parcels a month can carry at $39.72 per entry.

What comes after October 22

Three dates now define the low-value calendar. October 22, 2026 closes the delayed compliance window and makes Entry Type 13 participation the practical condition for keeping tariffed and regulated mail parcels out of formal entry. December 7, 2026 is the comment deadline on the Low-Value Shipments proposal, the last formal opportunity to shape bonding, filing timing and the abandonment rule before CBP writes them into regulation.

July 1, 2027 is the one that cannot be commented away. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21, terminated the de minimis exemption at Section 70531(b) with that effective date. Executive orders suspended the exemption; the statute ends it. After that date there is no administrative exemption to restore, and the question of how a $12 parcel enters the United States is purely a question of entry process.

On the evidence of the October 8 proposal, CBP’s answer is that it enters the same way a commercial shipment does: electronically, before arrival, against a bond, filed by a party with the right to make entry, with a $1,000 minimum penalty for getting the conditions wrong and a 15-day clock before the parcel is deemed abandoned. The era in which a low-value parcel was a postal item rather than an import is closing on a published schedule.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly happens on October 22, 2026?

The delayed compliance window for 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi) ends. From that date, mail shipments subject to another government agency’s requirements, or subject to duties under HTSUS Chapter 98 or Chapter 99, or claiming duty-free treatment under Chapter 98 or a free trade agreement, must use formal entry rather than the postal informal entry process. Participants in the Entry Type 13 test have those two requirements waived.

Does this apply to express carrier shipments or only to mail?

The October 22 compliance date applies to the international postal network, which is 19 CFR part 145. Commercial express shipments use Entry Type 11 informal entry and are unaffected by that specific date. CBP’s October 8 proposed rule would, however, change Entry Type 11 as well, requiring electronic filing upon or before the date of importation and a bond on every filing.

Why does Chapter 99 cover so many ordinary products?

Chapter 99 of the HTSUS holds temporary modifications, which is where Section 201, Section 232 and Section 301 duties are assessed. A tariffed product keeps its normal Chapters 1 to 97 classification and gains a Chapter 99 subheading for the additional duty. Because the additional duty is collected through Chapter 99, the parcel counts as subject to Chapter 99 duties for the purposes of provision (vi).

Can a foreign seller or a postal operator file an entry itself?

Only if it is the owner or purchaser of the goods. Under 19 CFR 143.26(a) the right to make entry is limited to an owner or purchaser, or a licensed customs broker properly appointed by the owner, purchaser or consignee. CBP names foreign postal operators, USPS, freight forwarders and carriers as consignees that must use a licensed broker. Where a broker files, the broker acts as importer of record and its bond is obligated.

Is Entry Type 13 mandatory?

Not yet. It is a voluntary test authorized under 19 CFR 101.9(a) that commenced on September 22, 2026 and runs until CBP ends it by Federal Register notice. The October 8 proposed rule would make it the mandatory route for qualifying mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less, but that rule is still at the comment stage, with comments due December 7, 2026.

What does the new process cost per parcel?

CBP estimates $39.72 per Entry Type 13 filing: a $30 broker fee, $6.48 for the filer’s time on CBP Form 3461 and $3.24 for CBP Form 7501, using an average hourly wage of $38.88. The agency also reports that 79% of postal shipments by volume between September 2025 and May 2026 were valued at $30 or less, so for most parcels the entry cost would exceed the value of the goods.

What happens to a parcel if nobody files an entry?

Under current rules it is held. Under CBP’s proposed new 19 CFR 145.6, a mail article valued at $2,500 or less with no timely and proper entry would be deemed voluntarily abandoned 15 days after the date of importation and then processed under USPS procedures, which CBP says may include destruction or return to the sender.

Are antidumping or quota goods eligible for any informal route?

No. Merchandise subject to antidumping or countervailing duty orders, and merchandise subject to absolute or tariff-rate quota, is excluded from informal entry entirely, including from the Entry Type 13 test, and must be formally entered. CBP also retains discretion to require formal entry of any mail shipment regardless of value where necessary to protect the revenue.

Does de minimis come back after all this?

Not as a matter of law. Executive Order 14324 suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for most imports effective August 29, 2025, and Executive Order 14388 continued the suspension. Separately, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at Section 70531(b) terminates the exemption with an effective date of July 1, 2027. CBP has also implemented an indefinite suspension for postal imports in its own regulations.

The full text of the proposed rule, including the regulatory impact analysis and the docket for comments due December 7, is published by CBP as Low-Value Shipments at 91 FR 64532.