Trade & Customs Oct 16, 2026 · 7 min read

CBP delays postal Entry Type 13 to 20 January while its low-value filing rule is open for comment

CBP gives postal filers 90 more days. The bigger change is the rule behind it. US Customs (CBP) has pushed mandatory Entry Type 13, its new electronic customs entry for international mail, from 22 October 2026 to 20 January 2027, BDO reports. We think the delay matters less than the proposal published on 8 October. It would make courier informal entries (Entry Type 11, goods worth $2,500 or less) due on or before arrival, not within 15 days. In CBP’s own sample, only 0.4% were filed before arrival. Our call: comments close 7 December, and express brokers will push hard for a phase-in. We expect any final rule no earlier than mid-2027.

CBP’s postal delay is a breather. Filing on arrival is what will reshape small-parcel imports US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has given international mail 90 more days. The mandatory date for Entry Type 13 (ET13) has moved from 22 October 2026 to 20 January 2027. ET13 is CBP’s new electronic informal entry for postal shipments. CBP announced the change on 14 October, BDO reported on 16 October.
Our view is simple. The delay is a breather, not a reprieve. The real change for forwarders sits in a separate CBP proposal published on 8 October. It would end the 15-day filing window that most courier and e-commerce informal entries use today. That matters far more than three extra months for postal filers.

What changed this week

BDO says that from 20 January 2027, international postal shipments facing Section 201, 232 or 301 duties must be filed electronically in ACE using ET13 to qualify for informal entry. The same applies to shipments under Partner Government Agency (PGA) jurisdiction, meaning goods also regulated by bodies such as the FDA. ACE is CBP’s electronic filing system. Anything that does not go through ET13 needs a formal entry instead.
CBP has said that “international mail entry procedures will not change before January 20, 2027,” according to BDO. So nothing moves in the meantime. CBP deployed the ET13 test into the ACE production environment on 22 September 2026, BDO adds.
An ET13 entry needs the foreign postal operator’s tracking number, the sender’s name and address, a 10-digit HTSUS code (the US tariff classification), country of origin, value, duty rate and total duty owed, per BDO.
Why the scramble? The $800 de minimis exemption (duty-free entry for low-value goods) has been suspended for all countries since 29 August 2025, KPMG notes. It is also scheduled to end for good on 1 July 2027 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. BDO says a CBP interim final rule of 24 June 2026 indefinitely suspended the exemption for mail under Section 321(a)(2)(C). Mail now owes duty, and CBP needs the data to collect it.

The bigger rule: file before the parcel lands

The 8 October proposal is titled “Low-Value Shipments” (Federal Register document 2026-20650). It covers goods worth $2,500 or less. KPMG describes it as 103 pages long.
Its core change hits Entry Type 11 (ET11), the informal entry most express and courier parcels use. KPMG summarises it this way: “Under the proposed regulations, entry type 11 filings generally would be required to be filed electronically upon or before the date of importation.” GHY notes the current rule is “within the current general deadline of 15 calendar days after arrival.”
CBP’s own data show how far that is from today’s practice. It took “a random sample of 392,473 ET11 entries from September to November of 2025,” the Federal Register notice says. Only 0.4% were filed before arrival. Another 26.6% were filed on arrival day and 25.0% the day after. Supply Chain Dive reports that over half of ET11 entries in the sample would have missed the earlier deadline.
CBP’s read is that “just over half of ET11 entries need to be submitted only a day or two earlier.” That is true on paper. In practice, a day or two is the gap between filing from the destination after the manifest lands and filing from origin before the aircraft leaves. That is a process change, not a tweak.
The volumes are large. Roughly 52.4 million ET11 imports and 24.4 million postal entries arrived in the US from 1 September 2025 to 31 May 2026, Supply Chain Dive reports. CBP’s model assumes 70,126,017 ET11 shipments and 32,659,725 postal shipments a year, per the notice.

Bonds, abandonment and the cost CBP admits

The proposal goes beyond timing. Three parts matter for forwarders.
Bonds. GHY reports that “every ET11 and ET13 filer would need a single transaction bond or a continuous bond.” A customs bond is a surety’s guarantee that duties and penalties will be paid. KPMG says liquidated damages (the penalty for breaching the bond) would generally equal the merchandise value, or three times it for restricted goods and alcohol. GHY says the floor would be “the greater of the merchandise value or $1,000.”
Abandonment. Mail not entered in time would not sit in a warehouse for weeks. KPMG quotes the proposal: “International mail shipments not timely and properly entered would be deemed voluntarily abandoned.” The clock is 15 days from importation. Supply Chain Dive notes that USPS currently holds items for 30 days.
Formal entry. CBP keeps the right to push goods out of the informal lane. GHY quotes the proposal: “CBP could require formal entry based on the importer, manufacturer, seller, or category of goods.”
CBP is open about the cost. The proposal says the rule “would result in stricter duty collection for postal entries and higher shipping costs” for both ET11 and ET13 entries, and that these changes would likely cause imports to fall. It puts the present value of the rule’s net cost from 2026 to 2035 at $9,298,017,345 at a 3% discount rate. CBP assumes brokers would charge about $30 more per postal entry, GHY reports. The notice says the $30 comes from an estimate of express carriers’ brokerage fees.
Set that $30 against what moves by post. Postal shipments worth $30 or less made up 79% of all postal shipments by volume, the notice says, using CBP data from September 2025 to May 2026. For most of those parcels, the brokerage fee alone would match or exceed the goods’ value. That is our arithmetic, not CBP’s.
The postal system is not built for this either. USPS estimates its ET13 system updates could cost up to $20 million and take up to eight months, Supply Chain Dive reports. On holding unentered mail, “USPS anticipates that it would need an initial warehouse capacity equivalent to 80% or more of the import volume,” the outlet quotes from the proposal. CBP itself calls the effect on shipping times “ambiguous”.

What it means for forwarders and shippers

The ET13 delay helps postal consolidators and e-commerce platforms that ship by mail. They get until 20 January to connect to ACE, line up a licensed broker and clean their product data. GHY notes that consignees who do not own or buy the goods would have to appoint “a licensed customs broker to act as the importer of record.”
The ET11 change is the one to plan around now, in our view. Five practical effects follow.
First, data moves upstream. If the entry is due on arrival, HTS codes, values, origin, sender and the final deliver-to party must be right at origin. Supply Chain Dive says the proposal adds the final deliver-to party as a required data element when it differs from the consignee. Seller-supplied descriptions that get fixed after landing will no longer work.
Second, the late-filing buffer goes. Today a broker can fix a bad line a few days after arrival. Under the proposal, the only fix is to hold the freight, and that costs warehouse space.
Third, mode choice shifts. Postal will carry duty, data and broker fees much like express. That narrows the cost gap that pushed low-value e-commerce into the mail. We expect more of that volume to consolidate into air cargo or ocean, with bulk formal entries and US fulfilment.
Fourth, bonds become a gating item. Smaller cross-border sellers and consolidators that never needed a bond will need one. Sureties will price that risk, especially for goods with Section 301 or 232 exposure.
Fifth, the hub peak changes shape. Filing on arrival pulls broker workload into the hours before flights land. Brokers with origin teams in Asia gain an edge over those that file from US gateways.

Our call

Comments are due by 7 December 2026 under docket USCBP-2026-0298, GHY reports. We expect the docket to fill with requests from express carriers, brokers and marketplaces for a phased start to filing on arrival, most likely a pre-departure or “wheels-up” grace window.
Our prediction: CBP will hold the 20 January 2027 date for ET13 this time and will not grant a second 90-day slip. It will not finalise the ET11 arrival deadline before mid-2027. When it does, we expect the start date to sit at or after 1 July 2027, when de minimis ends by statute, with a phase-in rather than a hard switch. Forwarders that move to origin filing before then will win the volume that leaves the mail.

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