Trade & Customs Oct 20, 2026 · 8 min read

CBP delays the mail deadline but moves to end the 15-day window for low-value entries

Mail filing gets 90 more days. Low-value cargo loses its 15-day window. US Customs (CBP) has moved the start of Entry Type 13, a new electronic entry for international mail, from 22 October 2026 to 20 January 2027 (STR). Don’t read that as relief. CBP’s 8 October proposal would make Type 11 entries (informal entries up to $2,500) due on or before arrival, not within 15 days. In CBP’s own sample, only 27% were filed that fast. Every filer would also need a bond. Express and air consolidators need complete data before the flight lands. Our call: comments close 7 December, and the final rule keeps the arrival deadline.

CBP wants low-value entries filed before the freight lands. In its own sample, most were not.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has given the trade 90 more days on one rule. Then it set out plans for a much bigger one.
The extension covers Entry Type 13. This is a new electronic informal entry for international mail. Its compliance date has moved from 22 October 2026 to 20 January 2027, the STR Trade Report said on 16 October. Without the extension it would have started this Thursday. CBP said the delay gives “importers, brokers, and logistics providers additional time to update their processes.”
The bigger rule is a proposal CBP published on 8 October, titled “Low-Value Shipments”. It would end the 15-day filing window for Type 11 entries, the informal entry used for commercial goods worth $2,500 or less. Instead, entries would be due on or before the day the goods arrive. Comments close on 7 December.
Our view: the mail delay is a short pause, not a retreat. CBP is building one regime for low-value goods, mail and cargo alike. In that regime, data arrives before the freight, every filer carries a bond, and anything unfiled sits until it is filed. Forwarders who handle express, air consolidation or cross-border e-commerce should plan for it now. Waiting for the final rule would leave little time.

What CBP has proposed

The proposed rule (docket USCBP-2026-0298, Federal Register document 2026-20650) covers informal entries of goods valued at $2,500 or less. An informal entry is a simpler, cheaper customs filing than a formal entry. It uses less data and has lighter bond rules.
The main changes, as set out in the proposal and summarised by customs broker GHY International and KPMG:

Earlier filing. Today, “an entry must be made within 15 calendar days after merchandise has landed from a vessel, aircraft, or vehicle,” the proposal says. Under the plan, Type 11 entries would be filed electronically on or before the date of importation.

More data. Filers would name the final deliver-to party when it is not the ultimate consignee (the party the goods are shipped to on paper). For Type 13 mail, filers would also give the shipper or sender and the foreign postal tracking number. The carrier would have to put the same tracking number on the inward manifest, the cargo list it sends CBP.

Bonds for everyone. Every Type 11 and Type 13 filer would need a customs bond. This is a guarantee from a surety that duties, fees and penalties will be paid. It could be a single transaction bond, which covers one entry, or a continuous bond, which covers a year of entries. Today, informal entries need a bond only in some cases, GHY noted.

Bigger penalties. The proposal sets “a new minimum amount of $1,000 for each breach of a listed bond condition.” For restricted or prohibited goods and alcohol, damages would be the greater of three times the value or $1,000 (GHY).

No release, then abandonment. Mail would not be released until an entry is filed. Mail articles “will be deemed voluntarily abandoned if no entry is filed within 15 days of importation,” the proposal says. The Loadstar reported that CBP has so far held shipments for 30 days before deeming them abandoned.

Broker rule. If a consignee is neither the owner nor the buyer, it would generally have to use a licensed customs broker as importer of record, the party legally responsible for the entry (GHY).

Blanket formal entry. CBP could require formal entry for whole groups, by importer, product type or manufacturer (GHY).

There is no effective date yet. The proposal’s cost tables start “in 2027 when the rule would take effect.”

Why the arrival deadline bites

The scale is large. From 1 September 2025 to 31 May 2026, “a total of 24,427,685 postal entries and 52,450,418 ET11 entries arrived in the United States,” the proposal says.
CBP also checked how fast Type 11 entries are filed today. It took a random sample of 392,473 entries from September to November 2025. “Only 0.4% of entries were filed before the day of arrival. However, 26.6% of entries were filed the day of arrival, and 25.0% were filed the day after,” the proposal says.
So about 27% met the proposed deadline. By our arithmetic from CBP’s table, about 73% did not. That includes roughly 48% filed two or more days after arrival. The Loadstar summed it up as “more than half the type 11 imports would have missed the new deadline.”
That gap is the story for forwarders. The 15-day window lets a broker file after the freight lands, once the invoice is cleaned up and the end receiver confirmed. That slack goes away. Data quality becomes a pre-departure job, not a post-arrival one.

The bond bill

Most Type 11 entries already carry a bond. CBP found that about 2.3 million Type 11 entries were filed without one from August 2025 to July 2026. That is “only 3.31%” of projected 2026 Type 11 entries, according to the proposal.
The cost lands on a long tail of small importers, though. GHY’s summary of the proposal says 68,701 importers filed those bondless entries. For 59,148 of them, CBP estimates bond costs would equal 72.66% of the duties, taxes and fees they pay on Type 11 entries. CBP says it cannot certify that the rule avoids a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses (GHY).
Mail gets more expensive too. CBP’s analysis assumes broker fees rise by about $30 per postal entry, based on a 2024 academic study. Carriers would spend about a minute more per postal entry adding tracking numbers to manifests (GHY).
CBP’s case is enforcement. It wants to spot high-risk shipments, stop illegal goods and counterfeits, and get better compliance. The proposal says “CBP seized narcotics in postal de minimis shipments at a rate of 277.8 seizures per million shipments.” It adds that postal de minimis shipments “had the highest seizure rates in all other seizure categories as well.”

How we got here

This is the next step after de minimis. That is the rule that let goods worth up to $800 enter the US duty-free with little data. It has been suspended since 29 August 2025, and it is set to end for good on 1 July 2027, KPMG notes. The Loadstar traces the end of the exemption to last year’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
With de minimis gone, millions of parcels that used to clear with almost no data now need an entry. Mail was the weak spot. Postal shipments subject to Section 201, 232 or 301 tariffs, or overseen by a partner government agency, must now go through Type 13 in ACE or file a formal entry, STR reports. ACE (the Automated Commercial Environment) is CBP’s electronic filing system. That requirement came from a June interim final rule, a rule that takes effect before comments are finished. The proposal says the Type 13 test was set to begin on 22 September 2026.
The timing of the delay has drawn comment. The Loadstar reported speculation that Washington wants to avoid more consumer price rises before the mid-term elections in early November. It did not name who was speculating, and CBP’s stated reason is trade readiness. Either way, 20 January falls after the vote.
Forwarders are reading the direction clearly. Sobel Network Shipping warned brands, 3PLs, cross-border carriers and customs brokers that “the era of lightweight clearance procedures for parcel freight has closed,” The Loadstar reported.

What forwarders should do now

The work moves upstream, to origin. In our view, four things matter most.
First, data before departure. If entries are due on arrival, the invoice, value, tariff code, consignee and final deliver-to party must be correct before the flight or truck leaves. That means tighter cut-offs with shippers and marketplaces. Some freight will be held at origin until its data is complete.
Second, bonds. Check which clients file informal entries without a bond. CBP’s numbers point to a small share of volume but tens of thousands of importers. Many will be overseas sellers who will turn to their forwarder or broker for help.
Third, pricing. Earlier filing, more data fields, bond costs and a $1,000 minimum penalty all add cost and risk. That will show up in clearance fees. Express and e-commerce rates already reflect the end of de minimis. Expect another step up.
Fourth, mail versus cargo. For two years, some sellers moved volume into postal channels to keep costs down. Type 13 closes most of that gap: same data, same bond, plus a tracking number on the manifest. We expect the cost edge of mail over consolidated air cargo to shrink further.
There is also a way to shape the outcome. Comments close on 7 December. Express operators, brokers and forwarders who can show where an on-arrival deadline breaks a real operation, such as late manifests or transshipped freight, have about seven weeks to put data on the record.

Our prediction

We expect the 20 January 2027 Type 13 date to hold, with no second extension. We expect CBP to publish the final low-value rule in the first half of 2027, timed to the 1 July 2027 de minimis sunset. The on-or-before-arrival deadline for Type 11 will survive in the final text. CBP may add a short phase-in or relief for specific cases, but we do not think the 15-day window comes back.

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