Import
Customs Bonds
A formal entry needs one. Choosing the wrong type costs importers a few hundred dollars a year, and choosing no type stops the cargo.
Single entry against continuous
Run the comparison against your real volume rather than your expected volume. Importers underestimate their own frequency.
Single entry bond
Covers one shipment. The surety writes it at cargo value plus duties, taxes and fees.
Partner agency involvement pushes the amount to three times cargo value.
Suits a first import, a one-off, or an importer testing a product line.
Continuous bond
Covers twelve months of entries at any US port.
Minimum $50,000, sized at 10% of the duties, taxes and fees you paid last year.
Cheaper once you pass roughly four or five entries a year.
Separate ISF bond
Importers on single entry bonds buy ISF cover per shipment as well.
Two instruments, two fees, on the same container.
ISF included
A continuous bond covers your ISF filings at no extra charge.
One instrument, one annual fee, no per shipment arithmetic.
Sizing a continuous bond
CBP sets the amount at 10% of the duties, taxes and fees you paid over the previous twelve months, rounded up, with a $50,000 floor. An importer paying $600,000 in duty needs a $60,000 bond. Underestimate and CBP issues an insufficiency notice, which stops your entries until you top it up.
Section 301 duties count toward that calculation. Importers who moved sourcing into tariffed lines during 2018 and 2019 found their bond insufficient the following year, and several found out at the terminal.
The bond's purpose
The bond guarantees CBP that someone pays the duty. It protects the government, not you. A claim against your bond becomes a debt you owe the surety, and the surety pursues it.
Related
Next step
Tell us what you are moving.
Send the commodity, the weight and dimensions, the origin and destination, and your target sailing. That gives us enough for a firm quote.