CBP Interim Rule Adds Requirements for Foreign Importers of Record

The rule separates U.S. and foreign IORs with new definitions. Under new 19 CFR 110.2(a), a U.S. IOR is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or an entity organized under U.S. law and located in the United States that passes an ownership or real-property test. An entity can qualify if at least 51 percent of its beneficial owners are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who control it. The alternative is direct ownership of a significant amount of unencumbered real property in the United States. The entity must meet one of these criteria at all times. The real property may carry some encumbrance, provided its net unencumbered value is still significant. Any IOR that fails the U.S. IOR criteria is a foreign IOR under 19 CFR 110.3.

CBP will check IOR qualification declarations through a process in new 19 CFR 110.2(b). The rule says an entity's status as a U.S. or foreign IOR can vary with the circumstances of each case. To confirm that an entity is located in the United States, CBP says it will consider, at its discretion and where relevant, factors such as operations size and scale, principal place of business, physical presence with substantial transactions, unencumbered domestic assets, directly owned real property, profit structure and capitalization. Another listed factor is whether the entity is an instrumentality of a foreign manufacturer without substantial U.S. presence. The list is not exhaustive, and the criteria are flexible because CBP cannot predict every relevant circumstance.

A foreign IOR that is not CTPAT validated must designate a customs broker that is licensed under 19 U.S.C. 1641 and validated through the CTPAT program, either to make entry or to act as the importer of record on the entry. Once the rule takes effect on January 5, 2027, licensed customs brokers can no longer file entry for a foreign IOR or foreign power-of-attorney principal on licensure alone. The exception is a foreign IOR that is itself CTPAT validated. A customs broker acting as importer of record for a power-of-attorney principal must also be CTPAT validated when that principal is not an IOR and would qualify as a foreign IOR under § 110.3. If that principal does not own or purchase the merchandise, the designated CTPAT-validated broker must serve as the IOR.

The regulations also set out consequences for foreign IORs and brokers that do not comply.

CBP says the CTPAT requirement is meant to ensure that a trusted party files the entry and entry summary. In its account, the agency has limited visibility into foreign party information when a broker files for that party, while a CTPAT-validated broker has demonstrated controls that give insight into its client and the client's supply chain. CBP also says some foreign IORs list U.S. addresses as shell companies with no physical presence or assets beyond a mailing address, which complicates tracking entries and collecting duties, penalties and fees. It adds that foreign IORs may register with CBP Form 5106 or an IRS EIN, which supply only basic contact and business information, and that it can identify an IOR as foreign only when the IOR lists a foreign address.

CBP cites collection results as further context. From January 1, 2020 to August 27, 2026, it says its audits uncovered $1.16 billion in revenue lost from foreign IORs and it recouped $35.7 million from them. That is a 3.1 percent collection rate for foreign IORs, against 15.2 percent for U.S. IORs.

CBP issued the requirements without advance notice and comment, invoking the "contrary to public interest" prong. The agency says advance notice would give foreign IORs more incentive to import high volumes of illicit merchandise and to create false-information IOR accounts or shell companies before the rule takes effect. Citing its records, CBP says that from March 2019 to the end of September 2025 about 55,000 IOR accounts were created with fake phone numbers and about 45,000 with fake email addresses.