Entry type 11, 01, 12 and 13: the US entry type codes

Every US customs entry carries a two-digit entry type code, and the code is not decoration. It decides which procedure the shipment went through, what data the filing must carry and when it is due. If a rule proposed on 8 October 2026 is finalised, it will also decide whether a bond has to stand behind it.

The awkward part for anyone trying to look one up is that the full code table is published in CBP’s ACE CATAIR appendices rather than in the Code of Federal Regulations. This page therefore states only the codes CBP has itself written down in the Federal Register, with the citation for each. Four of them have been.

What is entry type 11?

The busiest one. CBP defines it in a footnote to its own proposed rule:

Entry type 11 (or “type 11”) is the general informal entry type for merchandise valued at $2,500 or less (the general formal entry type is referred to as “type 01”). The requirements for a type 11 also apply to type 12 entries, for merchandise valued at $2,500 or less that is subject to a quota/visa.

Three codes in one paragraph. Type 01 is the general formal entry. Type 11 is the general informal entry, for merchandise at or under $2,500. Type 12 is type 11 for goods subject to a quota or a visa, and CBP calls it “a rarely used entry type”: 214 filings in the whole of financial year 2025, against 52,450,418 type 11 entries between 1 September 2025 and 31 May 2026.

What is a type 11 clearance?

The same thing, named from the other end. “Entry type 11” is the code; a type 11 clearance is what a broker calls the act of clearing a shipment under it: the informal entry procedure of 19 U.S.C. 1498 and 19 CFR part 143 subpart C, rather than the formal procedure that a type 01 clearance goes through.

Three practical differences, and the first is the one desks get wrong. A type 11 clearance is not a lighter standard of care. The “reasonable care” duty of 19 U.S.C. 1484(a)(1) attaches to the act of entry whichever code it carries, and so does the importer of record’s personal liability for the duty. It is a shorter form, not a safer one. Second, it has needed no basic importation and entry bond in most situations, which is the difference CBP proposed to end on 8 October 2026. Third, an unentered type 11 is abandoned six months after arrival, where a type 13 is abandoned at fifteen days, so the code decides how long a mistake stays recoverable.

What a type 11 clearance does not do is declare the goods. The cargo release gets the box off the dock; the entry summary is where the value, the classification and the duty are stated, and the entry type is a field on both.

What is entry type 13?

The new one. CBP announced an Informal Mail Entry test at 91 FR 38007 and then, on 8 October 2026, proposed it as a regulation that would replace the paper mail entry process in 19 CFR 145.12(b) outright. It mirrors type 11, with two additions that only make sense for post: the Shipper/Sender identity and address on the entry, and the Universal Postal Union S-10 tracking number reported by the carrier on the inward manifest, so CBP can match the manifest line to the entry and fix the exact time of arrival.

What the code changes for a desk

Three things, and two of them are moving.

The deadline. Under 19 CFR 141.5 an entry, formal or informal, is due within 15 calendar days after the goods land. The proposed rule would move the informal deadline to “upon or prior to the date of importation”, which 19 CFR 101.1 defines as the vessel’s arrival within port limits with intent to unlade. Two weeks after unloading becomes before the ship is alongside. A desk feels that change rather than reading about it: a filing that used to wait for the documents now has to be ahead of them, which is an argument for trade document validation ahead of the vessel rather than for a bigger inbox.

The bond. Formal entry has always needed a basic importation and entry bond on the conditions in 19 CFR 113.62. Informal entry has needed one only in particular situations. The proposed rule would require one on every type 11 and type 13 entry, single-transaction or continuous, and would set a $1,000 minimum for liquidated damages on a breach.

What happens when nothing is filed. The two informal codes are proposed to diverge sharply here. A type 11 shipment is abandoned six months after arrival. A type 13 mail article would be deemed voluntarily abandoned 15 days after the date of importation, and then destroyed or returned to sender by USPS. For non-mail cargo the older machinery still applies: unentered goods go to general order at the fifteenth day, in a bonded warehouse, at the consignee’s risk and expense.

Where the entry type sits on the paperwork

On the entry summary, CBP Form 7501, and in the cargo release transmission before it. CBP’s own required element list names “entry type” as one of the facts a filer transmits. The filer picks it from the value, the goods and the mode of arrival. A code you did not expect on a 7501 is a question for the filer, not a typing error.