Documentation Requirements

Questions and answers about Documentation Requirements

  • Commercial Invoice

    QUESTION: We are located in the U.S. and make a purchase from a U.S. supplier and have the product shipped to our AU related party who we bill later. The CI has us as buyer but ship to AU. The pricing is what we are purchasing it for from the supplier which is not the […]

  • INVOICE REQ FOR WELDED COMPONENTS

    QUESTION: I have a question regarding the commercial invoice requirements for a product where multiple “components” are welded together.  Does the CI need to display each individual component(s)?  How does other businesses create CI’s for this scenario?    Example:  We manufacture Orthodontic braces.  We manufacture a “band” in which goes over a molar tooth.  Per […]

  • IMPORTING MANUFACTURING LINE

    QUESTION: We are importing a complete manufacturing line from our MX facility to our US plant.   The manufacturing line is very large and for shipping this line is being shipped in pieces, not fully assembled. All pieces together on one truck.     My stance on this has always been that because the manufacturing line is […]

  • DOCUMENTING MOVE FROM CHINA MANUFACTURING

    QUESTION: Our suppliers are currently in China. Several of them have agreed to move to Thailand, Taiwan and/or Vietnam. With the initial move all parts required to make the finished good will be sourced in China and shipped to the new country for assembly. There are many parts and the assembly process involves over 100 […]

  • DROP SHIP INVOICE REQUIREMENTS

    QUESTION: My company manufactures mooring lines for vessels. The vessel owner places the PO on my company, with instructions to transport the lines to their vessels, which are operating around the world. We are instructed to transport the lines as “ship spares in transit”, which is accurate, as they will move in bond through the […]

  • Commercial invoice requirements

    QUESTION: Commercial invoicing requirements for imports are covered under 19CFR 142.6. Where would we find the same requirements set forth for export commercial invoicing requirements? 15 CFR 30.6 covers EEI filing requirements but not invoicing requirements? ================================================================ Answers: The US export regulations do not provide any requirements for export invoices. ================================================================ As far as I’m […]

  • QUANTITY ON SHIPPING DOCUMENTS

    QUESTION: We are selling equipment that is packaged in a multipack. For example, the customer places a PO for 1 of item number 1234, with the description of item 1234 mentioning that there are 5 in the package. For example : widget for servers – qty 5. How are others listing the total quantity on […]

  • Original Shipping Document

    QUESTION: Would like to hear from the membership how they handle the below scenario: We have a customer that is on Direct Import, we deliver the goods to the port, where they are loaded onto the customers vessel.. We receive the draft of the FCR at origin. The forwarder has been taking FOREVER to send […]

  • EXW INVOICE

    QUESTION: So we purchase material (ex-works) from another company. We are the Customer.  another company ships us the purchased material. However, they refuse to put the foreign ship from address on the commercial invoice.  The product in turn gets stopped by our broker because there is no ship from address listed. We have been going […]

  • Cross border shipments record keeping requirements

    QUESTION: I would like to confirm as importer of record if we should be retaining any further documents for cross border shipments from Mexico/Canada.  The documents we are currently retaining are below: Entry Summary (7501) Inward Cargo Manifest for vessel under 5 tons… Entry/Immediate Delivery Form Commercial invoice (includes paps and carrier code) ******** Answers: […]

  • US Import document retention

    QUESTION: Does anyone in the membership keep their US import records for 6 years (default)  to cover recordkeeping requirements for the ISF rather than the 5 years required by the regulations for the other documents?  We changed our recordkeeping policy to 6 years after the ISF was implemented, but I am wondering if we should […]

  • SELF-FILING I.T. DOCUMENTS

    QUESTION: Our company is looking into the possibility of cutting our own IT’s. Can anyone give the pros and cons to cutting your own IT’s? Also, I would like some feedback on best practices for this process. *********** Answers: We have many clients using our system to file their In-Bonds via ABI.  Some are carriers […]