Customs release: from the declaration to gate-out

The steps as they actually run

1. Document audit before arrival. We read the invoice, the certificate of origin, the bill of lading and the packing list together, and identify what is missing and what needs prior approval.
2. Deciding the tariff heading and proposing it backed by the technical specification.
3. Filing the declaration — the start of the procedure, not the end.
4. Customs audit of the declaration and documents.
5. Inspection, if the shipment is selected for one.
6. Payment of duty once value and heading have settled.
7. Release is issued.
8. Loading and gate-out — and only here does storage stop.

What surprises importers most is that the last two steps are not formalities: the goods stay in the yard after release is issued until they are actually loaded out.

Where the time is lost

Usually not in the procedure itself, but in the waiting around it:

• Before arrival: a document never asked of the supplier, an approval never started. This is the cheapest time there is to save.
• At audit: a contradiction between documents needing a correction from a distant party.
• At inspection: packages not numbered as in the packing list, or a description that does not match what is in the box.
• After release: a carrier not booked until it was issued.

Inspection: what makes it shorter

Selection for inspection follows customs' own risk management criteria — not the importer's request and not anyone's intercession. What you can influence is that your inspection holds no surprise:

• An accurate invoice description matching what is actually in the package
• Packages numbered as in the packing list
• Matching quantities and weights
• Whatever proves heading and value ready in the file, not sitting in the supplier's inbox

An inspection that finds what was described ends quickly. One that finds something else opens a new file.

What we do not promise

We give no duration before reading your documents, and any figure given beforehand is a guess, not a commitment. We do not talk about "expediting" or getting things through by connections — a customs procedure is completed by its own causes. What we can do after reading the file is tell you where exactly the time will be spent, and which part of it can be moved to before the shipment arrives.

And when the shipment stops

Every hold has a reason written down somewhere — a note on the declaration, a request from the division, or an objection raised at inspection or valuation. The first correct step is to get the wording of that reason literally, not summarised. We have given that its own page: my shipment is held at customs.