CBP Form 28 and Form 29: How Importers Should Respond to a Customs Request for Information, Notice of Action, and Penalty

A CBP Form 28 lands in your inbox or arrives through your broker, and nothing about it looks like an emergency. Three pages. A request for a contract, some product literature, maybe a sample of the goods. Your broker forwards it with a line saying he will take care of it. That moment, handled that way, is where a large share of customs penalty cases quietly begin.

I have spent close to twenty years representing importers, customs brokers, freight forwarders and logistics companies before U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including CF-28 Requests for Information, CF-29 Notices of Action, protests, penalty proceedings under 19 U.S.C. 1592, seizure and forfeiture matters, and focused assessments. The pattern repeats. The paperwork looks routine, the response goes out without legal review, and months later the same file returns as a pre-penalty notice built on the importer’s own signed answer.

This article walks the full track. What a CBP Form 28 actually is and what the form itself says about your obligation to reply, how an inquiry escalates to a CF-29 and then to a penalty, what 19 U.S.C. 1592 and 19 U.S.C. 1595a expose you to in dollars, how a prior disclosure changes that math, and the point where a customs broker’s role ends and a customs and international trade attorney takes over.

What a CBP Form 28 Request for Information Is, and Why It Matters

CBP Form 28 carries its regulatory authority on the face of the document, 19 CFR 151.11. The agency has to appraise your merchandise, classify it under the tariff schedule, and set the rate and amount of duty. When the invoice and entry documents fall short of that, CBP sends a written request to the importer or the importer’s agent.

The current revision of the form, dated 08/24, asks a narrow but revealing set of things. The questions are not random. They map onto the two areas where importers most often get valuation wrong.

Question A asks whether you are related to the seller, and it supplies its own seven-part definition of related that reaches anyone holding five percent or more of the voting stock of an organization. Question B asks you to identify additional costs and expenses in the transaction, then lists them one by one. Those are the classic statutory additions to transaction value, and CBP is checking whether any of them were left out of the entered price.

On the document side, CBP asks for the contract or purchase order and any revisions, descriptive literature explaining what the goods are and how they operate, a breakdown of components by weight with the actual cost of those components at the time of assembly, and samples.

Now the part almost nobody reads carefully. CBP Form 28 describes your duty to reply in three different ways, across the same three pages. Instruction 1 states that your reply “is required in accordance with section 509(a), Tariff Action of 1930, as amended (19 U.S.C.1509).” The Privacy Act statement on page 2 states that “Providing this information is voluntary.” The Paperwork Reduction Act statement on page 3 states that “The obligation to respond to this information collection is mandatory.”

Those three sentences cannot all be operating the same way, and the practical answer sits in the regulation the form cites. Under 19 CFR 151.11, where a request is not complied with, CBP may make a demand under the bond for the return of the merchandise to CBP custody. Silence has a cost, and the cost is not theoretical.

The thirty days is not the deadline most importers think it is

Nearly every guide on this subject tells importers they have thirty days to answer a CF-28. The form says something different, and the difference is worth money. Instruction 5 reads: “If a reply cannot be made within 30 days from the date of this request or if you wish to discuss any of the questions designated for your reply, please contact the CBP officer whose name appears on the front of this form.”

Read it again. On a CBP Form 28, thirty days is the point at which you are expected to pick up the phone. It is not a guillotine. An importer who needs sixty days to pull five years of supplier contracts sits in a far better position calling the officer on day twenty-five than filing a thin answer on day thirty. The extension conversation is ordinary. The thin answer is permanent, and it is certified.

An officer of your company signs the CBP Form 28, and that signature is the exposure

The certification block on CBP Form 28 requires an appropriate corporate or company official to execute the certificate and endorse the correspondence. Your customs broker cannot absorb that for you. An officer of the importer signs a statement that the information furnished is true and correct.

That signature is why a CBP Form 28 response deserves legal review before it goes out. Section 1592 reaches any document, electronically transmitted data, written or oral statement, or act that is material and false, and it reaches material omissions the same way. A certified answer that is incomplete on assists, or silent on a related-party relationship, is exactly the material a penalty case gets built from. You supplied it, an officer of your company swore to it, and it now sits in the file.

How to Respond to a CBP Form 28 Without Building a Penalty File

A good CBP Form 28 response ends the inquiry. A careless CBP Form 28 response supplies the government its evidence. The difference is rarely eloquence. It is scope control, reconciliation and sequencing, and most of the work happens before anything gets written.

Start by reading what CBP actually checked. The form has boxed questions and boxed document requests, and only the ticked items are in play. Importers regularly answer questions nobody asked, and every extra sentence in a certified submission is a sentence the government can later hold you to. Equally, a partial answer to a question that was ticked reads as evasion.

Then look past the entry on the form. A CBP Form 28 names one entry, but the classification or valuation position behind it usually runs across every shipment of that product line. If the position is wrong on the named entry, it is wrong on the others, and the exposure is the aggregate rather than the single line. This is the reconciliation that decides whether you are answering a request or preparing a prior disclosure, and it needs to happen before the response goes out rather than after CBP asks a second time.

From CF-28 to CF-29 Notice of Action: How a Customs Inquiry Escalates

A CBP Form 29 is not a follow-up letter. It is a formal notice under 19 CFR 152.2 that CBP intends to change the entry, or already has.

The regulation is specific about the trigger. If the Center director believes the entered rate or value of merchandise is too low, or finds that the imported quantity exceeds the entered quantity, and the estimated aggregate increase in duties on that entry exceeds $15, the importer is notified on Customs Form 29 or its electronic equivalent, with the nature of the difference specified on the notice.

Fifteen dollars. That threshold tells you what kind of instrument this is. A CF-29 is not reserved for large cases. It is the routine mechanism CBP uses to move an entry, and importers who treat each one as a small accounting correction miss what a series of them adds up to across a supply chain.

The timing provision is what catches people. Under 19 CFR 152.2, liquidation “shall be made promptly and shall not be withheld for a period of more than 20 days from the date of mailing of such notice unless in the judgment of the Center director there are compelling reasons that would warrant such action.”

Twenty days from the mailing date. Not from the day you opened the envelope, and not from the day your broker forwarded it. If you intend to contest what the CF-29 proposes, that window is where the argument has to land. Once the entry liquidates, your remedy shifts to a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, which must be filed within 180 days. A protest is a different proceeding on a different record, and by then CBP has taken a position it will defend.

Two kinds of CF-29 circulate in practice. One proposes a rate advance or other action and invites your response before CBP acts. The other reports action already taken. Working out which one you are holding is the first task, because the two call for different responses on very different clocks.

19 U.S.C. 1592 Penalties and 1595a Seizures, Explained in Dollars

Section 1592 is the statute that turns a CBP Form 28 paperwork problem into a financial one. It prohibits entering or introducing merchandise into U.S. commerce by means of a material false statement, document or act, or by a material omission, through fraud, gross negligence or negligence. It reaches anyone who aids or abets that conduct.

One relief valve sits in the statute itself. Clerical errors and mistakes of fact are not violations, unless they form part of a pattern of negligent conduct. The statute also says that non-intentional repetition of an initial clerical error by an electronic system does not by itself create such a pattern. That carve-out matters for importers running high entry volumes through automated systems, and arguing it well takes the record you built when the CF-28 first arrived.

Before CBP issues a penalty claim, it generally has to issue a pre-penalty notice describing the merchandise, specifying the laws allegedly violated, disclosing the material facts, stating the culpability level it is alleging, and giving you a real opportunity to respond. No pre-penalty notice is required where the importation is non-commercial or the penalty claim is $1,000 or less. The pre-penalty stage is the most productive point in the whole process, and it is routinely wasted.

The dollar exposure scales with culpability, and the gap between the tiers is the whole ballgame.

Where 19 U.S.C. 1595a fits, and where it does not

Importers hear the word seizure and assume the goods are gone. Section 1595a is narrower than its reputation, and one subsection is worth committing to memory.

Under 19 U.S.C. 1595a(c)(4), where merchandise is imported contrary to a provision of law governing the classification or value of merchandise, and there are no issues about whether the goods may lawfully enter, the merchandise “shall not be seized except in accordance with section 1592.” Most CF-28 and CF-29 files are exactly that: classification or valuation disputes on admissible goods. Seizure is not the default outcome there, and an importer being told otherwise should ask on what authority.

Section 1595a still has real teeth in other situations. Merchandise is seized and forfeited outright when it is stolen, smuggled or clandestinely introduced, when it is a controlled substance imported outside the law, when it is contraband, or when it is a plastic explosive without a detection agent. Seizure is discretionary in a second group, which includes goods that violate health, safety or conservation restrictions, goods requiring a federal license or permit that did not travel with them, counterfeit and trademark or copyright violations, trade dress violations under a court order, and merchandise intentionally marked in violation of the country-of-origin marking statute.

Section 1592 offers its own seizure route as well. Under 1592(c)(14), CBP may seize merchandise where it has reasonable cause to believe a violation occurred and the person is insolvent, beyond U.S. jurisdiction, or where seizure is otherwise essential to protect the revenue. In most other cases the goods come back on deposit of security capped at the maximum penalty that could be assessed. Knowing which of these paths CBP is on decides what you file and how fast.

Prior Disclosure: How to Get Ahead of a Customs Penalty

A prior disclosure is the single most valuable tool in the customs penalty system, and its value collapses the moment CBP opens a formal investigation. Timing is the whole instrument.

Under 19 CFR 162.74, you make a prior disclosure by telling CBP the circumstances of a violation of 19 U.S.C. 1592, orally or in writing, before or without knowledge of the commencement of a formal investigation of that violation, and by tendering the actual loss of duties, taxes and fees. The regulation sets out what the disclosure has to contain. You identify the class or kind of merchandise, identify the affected entries by entry number or by port and approximate dates, specify the material false statements, omissions or acts with an explanation of how and when they happened, and set out the true information that should have been filed. Anything you do not yet know, you supply within 30 days, and that period can be extended for cause.

Several mechanics inside that regulation trip people up. An oral disclosure has to be confirmed in writing to the Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures Officer within 10 days, or the disclosure can be denied. A written disclosure should carry the words prior disclosure conspicuously on the face of the envelope. Where the loss of duties CBP calculates exceeds $100,000 and more than a year remains on the statute of limitations, you can ask CBP Headquarters to review the calculation, though asking waives your right to contest the figure that review produces. Statistical sampling is permitted where the plan satisfies 19 CFR 163.11(c)(3) and CBP approves it.

Here is why any of this is worth the effort. Under 19 U.S.C. 1592(c)(4), a valid prior disclosure means the merchandise will not be seized, and it caps the penalty at a level that bears no relation to the ordinary ceilings.

Broker Territory and Attorney Territory: Where Legal Defense Begins

Good customs brokers are worth what they cost, and this section is not an argument against them. It is an argument about scope. A licensed broker files entries, classifies goods, transmits data to CBP and keeps the entry moving. That work is transactional, and it is the work brokers are licensed to do.

The trouble starts when a CF-28 or CF-29 gets handled as more of the same. Three problems appear immediately.

First, the broker may have filed the entry now under examination. Asking the person who prepared the entry to characterize what went wrong with it puts them in an awkward position at best, and creates a genuine conflict at worst. Second, communications with your customs broker do not carry attorney-client privilege. Every email, every internal note and every draft explanation is discoverable. Communications with counsel are protected, and that protection is exactly what you want in place before anyone writes down a theory about why the classification was wrong. Third, the CF-28 certification is signed by an officer of the importer, not the broker. The legal exposure lands on your company regardless of who drafted the words.

The line is easiest to see by looking at the remedies. A prior disclosure under 19 CFR 162.74 is a legal filing that concedes a violation, quantifies it, and trades that concession for a statutory penalty cap. A pre-penalty response argues culpability level and the clerical-error carve-out. A petition for relief under 19 U.S.C. 1618 argues mitigation. A protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514 preserves your position after liquidation. If CBP sues to collect a penalty, the case goes to the U.S. Court of International Trade, where under 19 U.S.C. 1592(e) every issue including the amount is tried de novo, and where the burden allocation shifts with the culpability alleged. Only counsel appears there.

The practical rule is simple. Keep your broker doing broker work, and bring counsel in when the file stops being about moving cargo and starts being about what you said, whether it was material, and what it will cost.

How OFW Law Defends Importers in Customs Disputes

Our customs and international trade practice handles these matters from the first request through litigation. When a CBP Form 28 arrives, the first work is diagnostic. We read what CBP is actually asking, which is often narrower or broader than it appears, and we look at the entries behind the request rather than only the one on the form. A single CF-28 on one entry frequently signals a classification or valuation position running across years of imports.

From there the work divides along the lines the statute draws. Where the entered position holds up, we build the response and the supporting record and answer the request. Where it does not, we quantify the exposure across the affected entries and evaluate a prior disclosure against the 1592(c)(4) figures before CBP has the chance to open a formal investigation and close that door. Where a penalty has already been claimed, we work the pre-penalty response, the culpability question and the petition for relief, and we litigate at the Court of International Trade when the government’s number cannot be reconciled.

Related enforcement tracks feed the same practice. If CBP has detained or held your cargo rather than questioned your entry, that is a separate procedure with its own clocks, and we cover it in our guide on what importers need to know when U.S. Customs detains goods. For companies importing regulated products, entry problems often begin at another agency before CBP ever issues a form, which is why food and beverage importers should read our guide to importing human food into the United States and, where jurisdiction is unclear, our explainer on FDA versus USDA regulatory authority. Importers watching the current wave of CF-28 and CF-29 activity tied to tariff programs will also want our field report on what importers are seeing now on IEEPA and steel and aluminum tariffs.

Frequently Asked Questions About CBP Form 28 and Form 29

How long do you have to respond to a CF-28?

CBP Form 28 asks you to contact the CBP officer named on it if you cannot reply within 30 days of the date of the request. Read as a contact instruction rather than a hard filing deadline, because CBP officers routinely discuss extensions when an importer calls before the period runs. Going silent is the damaging choice, because under 19 CFR 151.11 CBP may make a demand under the bond for return of the merchandise to CBP custody where a request is not complied with.

What is the difference between CF-28 and CF-29?

A CF-28 is a Request for Information issued under 19 CFR 151.11, where CBP asks you for facts, documents or samples so it can classify and appraise your goods. A CF-29 is a Notice of Action issued under 19 CFR 152.2, where CBP tells you it intends to change, or has changed, the rate, value or quantity on the entry. The first is a question. The second is a decision.

Can a CBP Form 28 lead to a penalty?

Yes, and the response itself is often what makes that possible. A CBP Form 28 answer is certified by a corporate official as true and correct. Under 19 U.S.C. 1592, a material false statement or a material omission made through negligence, gross negligence or fraud supports a civil penalty claim, and the answer you filed becomes part of the record. Clerical errors and mistakes of fact are excluded unless they are part of a pattern of negligent conduct.

Should I file a prior disclosure after receiving a CF-28?

It depends entirely on whether CBP has already commenced a formal investigation, and on what a review of the underlying entries shows. A valid prior disclosure under 19 U.S.C. 1592(c)(4) prevents seizure and reduces the penalty to 100 percent of the lawful duties for fraud, or to interest alone for negligence and gross negligence. That window closes once a formal investigation begins, and the person claiming no knowledge of one bears the burden of proving it. This is the decision that most rewards getting counsel involved early.

Will CBP seize my goods over a classification or valuation dispute?

Usually not on that basis alone. Under 19 U.S.C. 1595a(c)(4), merchandise imported contrary to a law governing classification or value, where there is no admissibility problem, is not to be seized except in accordance with section 1592. Seizure remains available for stolen, smuggled or contraband goods, for controlled substances, for goods missing a required federal license or permit, and for counterfeit and marking violations, among others.

What happens if I miss the CF-29 window?

Under 19 CFR 152.2, liquidation is not withheld more than 20 days from the date the CF-29 was mailed, absent compelling reasons. Once the entry liquidates, your route is a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, which must be filed within 180 days. A protest is still a real remedy, but you are contesting a decision CBP has already made rather than shaping one it has not.

Primary sources

• CBP Form 28, Request for Information – U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• 19 U.S.C. 1592, Penalties for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence
• 19 CFR 162.74, Prior disclosure
• 19 CFR 152.2, Notification to importer of increased duties