U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed a rule that would require electronic filing, a bond and additional data — including a carrier-reported tracking number — for shipments valued at $2,500 or less, with a new entry category specifically for packages that arrive by mail. That ceiling is the value of one shipment, not a person's total for a day.
What changes for a mail package
Mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less are currently entered through a monthly worksheet process. Under the proposal, they would instead have to be entered through a new category the rule calls entry type 13, filed electronically through CBP's authorized electronic system. Not every mail item is swept in: CBP says it proposes no change to how duty-free bona fide gifts or travelers' personal articles are entered. The filer would have to supply the shipper or sender's identity and address, and carriers — who currently report only the weight of mail they carry — would have to report each package's tracking number (the Universal Postal Union S-10 number) as part of their manifest. Entry, for both this new mail category and the general low-value category (entry type 11), would have to be filed on or before the date the package arrives in the United States, not within 15 days after, as current rules allow.
What filers would have to obtain that they don't now
Filers of either entry type would need a basic importation and entry bond — a single-transaction bond or a continuous bond — which informal entries require only in certain situations today. CBP says a bond is already required under the current postal process, so for mail this is not a new cost; the bond requirement is new for the general low-value category, where its data show about 2.3 million entry-type-11 entries, 3.31 percent of its projected 2026 volume for that type, were filed without a bond between August 2025 and July 2026. A consignee who is not the owner or purchaser of the goods, such as a freight forwarder or a foreign postal operator, would have to hire a licensed customs broker to act as importer of record. Breaching a bond condition would carry a new $1,000 minimum in liquidated damages, instead of being based only on the merchandise's value. CBP's own filing estimates a combined broker fee and paperwork cost of $39.72 for a typical new mail entry, and $9,276,484 a year in added bond-premium costs for currently bondless entries at today's volume.
If no entry is filed
A mail package not properly entered within 15 days of its arrival would be treated by CBP as voluntarily abandoned. The Postal Service would then process it under its own procedures, which CBP's filing says may include destroying it or returning it to the sender.
The dates
This is a proposal, not a final rule, and no effective date is set anywhere in it. Its DATES line carries one date: comments must be received on or before December 7, 2026. The nearest the document comes to a start is its economic analysis, which models costs "starting in 2027 when the rule would take effect" — an assumption in the estimate, not an announced date a reader can rely on. CBP's filing estimates the proposal's net cost at $9.3 billion in present value over 2026 through 2035 at a 3 percent discount rate, or $7.7 billion at 7 percent.