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Foreign importer of record requirements: does this apply to me?

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IORUSA
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Workers packing cartons on a factory floor beside a shrink-wrapped pallet, goods a foreign manufacturer exports to United States buyers

In brief

Four situations that put a foreign company in the Importer of Record role, the three ways foreign companies handle it, and what the role requires today, from the statute and the 2026 Federal Register documents.

Selling into the United States from outside the country means someone is the Importer of Record on every entry, and that party owes the duties, the classification, and the paperwork. This page shows which of four situations you are in, how foreign companies handle the role, and what the law requires of whoever holds it.

Does this apply to me? Four situations

You ship to United States customers under delivered duty paid terms. Under those terms you, the seller, are responsible for clearing the goods and paying the duties. That makes you the Importer of Record on the entry, and the foreign IOR requirements apply to you in full.

You sell through a United States marketplace or fulfillment network and hold the inventory yourself. The goods arrive in your name and stay yours until a consumer buys them. You are the owner at the time of entry, so you hold the right to make entry, and the foreign IOR requirements apply.

Your United States customer buys on terms where the goods are theirs before arrival. Under free on board or similar terms the customer is the owner or purchaser when the entry is filed, and the customer is the Importer of Record. The foreign requirements do not apply to you. They apply to your customer, who is a domestic importer.

A forwarder or agent handles everything and you are not sure whose name is on the entry. This is the situation that needs checking first. If the forwarder listed itself, the entry rests on a party that has no right to make it. If the forwarder listed you, you are the IOR and may not know what has been filed in your name.

Not sure which one you are? Tell us what you ship and we’ll show you where you stand.

How foreign companies handle it

There are three ways the role gets covered, and most foreign sellers are in one of them without having chosen it.

Carry the role yourself. Your company is the Importer of Record. 19 C.F.R. §141.18 requires a resident agent in the state of each port of entry and a bond from a resident corporate surety, and your Form 5106 must carry your own physical address, email, and phone, not an agent’s or a forwarder’s. You hold the duty liability and the five-year record obligation from abroad.

Sell on terms where your United States customer is the Importer of Record. Under free on board or similar terms the buyer owns the goods at entry and holds the role, with its own broker, bond, and records. This works when the customer accepts it; it does not work for marketplace inventory or delivered duty paid sales, where the goods are still yours when they arrive.

Use a United States Importer of Record structure. A United States company holds the Importer of Record role on your entries, with the bond, the records, and the duty liability in its name, and licensed customs brokers file the entries. Your company stays the seller. The US Importer of Record services post explains what that structure is and is not, and the breakdown by situation shows where it fits.

Where do you stand

Tell us what you import and how your entries are filed today, and we’ll show you where you stand.

Where do you stand (post form)

The detail: what the law requires of a foreign Importer of Record today

The right to make entry belongs to the owner or purchaser of the goods. Under 19 U.S.C. §1484(a)(2)(B), entry documentation is filed by the owner or purchaser of the merchandise or, when appropriately designated by the owner, purchaser, or consignee, by a licensed customs broker. A foreign company that owns its goods holds that right. Nothing in the statute limits it to United States companies.

The regulation then attaches two conditions to a company that is not incorporated in the United States. Under 19 C.F.R. §141.18, a nonresident corporation may enter merchandise for consumption only if it has a resident agent in the state where the port of entry is located who is authorized to accept service of process, and only if it files a bond on CBP Form 301 with a resident corporate surety to secure payment of any additional duties found due. The nonresident importer post walks through both conditions in detail.

Beyond those two conditions, the role carries the same obligations for a foreign company as for a domestic one:

  • An IOR number, obtained by filing CBP Form 5106, the Importer Identity Form, under 19 C.F.R. §24.5, directly or through a broker holding your power of attorney.
  • Reasonable care under 19 U.S.C. §1484(a)(1) in classifying the goods, declaring their value, and determining the rate of duty.
  • Personal liability for the duties under 19 C.F.R. §141.1, which is not extinguished until they are paid in full.
  • Records kept for five years under 19 U.S.C. §1508 and 19 C.F.R. Part 163, and produced when CBP asks.

The Importer of Record page covers each of these with the full citations.

What is in effect now: Form 5106 accuracy enforcement

Since September 18, 2026, CBP voids the IOR number of any importer whose Form 5106 information is inaccurate or incomplete. The August 19, 2026 Federal Register notice that implements Section 2(e) of Executive Order 14411 is specific about what the form must contain. The physical address must be the actual physical location of the business. It cannot be a registered agent, a customs broker, a freight forwarder, a P.O. box, a business service center, or the address of another person or entity. The email and phone must belong to the importer, not to a broker or agent. A broker who filed the form must hold a power of attorney executed directly with the importer under 19 C.F.R. §111.36(c)(3).

For a foreign company this is the provision with teeth. The resident agent that 19 C.F.R. §141.18 requires is exactly the kind of address that cannot appear on the Form 5106 as the importer’s own. A foreign IOR whose form lists its agent, its broker, or a forwarder’s warehouse is the profile the notice describes. A voided number cannot be used to enter merchandise until CBP reestablishes it, which requires corroborating the importer’s identity by the process the voiding notice sets out.

What is in rulemaking: the 2026 customs enforcement order

Executive Order 14411, signed June 3, 2026 and published at 91 FR 35125 on June 10, directs the Department of Homeland Security and CBP to require that Importers of Record maintain a minimum level of tangible domestic assets, bonding, or both; to impose heightened requirements for formal entry by foreign entities; to limit informal entry to United States Importers of Record; and to establish a good standing requirement with increased vetting.

Each of those directives is aimed at a foreign IOR more directly than at anyone else. As of October 10, 2026, none is in effect. CBP has said it is revising importer eligibility regulations, guidance, and policies under Section 2 of the order, and it opened an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on supply chain disclosures on September 2, 2026, with comments due December 1, 2026 and no effective date. On October 8, 2026 CBP published a separate proposed rule on informal entries of $2,500 or less that would require a bond before release and a licensed broker as Importer of Record where the consignee is not the owner or purchaser, with comments due December 7, 2026; it is not in effect and does not address the order’s foreign IOR direction. The 2026 customs enforcement order tracker carries the current position of each directive with a last-updated date.

Read together, the direction is plain. A foreign company that holds the IOR role today needs a resident agent, a bond from a resident surety, and a Form 5106 that names its own address and contacts. The order points toward a future in which it also needs tangible domestic assets and passes a good standing review, and in which informal entry, the simplified route for lower-value shipments, is no longer available to it at all.

The facts that decide where you stand

  • Whether your company is named as Importer of Record on its United States entries, or whether a customer, a forwarder, or an agent is
  • The delivery terms on your sales contracts, because they decide who owns the goods at the time of entry
  • Whether you have a resident agent in the state of each port of entry, authorized to accept service of process
  • Whether your bond is continuous or single transaction, and whether the surety is a resident corporate surety
  • What physical address, email, and phone appear on your Form 5106, and whose they are
  • Whether the broker filing on your behalf holds a power of attorney executed directly with your company
  • Whether any of your volume moves under informal entry

A company that can answer those seven questions from its own files knows whether the foreign IOR requirements apply to it and how it stands under them. A company that cannot is usually relying on someone else to have gotten it right. Tell us where you stand or write to ship@iorusa.com.

Related

Sources

This post summarizes publicly available federal actions for general information. It is not legal advice. Requirements are subject to rulemaking and change. Verify current requirements against the Federal Register and CBP guidance.

See if your shipments qualify

Tell us what you import and how your entries are filed today, and we’ll show you where you stand. We reply to your work email within one business day. The full form has room for more detail.

Where do you stand (inline form)


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