Customs Bond: Single Entry vs Continuous, Amounts, Cost and How to Get One

A customs bond is the financial guarantee CBP holds before it releases imported goods: a contract under which an importer, as principal, and a surety promise to pay the duties, taxes and fees owed and to meet the other conditions of entry. Every formal entry needs one. The two forms are a single transaction bond, which secures one entry, and a continuous bond, which secures every entry the principal files for a year and renews automatically.

CBP decides how large the bond must be. For a continuous import bond the minimum is $50,000 or 10% of the duties, taxes and fees paid in the previous 12 months, whichever is greater. For a single entry bond the starting point is the entered value plus duties, taxes and fees, rising to three times the value for restricted merchandise. The surety, not CBP, sets the premium.

What a Customs Bond Is Under 19 CFR Part 113

CBP’s own definition, in its February 2024 guide How CBP Sets Bond Amounts, is a performance contract taken out by a party engaging in transactions with CBP, to protect the revenue and ensure compliance with the laws and instructions governing that business. The contract is between the principal and the surety. CBP is the third-party beneficiary, which is why it can make a claim on the bond when the principal defaults but has no role in pricing it.

19 CFR Part 113 sets out the rules: how bonds are applied for and approved, the $100 minimum in 19 CFR 113.13(a), the factors CBP weighs on sufficiency, which sureties are acceptable, and the conditions written into each bond type. For importers, the relevant instrument is the basic importation and entry bond, activity code 1, whose conditions in 19 CFR 113.62 commit the principal to pay duties, taxes and fees, to redeliver merchandise when CBP demands it, to hold unexamined goods intact, and to pay liquidated damages for breach.

The bond is executed on CBP Form 301 and may be backed by a corporate surety or, under 19 CFR 113.40, by cash or US obligations in lieu of surety. It does not move liability away from the importer. The importer of record still owes the duty; the bond simply ensures CBP can collect it if the principal does not pay.

When CBP Requires a Customs Bond

Under 19 CFR 142.4(a), merchandise on a formal entry is not released until a single entry or continuous bond on Form 301, containing the 113.62 conditions, is on file. That is the core rule. The port director may waive surety for shipments of $2,500 or less where the entry summary is filed and duties deposited before release and the importer has a clean record, but not for quota goods, goods that cannot easily be appraised or classified, or goods with redelivery concerns.

Informal entries have historically been bonded only in certain situations, which is one practical difference covered in our guide to formal vs informal entry. That is changing. Since July 24, 2026 a party filing the new postal informal entry must hold a basic importation and entry bond under 19 CFR 145.15, and CBP’s proposed Low-Value Shipments rule of October 8, 2026 (91 FR 64532) would extend the bond requirement to all type 11 and type 13 informal entries. Both follow from the suspension of the de minimis exemption, which moved millions of low-value shipments into entry procedures.

Two other bonds often sit beside the import bond. Ocean importers must also secure their Importer Security Filing under 19 CFR 149.5; where a bond is provided solely for ISF it is an activity code 16 bond of at least $50,000 continuous or $10,000 single transaction. Operators of bonded premises need custodial cover, the activity code 2 bond held by a customs bonded warehouse, container freight station or bonded carrier.

Single Entry Bond vs Continuous Bond

CBP’s guide defines a single transaction bond as one that secures a single transaction or activity, and a continuous bond as one that secures one or more transactions over a one-year period, renews automatically on the anniversary of its effective date and remains in effect until terminated. Under 19 CFR 113.12(b), only one continuous bond per activity is authorized for each principal.

The choice is mostly arithmetic. A single entry bond is sized to one shipment and has to be bought again for the next one, so its cost repeats. A continuous bond is sized to a year of duty exposure and covers every entry at every port. An importer with more than a handful of formal entries a year usually finds the continuous bond cheaper in aggregate and operationally simpler, because no entry waits on a new bond being placed. A single entry bond fits a one-off purchase, a trial shipment, or an importer whose first entries will establish whether an ongoing program exists.

How CBP Sets the Bond Amount

The legal standard is 19 CFR 113.13(b): CBP considers the principal’s record of paying duties, its record of complying with redelivery and other demands, the value and nature of the merchandise, the degree of CBP supervision, its history of paying liquidated damages and anything in the bond application. CBP’s 2024 public guide turns that standard into formulas.

For a continuous activity code 1 bond, the base amount, called the Reviewer formula, is the greater of $50,000 or 10% of the total duties, taxes and fees for the previous 12 months, across all principals and users on the bond. Amounts are set in increments of $10,000 up to $100,000 and in increments of $100,000 above that. An importer with no prior imports is bonded on its own estimate for the next 12 months, never below $50,000. Certain entry types are left out of the calculation, including informal types 11 and 12, FTZ admissions, warehouse withdrawals, drawback and the former Section 321 type 86.

The Analytical formula then adds to the base: 10% of delinquent bills that are under 210 days past due or under protest, 100% of delinquent bills over 210 days past due or tied to a denied protest, and 100% of unpaid debit vouchers. An importer with unpaid bills therefore carries a larger bond than its duty volume alone would require.

For a single transaction bond, the amount is generally not less than the total entered value plus all duties, taxes and fees. The guide sets exceptions: unconditionally duty-free goods may be bonded at 10% of entered value; restricted merchandise at three times its value, not less than $100; temporary importations under bond at twice the estimated duties and fees; and AD/CVD exposure may draw additional security tailored to the risk. For FDA-regulated goods, Appendix A of the guide points to either the domestic value of the merchandise or three times the value where it is restricted or prohibited.

CBP Bond Activity Codes

A bond’s activity code defines what it secures, and each code has its own conditions in Part 113. Importers mostly deal with codes 1, 1a and 16. The list below follows CBP’s 2024 guide, omitting code 3a3 (a continuous bond combining codes 3 and 3a, minimum $70,000); code 14, in-bond export consolidation, has been terminated.

Customs Bond Cost: Amount Versus Premium

Two numbers get confused. The bond amount, or limit of liability, is what CBP requires and what the surety could ultimately be asked to pay. The premium is what the principal pays the surety for writing it. CBP’s guidelines govern only the first. Because the bond is a contract between principal and surety, the premium is a commercial price set by the surety. CBP’s guidance sets bond amounts and sufficiency rules; it contains no premium schedule.

The premium follows the bond amount and the surety‘s own underwriting of the principal, so any published rate is indicative until the surety has reviewed the account. For a continuous bond the premium is annual. For single transaction bonds it is charged per bond, so it recurs with every entry, which is the main reason regular importers move to a continuous bond.

The cost that catches importers out is not the premium but the bond increase. When duty volume rises, for example because Section 232 or Section 301 duties now apply to a product line, 10% of a larger number produces a larger bond and a larger premium. Watching the duty run-rate against the bond amount is cheaper than responding to an insufficiency notice.

How to Get a Customs Bond

The process is the same whether the principal is a US company or a foreign one, although a foreign principal has extra identity steps covered in our guide for the non-resident importer.

• Establish the importer identity in ACE. CBP’s guide states that any party required to have a bond must have an active ACE account before a bond is submitted, set up through CBP Form 5106. The principal is identified by its IRS number with a 2-digit suffix, a social security number, or a CBP-assigned number.
• Choose a surety listed in Treasury Department Circular 570. Under 19 CFR 113.37, CBP accepts only corporate sureties named in the current Circular, and no bond may exceed that surety’s listed limit.
• Complete the application. Under 19 CFR 113.11, a continuous bond application states the general character of the merchandise and the duties and taxes accrued in the preceding calendar year, or an estimate if there were no imports. The principal must file an update within 30 days of a significant change.
• Execute CBP Form 301. A customs broker acting as attorney-in-fact under a valid customs power of attorney may sign for the principal.
• Transmit the bond. Approved sureties and surety agents can transmit certain single transaction and continuous bonds electronically through ACE eBond, a voluntary CBP test running since January 3, 2015; other bonds go to the Revenue Division by email for manual input. Continuous bonds are approved by the Revenue Division.

Bond Sufficiency, Insufficiency Notices and Entries Without a Bond

Under 19 CFR 113.13(c), CBP periodically reviews every bond on file. If it finds a bond inadequate, it notifies the principal and surety in writing, and the principal has 15 days from notification to remedy the deficiency, typically by terminating and replacing the continuous bond with one in the higher amount. CBP may also notify both parties that, until the deficiency is fixed, additional security by cash deposit or single transaction bond may be required for any and all of the principal’s transactions.

CBP’s guide specifies that notices of continuous bond insufficiency are issued only by the Director of the Office of Finance, Revenue Division. Separately, 19 CFR 113.13(d) lets CBP require additional security immediately where accepting an entry on the continuous bond would put the revenue in jeopardy, and a port or Center director can demand a single transaction bond on that basis. A single transaction bond amount can only be increased in the 10-day window between entry and entry summary.

Without a valid bond, a formal entry is not released. The goods sit at the terminal or in a CFS accruing storage and demurrage, and every entry behind a lapsed or terminated continuous bond is stuck in the same way. This is why bonding is settled at onboarding together with the power of attorney, before the first entry summary is ever filed. A licensed customs broker can place the bond, track it against duty volume and handle a sufficiency review, and the bond’s place in the wider customs clearance process is laid out in our end-to-end guide.

Frequently Asked Questions