Five filings, on four separate clocks
The setup happens once. This does not. Every shipment you send carries its own chain of filings, and they do not run in the order you would expect — the first one comes due while your goods are still sitting in Japan.
Almost every deadline in international trade is measured from arrival. One is not. The security filing for ocean freight is measured from the moment your container is loaded — which means it can expire while everyone is still thinking of the shipment as weeks away. There is no remedy afterwards. The vessel has sailed, the window has closed, and the penalty attaches to the importer.
It is the only deadline that falls before your goods leave, and it is the one people miss.
- 1
Before the container loads
Ocean freight needs a security filing twenty-four hours before your container is loaded in Japan. It is the earliest deadline in the chain and the only one that falls before the goods leave — which is exactly why it is the one people miss.
Your part: Send the booking. That is the trigger. - 2
Before it arrives
FDA must be notified before every single U.S.-bound food shipment lands — not once, every time. The lead time is measured in hours and changes with how the food travels. Food that shows up without it can be turned away at the port.
Your part: Nothing. We file it and hold the confirmation. - 3
The paperwork the broker files from
A customs invoice is not a sales invoice. It carries the terms of sale, per-line values and a description of the goods as they actually are. Values that do not reconcile with the packing list are the most common reason an entry stalls.
Your part: Confirm the shipment. The documents build themselves. - 4
The entry
A licensed broker files to release the goods, then files again to declare and pay the duty a short while later. Two filings, two deadlines, and the second one is easy to lose track of once the goods have already moved.
Your part: Nothing. - 5
FDA's answer
Most shipments are waved through. Some are held for examination. A few draw a formal notice, and then a short clock starts running that nobody tells you about twice.
Your part: We watch it, and we tell you either way.
How this fails quietly
None of these announce themselves. Each one looks fine right up until it does not, which is why the work is really about watching rather than doing.
A filing marked done, with nothing to show for it
A notice recorded as submitted but carrying no confirmation number is not a filing. It is a note someone made. At the port, the difference matters.
An invoice that does not reconcile
A customs invoice is not a sales invoice. When the values, quantities or descriptions disagree with the packing list, the entry stops — and nobody finds out until it has already stopped.
The second filing nobody remembers
Goods are released on one filing and the duty is declared on another, days later. Once the shipment has physically moved, that second deadline is remarkably easy to forget.
A product that was never classified
One unclassified item stops the whole entry, not just its own line. It is the sort of thing that should be caught before a container is booked, not at the port.
So what do you actually do?
You tell us a shipment is coming and you send the booking. That is the trigger for everything above, and it is the whole of your involvement. We file, we watch the clocks, and we tell you where things stand — including when something has gone wrong.
This is our job, not yours
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