When CBP Challenges Your Import Entry: CF-28s, CF-29s, and How to File a Protest

Most importers believe a shipment is "done" once the goods clear customs. In reality, a US customs entry remains open and subject to CBP review until it is liquidated — a formal administrative act that finalizes the duties, fees, and classification on that entry. Liquidation can happen months or years after the goods have been sold, consumed, or shipped to customers. And in the window before and after liquidation, CBP has broad authority to question your declared classification, value, and origin.

When CBP exercises that authority, they send formal documents. Most importers receive a CF-28 or CF-29 and have no idea what they mean, how urgently to respond, or what options they have. Missed deadlines on these documents cost importers money every year — in unnecessary duty payments, in waived protest rights, and in penalties that could have been reduced.

How Entry Liquidation Works

When you file a customs entry, the duties you pay are called a duty deposit — they are not the final determination. CBP has time to review the entry, and if CBP agrees with your declaration, the entry liquidates automatically at the rates declared. You get a notice of liquidation (typically posted to the ACE portal), and the entry is closed.

The statutory liquidation timeline under 19 USC § 1504:

Default: 1 year from the date of entry
Extensions: CBP may extend in 1-year increments, up to a maximum of 4 years from the date of entry
AD/CVD entries: May remain open for years while Commerce conducts administrative reviews — these entries technically liquidate but at rates set by the Commerce review, which can lag entry by 3–5 years

An entry that CBP doesn't act on within 4 years is deemed liquidated at the rates declared by the importer — a favorable outcome if you've been accurately filing.

The point: when you import goods today, the entries can be examined, questioned, and adjusted for up to four years. Classification disputes, valuation questions, and origin investigations can surface long after you've moved the goods.

CF-28: Request for Information

A CBP Form 28 (CF-28) is a Request for Information. CBP is asking questions — they haven't taken a position yet. This is the early-stage document and the least alarming, but it deserves a serious response.

What triggers a CF-28:

A discrepancy between your declared value and trade data CBP has for similar goods (transaction value database comparisons)
A classification that CBP believes may be incorrect based on the product description
Questions about country of origin, particularly for goods from countries with elevated tariffs where circumvention is a concern
Random selectivity — CBP periodically audits entries with no specific basis for suspicion

What a CF-28 requires:

The document will specify what CBP is requesting. Common requests include:

Commercial invoice for the entry
Product samples or catalog pages
Product specifications, technical documents, or lab analysis
Manufacturer's documentation (factory invoices, packing lists)
Country of origin documentation (production records, processing documentation)
Proof of payment

How to respond:

Respond within the time specified on the CF-28. CBP typically allows 30 days, sometimes less for time-sensitive entries. This is not a firm legal deadline with automatic consequences, but failing to respond or responding late will cause CBP to proceed to a CF-29 decision based on available information — which may not favor you.
Provide complete, substantive documentation. A non-response or an incomplete response signals to CBP that you can't support your declared values. Provide everything requested plus a written explanation of your classification or valuation methodology.
Don't interpret the CF-28 as an accusation. It is a question. Respond professionally and factually. The tone of your response establishes the relationship going forward.
Consult your customs broker immediately. If the CF-28 concerns classification (which it commonly does), your broker should help draft the response, particularly if the classification involves a General Rule of Interpretation (GRI) analysis or a decision between chapter headings.
Consider whether legal counsel is warranted. For entries involving significant duty exposure or potential fraud implications (deliberately wrong classification, intentional origin misrepresentation), engage a customs attorney before responding to the CF-28. Statements made in response to a CF-28 can be used against you in penalty proceedings.

CF-29: Notice of Action

A CBP Form 29 (CF-29) is a Notice of Action. CBP has made a decision. This is the substantive document — CBP is telling you they intend to reliquidate your entry at a different rate, reclassify your goods under a different HTS code, adjust the declared value, or change the country of origin determination.

A CF-29 will tell you:

What action CBP is taking (reclassification, value adjustment, origin redetermination)
The proposed adjustment — the new classification, new value, or new origin and the resulting additional duties owed
A short response window (typically 20–30 days to comment before the action becomes final)

Your options after receiving a CF-29:

Option 1: Accept. If CBP's proposed classification or value is correct — or if the additional duty is small enough that fighting it is uneconomical — you can accept the action, pay any additional duties assessed, and move on. The entry will liquidate at the adjusted rates.

Option 2: Provide additional information before the action is finalized. The CF-29 typically gives you a brief window to submit additional facts or arguments before CBP finalizes the action. If you have documentation that wasn't in the original CF-28 response and would change CBP's analysis, this is the moment to submit it. A binding ruling for the same product issued by CBP (through CROSS) is particularly powerful here — CBP is obligated to follow its own rulings.

Option 3: File a protest. After CBP takes the action and the entry liquidates (or is reliquidated) at the adjusted rates, you have the right to file a formal protest. This is your primary legal remedy and it is subject to a strict deadline.

Filing a Protest (CF-19)

A CBP Form 19 (CF-19) is a Protest of a Customs Decision. It is the official mechanism for challenging a CBP determination after liquidation.

The 180-Day Deadline

The single most important fact about protests: you have 180 days from the date of liquidation to file a protest. This is a statutory deadline under 19 USC § 1514. Protests filed even one day late are rejected as untimely, regardless of merit. CBP does not grant extensions.

Liquidation notices are posted to the ACE portal. Your customs broker should be monitoring these, but the legal responsibility for tracking liquidation dates and protest deadlines rests with the importer of record. Set up a process to track liquidation notices for entries that have received CF-28 or CF-29 correspondence.

What Can Be Protested

Under 19 USC § 1514, you can protest:

The rate and amount of duties assessed
The classification of the merchandise under the HTSUS
The value assigned to the merchandise (customs valuation)
The origin determination
The refusal to reliquidate an entry
Other decisions affecting the duties, fees, or treatment of the merchandise

You cannot protest matters that must be pursued through other administrative channels — for example, AD/CVD rates set by Commerce are not protestable through CBP; those must be challenged in the Commerce administrative review process.

What a Protest Must Contain

A protest filed on CF-19 must specify:

The entry numbers being protested
The date(s) of liquidation
A description of the merchandise covered
The nature of the objection — what decision CBP made and why it is wrong
The relief requested — what the correct classification, value, or determination should be

The "nature of the objection" section is where the actual legal argument lives. For a classification dispute, this means arguing GRI 1 through 6, citing the HTSUS headings and notes, referencing Explanatory Notes to the Harmonized System, and distinguishing any contrary CBP rulings. For a valuation dispute, it means citing the statute and regulations (19 CFR Part 152) and presenting the factual record.

A protest with only a conclusory statement ("we disagree with the classification") is legally sufficient to stop the clock — CBP must respond — but it is far less likely to be granted than a protest with a developed legal argument.

The Protest Review Process

Once a protest is filed, CBP has up to 2 years to act on it. In practice:

Many protests are resolved within 6–12 months
If CBP grants the protest, the entry is reliquidated at the correct rates and any overpayment is refunded with interest
If CBP denies the protest, you receive a written denial

If your protest is denied, you have two further options:

1. Court of International Trade (USCIT). You have 180 days from denial of the protest to file suit in the US Court of International Trade. USCIT is a federal court that specializes in customs, trade remedies, and international trade matters. It reviews CBP decisions de novo on questions of law and deferentially on questions of fact. Cases at USCIT are litigated — you need a customs attorney and the process is expensive.

2. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. USCIT decisions can be appealed to the Federal Circuit and, if cert is granted, to the Supreme Court. But for most commercial classification disputes, USCIT is the practical terminal venue.

The Economics of Filing a Protest

A protest filing itself is straightforward — customs attorneys and brokers with protest experience can prepare one for a few thousand dollars. The question is whether the disputed duties are worth fighting.

Rough guidelines:

Under $10,000 in disputed duties: the legal and administrative cost of a protest likely exceeds the recovery
$10,000–$100,000 in disputed duties: analyze whether CBP's position has merit; a protest is worth pursuing if your classification or valuation is defensible
Over $100,000 in disputed duties (or the disputed issue affects future imports, not just past entries): always file a protest; the stakes justify professional legal assistance

An important multiplier: a protest can cover multiple entries for the same issue. If CBP has systematically reclassified a product across dozens of entries, one protest covering all affected entries can recover the overpaid duties across all of them.

Prior Disclosure: If You Are the One Who Got It Wrong

The discussion so far has assumed CBP challenged your entry. But what if you discover — through an internal audit, a broker review, or an attorney's analysis — that you have been underpaying duties, either because your HTS classification was wrong, your declared value was understated, or your origin claim was incorrect?

The instinct to say nothing is understandable but often costly. CBP will likely discover the discrepancy eventually, and the consequences of underpayment — whether or not you knew — can include:

Reliquidation with interest (going back up to 4 years)
Penalties under 19 USC § 1592: up to 4 times the unpaid duties for negligent violations, up to 4 times for grossly negligent, and face value of the merchandise plus duties for fraud

The remedy is prior disclosure under 19 CFR § 162.74. If you proactively disclose a violation to CBP before CBP has initiated a formal inquiry (no ongoing investigation, no CF-28 on the relevant entries), the penalty is reduced to:

No penalty if the violation was unintentional (mere negligence) and you tender the unpaid duties plus interest before or promptly after disclosure
2x the unpaid duties rather than 4x if the violation involved gross negligence or fraud

The prior disclosure must be in writing, must identify the affected entries, describe the violation, and tender (or commit to tender) the unpaid duties and interest. It requires acting before CBP discovers the problem independently — if you receive a CF-28 on the affected entries, the window for prior disclosure generally closes.

Filing a prior disclosure is not an admission of fraud. For companies that discover systemic misclassification — often through an internal compliance review — prior disclosure is the mechanism that avoids catastrophic penalty exposure while resolving the underlying liability at its actual value plus interest.

Binding Rulings: The Upstream Solution

The best way to avoid CF-28 and CF-29 situations is to classify correctly from the start. When you are uncertain about the classification of a product — particularly for high-volume imports or products near the boundary between two HTS headings — consider filing a binding ruling request with CBP through the CROSS (Customs Rulings Online Search System) system.

A binding ruling is CBP's official determination of how a product should be classified. It is issued before importation, and once issued, CBP at every port of entry is bound by it. An importer relying on a binding ruling in good faith is protected from retroactive reclassification.

Binding ruling requests require:

A detailed description of the product, its materials, construction, and intended use
Sample merchandise if CBP requests it
The proposed HTS classification and the legal basis

CBP targets a 30-day response time; complex cases take longer. The ruling is published in the CROSS database and is publicly available (others can search and cite it).

If a CF-28 arrives and you have a binding ruling for the same product, lead with the ruling number. CBP must honor its own ruling.

Key Takeaways

Customs entries remain open until liquidation, which can occur up to 4 years after importation — CBP can question your entry at any point in that window
A CF-28 is a Request for Information; respond fully within the stated timeframe; do not ignore it
A CF-29 is a formal Notice of Action; you have a brief window to comment before the action is final, and then a protest becomes your remedy
A protest (CF-19) must be filed within 180 days of liquidation — this deadline is absolute; track your liquidation notices
Protests can cover multiple entries and can be filed for up to 2 years after CBP receives them (though you still must file within 180 days of liquidation)
If you discover you have been underpaying duties, prior disclosure reduces penalties dramatically — but only if you act before CBP initiates an inquiry
A binding ruling from CROSS is the most effective protection against classification disputes and provides certainty for ongoing import programs

Classification disputes with CBP start with disagreement about which HTS code applies. TariffClassify gives you a defensible, AI-analyzed 10-digit HTS code with the reasoning behind it — the same kind of analysis that supports a strong CF-28 response or binding ruling request. Try your first classification free.