A CPSC customs hold usually means your product is regulated and CPSC expected its certificate data at entry. Since July 8, 2026, most regulated consumer products need that data filed electronically as they enter. If CPSC then detains the goods, its notice gives 5 working days to respond.
Shipment on a CPSC hold? See whether your product needs a certificate, and which one — free.
Check which certificate you need — free →Got a hold notice? Watch one read in a minute: the hold type, the deadline, and what customs wants back.
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| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Under Review | CPSC checks the entry data. Most shipments then get an automatic “May Proceed”. |
| 2. Exam or Hold Intact | CPSC asks to examine the goods or keep them whole. The message should name any documents it needs. |
| 3. Decision to detain | Within 5 business days of the goods being presented for exam. |
| 4. Detention notice | Within 5 more business days. It allows 5 working days to respond. |
| 5. CPSC's decision | Usually 45 to 60 calendar days after the notice. |
Sometimes CPSC lets the goods move to the importer's place while the exam finishes (a conditional release, under CBP bond).
Source: CPSC, Detention of Products at Import FAQ; CPSC, Use of 1USG Notification Messaging at Import (June 2026)
CPSC works alongside CBP at the border. When a regulated consumer product arrives, CPSC can ask for the goods to be held intact, kept whole while it checks them. Importers call this a CPSC customs hold. A missing or incomplete certificate is a common reason.
It starts with “Under Review”: CPSC is checking the entry data. Most shipments then get an automatic “May Proceed”. If CPSC wants a closer look, one of four messages follows: “Intensive Exam,” “Intensive Exam with Documents Required,” “Hold Intact,” or “Hold Intact with Documents Review.”
Where CPSC needs documents, the message should name them. CPSC gives invoices, bills of lading, certificates and test reports as examples. The filer, normally the customs broker, sends them through CBP's Document Image System.
Once the goods are presented for exam, CPSC has 5 business days to decide whether to detain them, and 5 more to send the notice. That Notice of Sampling and Detention gives the reason and the CPSC investigator's contact, and allows 5 working days to respond. CPSC encourages the importer or broker to send any reasonable test results or other evidence that the product can enter.
CPSC says it usually decides whether detained goods can enter within 45 to 60 calendar days of the notice. Sometimes it lets the goods move to the importer's place while the exam finishes. That's a conditional release, under CBP bond.
CPSC's Import Shipment Tracking Tool shows a held shipment's status and the time left in CPSC's review, by entry number and filer code. CPSC says those statuses aren't official releases; for those, it points to the broker or the ABI messages.
Since July 8, 2026, importers of most regulated consumer products must file the data from the product's certificate electronically at entry. That's eFiling. It didn't create a new certificate: the certificate and its testing were already required. It made that data something CBP and CPSC expect to see as the goods enter.
Whether your product needed one, and which kind, depends on the product, not just its HTS code: a Children's Product Certificate (CPC) for a children's product, or a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) for a general-use product.
CPSC's flagged-code list for eFiling (version 5, April 2026) has about 600 codes, and CPSC says it doesn't cover every code that can need a certificate. A product can be regulated without a flagged code, and a flagged code doesn't by itself mean the product needs a certificate, or which one.
Shipment on a CPSC hold? See whether your product needs a certificate, and which one — free.
Check which certificate you need — free →Not sure what kind of hold it is? The free customs-hold check reads the notice, or asks a few questions if you don't have one, and shows the documents that type of hold usually asks for. Nothing is stored. Read the CBP notice — free →
The rules on this page do change — an eFiling date, a list, a threshold. Leave an email and a short note goes out if one does: a few a year at most, one click to stop, and the address is used for nothing else. A summary of the guide and a link arrive now, as confirmation.
Information current as of 2026-10-28.
This report is an automated, informational screening tool only. Tiana & Co. is not a licensed customs broker and does not conduct customs business. This report does not constitute legal advice, a compliance determination, or a certification of admissibility for any supplier, product, or shipment.
Verdicts in this report are produced by deterministic code, not by a language model. The explanatory paragraph accompanying each check is model-generated and checked against the cited sources before delivery. No part of this report is reviewed by a person before it is issued, so every material finding and citation should be confirmed against the underlying government source before it is relied on.
This report reflects data available as of the report date. The OFAC SDN and Consolidated lists, the other U.S. Consolidated Screening List constituents, the UFLPA Entity List, CBP withhold release orders, CPSC's eFiling list, and regulatory guidance are updated frequently and without prior notice. Users should re-screen periodically and consult qualified counsel for compliance decisions.
Name-similarity results do not establish or rule out the identity of any company. Where multiple similarly named records exist, none should be treated as confirmed without independent verification against the primary government source.
This tool is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a substitute for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or any other government agency. No warranty is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or currency of any finding.
Use of this report for import, procurement, sanctions-compliance, or investment decisions is at the user's own risk. Anyone with compliance obligations under UFLPA, OFAC, or CPSC regulations should consult qualified legal counsel before making a transactional decision.
This report is an automated, informational screening tool only. Tiana & Co. is not a licensed customs broker and does not conduct customs business. This report does not constitute legal advice, a compliance determination, or a certification of admissibility for any supplier, product, or shipment.
Verdicts in this report are produced by deterministic code, not by a language model. The explanatory paragraph accompanying each check is model-generated and checked against the cited sources before delivery. No part of this report is reviewed by a person before it is issued, so every material finding and citation should be confirmed against the underlying government source before it is relied on.
This report reflects data available as of the report date. The OFAC SDN and Consolidated lists, the other U.S. Consolidated Screening List constituents, the UFLPA Entity List, CBP withhold release orders, CPSC's eFiling list, and regulatory guidance are updated frequently and without prior notice. Users should re-screen periodically and consult qualified counsel for compliance decisions.
Name-similarity results do not establish or rule out the identity of any company. Where multiple similarly named records exist, none should be treated as confirmed without independent verification against the primary government source.
This tool is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a substitute for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or any other government agency. No warranty is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or currency of any finding.
Use of this report for import, procurement, sanctions-compliance, or investment decisions is at the user's own risk. Anyone with compliance obligations under UFLPA, OFAC, or CPSC regulations should consult qualified legal counsel before making a transactional decision.