How do I respond to a CBP detention notice?

Not every held shipment is a formal CBP detention, and the fix differs by who you are. If you bought something for personal use through a courier like DHL, FedEx, or UPS, there is usually no formal detention notice sent to you: the carrier acts as the customs broker and handles the customs side, so tracking just shows the parcel on hold. Those holds are most often a routine exam, duty or tax owed, or a document the carrier needs — and the fastest answer comes from the carrier directly.

A formal detention is a different thing. If you are the importer of record on a formal entry and have received a CF-28, CF-29, or a UFLPA detention notice, the notice cites a specific reason and a deadline. That is the process the rest of this page describes.

A detention is a temporary hold, not a seizure and not a final decision. After goods are presented for examination, CBP has five business days to release or detain them. Once detained, if CBP has not reached a final admissibility decision within 30 days of presentation, the goods are generally treated as excluded — a decision the importer can formally challenge. What gets submitted during the detention window is what moves the shipment toward release.

The type of notice is the branch point. A CF-28 (Request for Information) asks the importer for documents or information about a shipment. A CF-29 (Notice of Action) states an action CBP is taking or proposing, such as a classification or rate change. A detention or UFLPA notice signals a physical hold over a specific concern. Each carries a different response, so reading which one arrived comes before anything else.

The reason on the notice dictates the documents. A forced-labor detention under the UFLPA calls for supply-chain tracing, potentially back to raw materials. A classification or valuation question calls for product specifications and composition detail. A missing-certificate hold calls for the specific CPSC or FCC document the product needs. Assembling the wrong set wastes a window that is already short.

Before anything is sent, the details should line up across the commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, and any certificates. Mismatched descriptions, quantities, or values between documents are one of the most common reasons a detention drags on longer than the underlying issue warrants.

The free Broker-Ready Document Check reconciles these documents against each other — quantities, values, parties, descriptions and dates — and flags the mismatches, so the same inconsistency does not resurface on the next shipment. It checks the documents against each other, not against a determination of what is correct.

The deadline is stated on the notice, and it varies by type and issuing agency. A CF-28 commonly allows 30 days. A UFLPA detention runs on its own clock — roughly 30 days from the notice, with limited discretionary extensions. Because missing a deadline can lead to exclusion or seizure, the exact date and the filing method are worth confirming with a licensed customs broker, or a customs attorney where the hold turns on a legal question such as forced labor.

For a UFLPA detention, yes: CBP's own enforcement guidance says an importer that needs more time to provide the requested documents may request an extension from the Port Director or the applicable Center Director, during the initial 30-day detention period. An extension is asked for, not assumed, and it is asked for before the deadline, in writing, so the request itself is on the record. For other detention types the notice and the issuing agency set the terms, which is one more reason the notice is read before anything is sent.

The detention regulation, 19 CFR 151.16, sets the outcomes. CBP must make a final admissibility determination within 30 days from the date the merchandise was presented for examination. That determination is either a release or a refusal, and the regulation says plainly that it may be the subject of a protest.

If CBP does not decide within those 30 days, the silence is treated as a decision to exclude the merchandise. That deemed exclusion is not a dead end: exclusion of merchandise from entry is one of the decisions the customs laws allow to be protested, and 19 U.S.C. 1514 gives 180 days from the date of the decision to file one. If a protest of an exclusion is not resolved within 30 days of filing, it is treated as denied on that thirtieth day, which is what opens the door to the Court of International Trade.

So the sequence is: response inside the detention window; release, or a determination that can be protested; and if the clock simply runs out, a deemed exclusion that can also be protested. Seizure is a separate action under separate authority, and a detention notice that mentions it is the point at which a customs attorney is involved rather than a broker alone. Which of these applies, and on what date, is read off the notice and the calendar, not assumed.