For years the postal network was the quiet workaround. If a shipment was small enough, it arrived, the carrier handed it over, and nobody filed anything. Sellers built whole sourcing models on that assumption without ever calling it a strategy.
That route is closed. CBP has indefinitely suspended the de minimis exemption for merchandise valued at $800 or less arriving through the international postal network, and as of October 22, 2026 the last transitional allowance ended. What replaces it is a filing process with three requirements most small importers have never had to meet: a customs entry, a bond, and a monthly data submission.
The details matter more than the headline, because one of them catches people who thought they were doing the simple thing.
What the rule actually did
The change sits in an interim final rule amending 19 CFR Part 145, published at 91 FR 37801 as CBP Decision 26-13, under docket USCBP-2026-0761.
The amendment to 19 CFR 145.31, which carries the de minimis suspension itself, took effect June 24, 2026. The broader rule took effect July 24, 2026. Alongside the suspension, CBP created a new postal informal entry process to handle the volume that previously moved with no entry at all.
Between July and October, CBP ran a delayed compliance window. Certain categories of shipment that would otherwise have required formal entry were allowed to use the simpler postal informal process in the interim. October 22, 2026 is the compliance date for 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi), which is when that window closed.
Two practical consequences arrived with the rule and are worth stating plainly. CBP officers no longer manually prepare entry forms for these shipments. And duties are no longer collected at delivery. The old model, where a postal item showed up with a charge attached and the recipient paid the letter carrier, does not apply to this traffic.
The postal informal entry process, and who can use it
The new process covers mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less that are classifiable only in HTSUS chapters 1 through 97.
Filing is restricted. Under 19 CFR 143.26(a), the party with the right to make entry is the owner or purchaser of the goods, or a licensed customs broker designated by one of them. A freight forwarder, a supplier overseas, or a fulfilment partner cannot simply file on your behalf because they handled the shipment.
The filer also has to hold a bond. Under 19 CFR 145.15, a basic importation and entry bond meeting the conditions at 19 CFR 113.62 is required, either as a single transaction bond or a continuous bond. For a seller whose entire import history consists of parcels arriving without paperwork, this is the genuinely new cost, and it is the one that tends to be discovered late.
Whether a single transaction bond or a continuous bond makes sense depends on how often you import rather than how much you import at a time. Clearit’s breakdown of when single-entry bonds stop making sense at volume walks through where that crossover sits.
The filing itself is a spreadsheet and an email
This part surprises people who assume a modernised rule means a modern system.
The filer submits an Excel spreadsheet by email to CBP, carrying the following for each shipment: filer code, bond number, description of merchandise, country of origin, all applicable 10-digit HTSUS classifications, duty rate, value, total duty owed, carrier, flight or conveyance number, tracking number, arrival port, and arrival date. Quantity or weight is required only where a specific duty rate applies.
The spreadsheet and the duty payment, made through Pay.gov, are due by the seventh day of the month following arrival.
CBP has also opened a voluntary electronic process, the Entry Type 13 test, which became available as the delayed compliance window ended. For anyone expecting to run meaningful postal volume, that is the direction of travel and worth looking at early rather than once the spreadsheet becomes unmanageable.
The trap: claiming duty-free can force you into formal entry
Here is the part that catches sellers who believe they are taking the easy path.
Certain shipments are ineligible for postal informal entry and must go through formal entry instead. The categories are goods subject to quota, goods subject to antidumping or countervailing duty orders, goods subject to Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 duties, goods subject to partner government agency import or entry requirements, and goods on which a Chapter 98 or free trade agreement duty-free claim is being made.
Read that last one again. Claiming a free trade agreement duty-free benefit makes the shipment ineligible for the simpler process and pushes it into formal entry.
That is counterintuitive and it reverses the instinct most sellers have. Duty-free feels like the simple outcome, so a seller sourcing from a USMCA partner naturally assumes they are in the easiest possible position. In this process they are not. They have moved themselves into the more demanding filing track by making the claim.
The same applies to anything touching a partner government agency. A cosmetic, a supplement, a device, a food item, something with a radio in it: the agency requirement alone takes the shipment out of postal informal entry regardless of its value.
If you are unsure which entry type your goods actually fall into, Clearit’s guide to US customs entry types sets out the distinctions and what each one requires.
What this means if you have been shipping by post
Three questions are worth answering before your next inbound shipment rather than after it.
Does anything you import touch a partner government agency or an FTA claim? If so, postal informal entry is not available to you and formal entry is the baseline. That changes the cost per shipment and it changes who needs to be involved.
Do you have a bond? If you have never filed a formal entry, almost certainly not. A bond takes time to put in place, and it is a prerequisite rather than something that can be arranged once goods are already in the postal network.
Is the postal route still the right one? This is the question most worth asking honestly. A large part of the appeal of mail was that it bypassed the entry process entirely. With an entry, a bond, a classification requirement and a monthly filing obligation attached, the comparison against commercial freight looks different than it did a year ago, particularly once you are consolidating rather than shipping parcel by parcel.
That comparison is specific to your volume, your product mix and your margins, and it is worth running properly rather than assuming the answer in either direction.
The short version
The postal de minimis exemption is suspended indefinitely, not paused. The transitional allowance that softened the change ended on October 22, 2026. What remains is a real customs process with a $2,500 ceiling, a chapter restriction, a bond requirement, a restricted class of filers, and a monthly spreadsheet.
None of that makes importing by mail impossible. It does mean that the part of the model that worked because nobody had to file anything no longer exists, and any plan still built on that assumption is working from a rule that was withdrawn in June.
If you are working out which entry route fits your shipments and what it will cost to file them properly, Clearit can classify the goods, put the bond in place, and handle the filing.
