CBP Alerts In-Bond About Inputting FIRMS Codes

CBP is alerting traders, including those participating in the rail electronic export manifest pilot, that they may soon start seeing new ACE errors if they don’t input necessary Facilities Information and Resource Management System (FIRMS) codes for certain in-bond shipments, the agency said in a pair of Aug. 6 CSMS messages.

Starting Aug. 10, CBP said, it will “deploy enhancements” to validate FIRMS codes for in-bond arrivals, excluding arrivals by air. ACE will “verify that the FIRMS code is provided, valid, active, and is within the in-bond arrival port,” the message said.

“As previously communicated to Rail EEM pilot participants, when in-bond types 62 and 70 are manifested on the Electronic Export Manifest (EEM) train consist, the 353 Departure message must contain the FIRMS code to comply with the new validation.”

Validation 157 will signal to the filer that FIRMS code is required, and validation 158 will signal that the filer has inserted an invalid FIRMS code. Both are available for testing in ACE certification.

CBP also said the “M1501 Notification Entity Qualifier value must be ‘X’ for Enroute,” and the “M1517 Location Identifier must contain FIRMS code for in-bond location.”