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Trade Documentation

Import Security Filing

Also known as: ISF, 10+2

Import Security Filing, commonly called 10+2, is an advance electronic data requirement under which importers and carriers must transmit specified shipment information to customs before ocean cargo is laden aboard a vessel bound for the destination country. The rule lets authorities perform security risk assessment on cargo before it sails, and late, inaccurate, or missing filings expose the importer to significant per-shipment penalties and increased inspection. Because the data must be assembled from several parties early in the shipping cycle, ISF compliance requires tight coordination between the importer, its supplier, the forwarder, and the carrier.

The JFS takeLicensed customs broker · Filer 82G

A timing discipline more than a data problem. The elements are not hard, but they are due before the goods are loaded overseas, and liquidated damages for late filing are real money. Importers who treat ISF as part of the entry rather than as a separate pre-departure obligation are the ones who get billed.

Where it matters for compliance

  • Eight elements are due no later than 24 hours before lading for ocean cargo. Container stuffing location and consolidator can follow, but no later than 24 hours before arrival — 19 CFR § 149.2(b).
  • The obligation is the importer's, and liquidated damages attach to the bond.

Related terms

Partner Government AgencyA partner government agency is any regulatory body other than the customs authority whose approval or data is required before certain imported goods may be released — for example the food and drug regulator, the agriculture and plant-health service, the environmental protection agency, or the consumer product safety commission.Customs EntryA customs entry is the formal declaration an importer or its broker files with the customs authority to secure the release of imported goods and to account for the duties and taxes owed.Bill of LadingA bill of lading is the foundational document of ocean freight, issued by a carrier to a shipper, that serves three distinct functions at once: a receipt confirming the carrier has taken the described goods into its custody, evidence of the contract of carriage setting out the terms of transport, and — when issued in negotiable form — a document of title whose holder controls delivery of the cargo.

Reviewed by a licensed customs broker. Definitions are general information, not legal or customs advice for a particular shipment. Duty rates, tariff programs and agency requirements change frequently.