Customs & Tariff Classification
Informal Entry
Also known as: Type 11, informal customs entry
An informal entry is the lighter filing CBP allows for lower-value shipments: less documentation, and the entry is liquidated at the time of release rather than months later.
It is not the bond-free option people assume it is. 19 CFR 145.15, as amended in June 2026, requires a single transaction or continuous bond before CBP will release a postal shipment valued at $2,500 or less — so on the mail path this term exists to explain, informal and formal both need one.
The dividing line is $2,500. Above it, mail requires a formal entry under 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(i); below it, an informal entry will usually do. 19 CFR 143.21 sets out what may be entered informally, and it is a list of categories rather than a single rule — installments of a larger shipment and separately enterable portions of a consignment each carry their own $2,500 test.
The threshold is not the only gate. A parcel worth forty dollars still needs a formal entry if it is subject to another agency's requirements, if it carries antidumping duties, or if it falls into any of the other classes 145.12 names — value is one reason among several, and it is the one people assume is the only one.
Informal entry is the flow most people have benefited from without ever knowing it existed, and the flow that de minimis made invisible for a decade. While $800 arrived free, almost nothing anybody ordered online ever reached the informal band at all.
That changed on 29 August 2025. Parcels that used to clear with no filing now need one, and the question of which filing — informal or formal — became a live one for ordinary shoppers rather than a technicality for brokers.
Do not read $2,500 as permission. It is a ceiling on value, not a clearance from every other requirement, and the categories in 145.12 that ignore value entirely are the ones that catch people. We see the argument regularly: the parcel is worth $300, therefore the notice must be wrong. The notice is rarely wrong.
Where it matters for compliance
- 19 CFR 143.21 sets out what may be entered informally, including installments of a larger shipment and separately enterable portions of a consignment, each subject to its own $2,500 test.
- 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(i): above $2,500 in value, mail requires a formal entry rather than an informal one.
- Value is one trigger among several. A low-value parcel still requires formal entry if it falls into any class 145.12(a)(2) names.
- $800 and $2,500 are different figures doing different jobs. $800 was the de minimis exemption, suspended for all countries on 29 August 2025; $2,500 is the informal/formal dividing line and is unaffected by that suspension.
Related terms
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.