How to Fill Out and File CBP Form 3347: Declaration of Owner

CBP Form 3347, the Declaration of Owner, shifts liability for additional and increased customs duties from the party that filed the entry to the actual owner of the imported merchandise. To use it, the nominal consignee has to declare at entry time that they aren’t the owner and identify who is, then file the owner’s signed declaration within 90 days of entry, either at the port or electronically through ACE.¹ Miss any of those steps and the consignee stays on the hook for whatever CBP assesses later.

What the Form Does and When You Need It

Under 19 U.S.C. § 1485(d), a consignee who is not the true owner can avoid liability for additional or increased duties, but only by taking three steps: declaring at the time of entry that they are not the actual owner, providing the owner’s name and address, and producing the owner’s signed declaration within 90 days.² Form 3347 is that signed declaration.

The regulation applies to entry summaries for consumption, warehouse entries, temporary importation under bond entries, rewarehouse entries, and manufacturing warehouse entries.¹ The stakes are highest when anti-dumping or countervailing duties are applied retroactively or CBP revalues the goods during liquidation. Brokers and freight forwarders filing entries for multiple clients carry the most exposure without this form.

What the Nominal Consignee Must Do at Entry Time

Form 3347 does not stand alone. Before the owner’s declaration means anything, the consignee has to lay the groundwork when the entry is filed: state that the consignee is not the actual owner, and disclose the owner’s name and address.² Producing Form 3347 later will not cure a missing entry-time declaration.

There is also a filing-party rule that trips people up. The regulation states that the declaration “shall not be accepted unless executed by the actual owner or his duly authorized agent, and filed by the nominal consignee or his duly authorized agent.”¹ The owner signs; the consignee submits. If the owner tries to file directly, CBP can reject it.

How to Fill Out CBP Form 3347

The form is available for download on the CBP website.³ The pre-printed declaration language contains italicized phrases; strike through any italicized phrase that does not apply to your situation.

Owner and Entry Identification

The top section pins down who the owner is and which entry is involved:

Name of Owner: last name, first name, and middle initial for an individual, or the full legal name for a business.
Address of Owner: street, city, state, and ZIP code.
Port of Entry and Port Code: taken from the original entry summary (CBP Form 7501).
Vessel/Carrier: the ship, airline, or other carrier that brought the goods in.
Arrived From: the country or port of origin.
Date of Entry and Entry Number: the entry number is an 11-character alphanumeric code composed of a 3-character filer code, a 7-digit entry number, and a 1-digit check digit. Copy it exactly from the entry summary.⁴
Date of Arrival: the date the goods physically arrived at the port.
Nominal Consignee or Authorized Agent: the person or firm that filed the original entry.

Importer Numbers

The form has separate fields for the importer number of the owner and, if applicable, the authorized agent. Show hyphens in the number. For most U.S.-based owners, the importer number is the IRS Employer Identification Number. Individuals without an EIN use their Social Security number. The form labels these choices as “IRS Employer Number of Firm Owner,” “SSN of Individual Owner” where no employer number exists, or “Customs Serial Number” where neither applies.

Foreign owners without a U.S. tax identification number need a CBP-assigned number. File CBP Form 5106 at the port where entries will be made; CBP will issue a number and notify you, and that number goes in the “Customs Serial Number” field and must be used for all future CBP transactions.⁵ If the owner has never filed a Form 5106, the form itself instructs you to complete an additional section and submit an extra copy, which CBP will return with an assigned serial number.

Merchandise and Value Details

The lower table asks for the number of packages, the seller or shipper, the place and date of the invoice, the amount paid or to be paid in foreign currency, the rate of exchange, and the entered value in both foreign currency and U.S. dollars. Pull these figures from the commercial invoice and cross-check the entered value against CBP Form 7501 line by line; a mismatch here can cause problems at liquidation.⁶

Superseding Bond

The form provides fields for a superseding bond amount and surety code. A superseding bond replaces the original entry bond, moving the bonded obligation to the actual owner. Whether one is required depends on the dollar amounts and risk involved; not every filing needs a superseding bond, so complete these fields only if one is being posted.

Correspondence Routing

Near the bottom, the owner can direct CBP to route bills, refunds, notices of liquidation, or a combination of those, to the owner in care of the authorized agent. Check the option that matches the arrangement. This matters more than it looks: if a liquidation notice reaches no one who is watching for it, a duty increase can pass the protest deadline uncontested.

Who Signs

The actual owner or a duly authorized agent must sign.¹ An individual owner signs personally. For a corporation, any officer can sign, or another employee authorized through a customs power of attorney on file with the port director. The signer includes title and date. If a non-officer signs and no power of attorney is on file, CBP will not accept the declaration.

Notarization is not required. Neither the regulation nor the form calls for a notary seal, despite a common assumption otherwise.

Where and How to File, and the 90-Day Deadline

The regulation permits two submission methods: filing at the port of entry where the original entry was made, or filing electronically.¹ CBP’s guidance on post-summary corrections confirms that when the importer of record changes, “the importer or broker must submit a CBP Form 3347,” and “CBP will make the appropriate changes in ACE.”⁷

Whichever route you use, the nominal consignee or their agent must be the one to actually transmit the form, even though the owner is the signer. For a paper filing, keep a stamped duplicate. For an electronic filing, watch the ACE portal for confirmation that the declaration is linked to the entry.

The form itself states that it “must be presented at the port of entry within 90 days after the date of entry.” The clock runs from the date of entry, not the date of arrival or the date the entry summary was filed. Miss the window and the nominal consignee stays liable for all additional and increased duties, with no mechanism to shift that liability afterward.² Filing early in the 90 days gives you room to resubmit if CBP rejects the form for a correctable error.

What Happens After CBP Accepts It

Once the declaration is accepted, the actual owner takes on responsibility for additional or increased duties assessed at liquidation or through post-entry audits. The statute also grants the actual owner “all the rights of an importer of record,” so the owner can file protests, request reliquidation, and otherwise participate in administrative proceedings for that entry.² Bills and refunds flow to whichever party the correspondence-routing checkboxes designate. The transfer of liability is permanent for that entry; there is no process to move it back to the consignee once CBP has accepted the declaration.

Penalties for a False Declaration

A false or misleading declaration of ownership exposes the filer to civil penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1592, which covers fraud, gross negligence, and negligence in connection with customs entry documents.⁸ The ceilings scale with severity:

Fraud: up to the domestic value of the merchandise.
Gross negligence: the lesser of the domestic value or four times the lawful duties of which the government was deprived. If the violation did not affect duty assessment, the cap drops to 40 percent of dutiable value.
Negligence: the lesser of the domestic value or two times the lawful duties at stake. If duties were unaffected, the cap is 20 percent of dutiable value.

A prior disclosure, meaning voluntary reporting before CBP opens an investigation, significantly reduces the penalty. For fraud, the reduced penalty is 100 percent of the unpaid duties. For negligence or gross negligence, it drops to just the interest on the unpaid duties.⁸ Isolated clerical errors generally do not trigger penalties unless they form part of a pattern of negligent conduct.

Related Forms to Know

Form 3347 covers merchandise obtained through a purchase or agreement to purchase. For goods received on consignment or through other non-purchase arrangements, use the companion form, CBP Form 3347A, Declaration of Consignee for Merchandise Obtained Otherwise Than in Pursuance of a Purchase or Agreement to Purchase. Match the form to how the owner acquired the goods.

If the actual owner needs a CBP-assigned importer number because they lack a U.S. tax identification number, complete CBP Form 5106 and submit it to the port of entry before or alongside the Form 3347 filing.⁹ Without an importer number on file, CBP cannot process the ownership transfer.

1
eCFR. 19 CFR 141.20 – Actual Owner’s Declaration and Superseding Bond of Actual Owner
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1485 – Declarations
3
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 3347 – Declaration of Owner for Merchandise Obtained in Pursuance of a Purchase or Agreement to Purchase
4
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ACE Entry Summary Instructions
5
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Importer Numbers
6
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 7501 – Entry Summary
7
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Post Summary Corrections
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1592 – Penalties for Fraud, Gross Negligence, and Negligence
9
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 5106