CBP Form 3078 is the application you file in person with your local port director to get a Customs and Border Protection identification card, which lets you enter secure customs areas at ports, airports, and bonded warehouses. You bring the completed form, two small color photos, and $17.37 to a scheduled appointment where CBP takes your fingerprints and starts a background check. The form itself asks for five years of home addresses, ten years of employment, and a full criminal history.
Who the Form Is For
A port director can require any licensed cartman or lighterman, and their employees, to carry a CBP identification card whenever they handle imported merchandise that hasn’t been released from customs custody.1eCFR. 19 CFR 112.41 – Identification Cards Required In practice that means truck drivers, warehouse workers, freight handlers, and other personnel moving through customs security areas at international airports, seaports, and container freight stations. The port director will not issue a card to anyone whose work with bonded merchandise would, in the director’s judgment, endanger the revenue.
What to Gather Before You Start
The form is short, but the answers take time to pull together. Have all of this in front of you before you start writing:
- Every residential address for the last five years, with move-in and move-out dates for each.2U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 3078 – Application for Identification Card
- Ten years of employment in reverse chronological order, with employer names, addresses, and dates.
- Details on every criminal conviction (federal, state, military, or foreign) except traffic violations and offenses before your sixteenth birthday. Guilty pleas, no-contest pleas, and cases where adjudication was withheld all count.
- Two color photographs, each 1¼ inches by 1¼ inches. That size is not standard, so a drugstore kiosk usually can’t produce it; a passport-photo shop can crop to spec.
- Your Social Security number and citizenship documentation. Lawful permanent residents also need a Resident Alien number.
- Military service details if applicable: branch, dates, serial number, and discharge type. Anything less than an honorable discharge requires a full written explanation.
The form also asks whether you currently use or have ever used narcotic drugs, and whether you have previously applied for a U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Card, a U.S. Merchant Marine Card, or a prior CBP identification card. If any of those earlier applications were denied, you have to explain why.2U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 3078 – Application for Identification Card
Filling Out the Form Block by Block
Block 1 asks what activity requires the card. If your employer is requesting access to a CBP security area, check that box and skip to Block 10, where you describe your job responsibilities and the specific zone. Your employer’s name and address go in Block 9.
Blocks 3 through 8 cover the basics: legal name, Social Security number, citizenship, date of birth, and current address. Block 6 asks for every other name you’ve been known by, including nicknames, maiden names, and aliases. Don’t leave any off. CBP runs your identity through multiple databases, and an unlisted alias can flag the application as incomplete.
Blocks 18 through 22 cover physical descriptors: height, weight, hair color, eye color, and any visible scars or marks. These end up on the card itself, so answer accurately.
Block 28 is the five-year address history. Leave no date gaps. Block 36 is the ten-year employment history, again with no gaps. Any missing period will slow the background investigation or send the form back to you for correction.
Block 37, criminal history, is where most applications run into trouble. The instructions are specific: any misdemeanor or felony where you pleaded guilty, pleaded no contest, or were found guilty, and any offense where adjudication was withheld.2U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP Form 3078 – Application for Identification Card Leaving something off doesn’t remove it from the FBI database; it just gives CBP grounds to deny the application for incomplete information. If you answer “yes,” Block 38 asks for a full explanation of each conviction.
By signing, you certify that everything on the form is true. The form itself warns that false statements are punishable under 18 U.S.C. 1001 by a fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both. Providing the information is technically voluntary, but without it CBP cannot run the background check and will not issue the card.
Where and How to File
You file the completed form in person with the port director at your local CBP port of entry.3eCFR. 19 CFR 112.42 – Application for Identification Card Mail and email are not options, because CBP collects your fingerprints at the same visit. Fingerprints are taken either on an FD-258 card or electronically, depending on what the port office uses.
Bring the two photos and the fee. As of 2026, the FBI charges $10.00 for the fingerprint check and CBP adds a $7.37 administrative processing fee, for a combined $17.37.4Federal Register. Fee for Fingerprints Collected by CBP If CBP already has usable fingerprints on file for you from TSA, the fingerprinting fee is waived. The port director will confirm the exact amount at filing.
After You File
The port director may refer the application for a full character investigation.3eCFR. 19 CFR 112.42 – Application for Identification Card CBP runs your fingerprints against FBI criminal databases and reviews the personal history on the form. Processing times are not set in the regulations and vary widely by port; large international airports and seaports tend to take longer than small land crossings. Your employer or the port office can give you a realistic local estimate.
Approval or denial usually comes back through the port director’s office. If approved, CBP issues the card on Customs Form 3873, signed by you and a Customs officer.5eCFR. 19 CFR 112.43 – Form of Identification Card
Rules Once You Have the Card
Keep the card on you any time you’re handling imported merchandise or working inside a customs security area. Any Customs officer can ask to see it, and refusing is grounds for suspension or revocation.1eCFR. 19 CFR 112.41 – Identification Cards Required Never let anyone else use it. That alone can get it pulled.
You must return the card to the port director if you leave the employer sponsoring it, if the cartman or lighterman bond or license is terminated, or if the card is revoked or suspended.6eCFR. 19 CFR 112.45 – Surrender of Identification Cards The regulation does not set a deadline in days, but don’t delay. Holding a card you’re no longer entitled to carry will complicate any future application.
The port director can revoke or suspend the card for four reasons: fraud or material misstatement on the application; a felony conviction, or a misdemeanor involving theft, smuggling, or any theft-related offense; misuse, such as lending the card or refusing to show it; and violations of the surrender rules or the bonded-merchandise handling rules in 19 CFR Part 125.7eCFR. 19 CFR 112.48 – Revocation or Suspension of Identification Cards A written notice from the port director spells out the specific grounds, and it becomes final unless you file a written appeal, in duplicate, within ten days of receiving it. You can request a hearing in the same filing.
One boundary worth knowing: on the misdemeanor side, only theft-connected offenses trigger the revocation ground. A misdemeanor DUI on its own would not. The broader “endanger the revenue” standard still gives the port director room to deny or pull a card outside the four listed grounds, so a clean, complete application is your best protection.