Guide
The US CBP form that moves freight under bond between ports without clearing at arrival.
CBP Form 7512 (Transportation Entry and Manifest of Goods Subject to CBP Inspection and Permit) is the US in-bond document that lets freight arrive at one US port and clear customs at a different US port. It has three main variants — IT (immediate transportation), T&E (transportation and exportation), and IE (immediate exportation) — each with different rules about where the freight can go and how it ultimately exits the bond. For highway carriers, the 7512 is most commonly used to move ocean freight inland for final clearance at a destination city.
IT (Immediate Transportation) moves freight from the port of arrival to a destination US port where it will be formally entered. An ocean container arriving in Los Angeles destined for final clearance in Chicago moves on an IT.
T&E (Transportation and Exportation) moves freight through the US from one country to another — Canadian freight passing through US territory to reach another Canadian destination, or Mexican freight moving through the US, is typical T&E.
IE (Immediate Exportation) exports foreign freight out of the US at the same port where it arrived, without ever entering US commerce. Less common for highway carriers.
The in-bond filing is typically made by the carrier — or, more often, by the carrier's broker acting on the carrier's behalf — against the carrier's CBP in-bond bond. A carrier moving freight in-bond must have a CBP-approved bond on file; without one, in-bond authorisation cannot be granted.
The 7512 is filed electronically through ACE, which has largely replaced paper 7512 submission. The paper form is still occasionally produced as a physical lead document that travels with the freight.
An IT in-bond is considered 'closed' when the freight arrives at the destination port and is formally entered there (or re-filed on a subsequent in-bond). The arrival must be reported to CBP within 30 days of the original IT authorisation — freight that disappears from the in-bond system triggers immediate compliance inquiry.
T&E and IE close when the freight is actually exported, documented by the carrier and by CBP at the port of exit. Incomplete exports — freight that was authorised to exit but did not — are treated as serious compliance failures.
The most common 7512 issue for highway carriers is unreported arrival — freight that was moved in-bond from an ocean port to an inland destination, arrived safely, but the in-bond arrival was never reported back to CBP. The freight is fine; the paperwork is not, and CBP follow-up can take months to resolve.
The second common issue is routing mismatch — in-bond authorisations specify the destination port, and diverting freight to a different port requires a formal amendment, not an after-the-fact update. Unamended diversions are a compliance violation even if the cargo itself is clean.
Yes. The carrier (or the carrier's agent) must have a CBP-approved bond on file to obtain in-bond authorisation. Most common for highway carriers is a continuous carrier bond; single-entry bonds also exist for occasional moves.
T1 is the European Union equivalent of a transit document. The US in-bond 7512 serves a similar function but is governed by US CBP rules. Freight moving between the US and Canada typically does not use either — it uses ACE eManifest for the carrier and formal entry at destination.
Yes if your carrier has a CBP filer account and the bond to back the filing. Most highway carriers leave the actual filing to the broker or freight forwarder arranging the move.
CBP will send an overdue-arrival notice and may issue compliance penalties under the in-bond regulations. Repeated non-closure can jeopardise the carrier bond itself.
Written for operational context by the BorderPro team. Not legal or customs-compliance advice — verify program specifics with CBSA, CBP, or a licensed customs broker before acting on them. Programs evolve and this page may not reflect every recent change.
BorderPro files ACE and ACI eManifests, tracks PARS/PAPS, and surfaces broker RNS — in one dashboard.