Effective January 1, 2012, Customs and Border Protection will require all new bonds to be filed on the new bond form 301. At this time, Customs has advised that only new bonds filed with an effective date of January 1, 2012 or later must be on the new bond form. Existing bonds will not be affected.
There are a number of changes on the new 301, most notably the inclusion of new activity codes to better encompass all Customs requirements. Other changes include a formal addendum for the listing of co-principals, a revised section for listing unincorporated divisions/trade names and a section specifically for listing the surety bond or reference number. We have begun issuing the new bond forms on the new bond requests over the last few weeks, so we will be well in advance of the January 1 deadline.