Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced an update to the 5106 form effective March 18, 2019. CBP has been working on this new 5106 form for the past few years. Our office has provided input on this form several times, which has impacted the final form. This new form is quite different than the current 5106 form and now calls for a substantial amount of new information for the principal, which can appear to be somewhat intimidating. Although CBP would like the principal to complete all the boxes on the form, there are only a few of the boxes that are required. The required boxes (marked with a red * on the form) are as follows:
1A – Importer/Business/Private Party
Name
1E – Type of action
2A – Mailing Address
2B – Physical Address
2C – Telephone number for the individual signing the form
2E – Email address for the individual signing the form
4 – Certification
The principal can choose to complete more boxes than the minimum, however the principal will need to carefully consider whether or not providing this additional information makes sense in their particular situation, based on what they are trying to accomplish when filing this document. CBP has indicated that completing all the fields can result in some advantages for the principal however CBP has not provided a list of these advantages at this time.
The 5106 forms provided by our office, which we supply when a new bond or a change to a principal’s information is requested, will have several of these required pieces of information already populated. In most situations we will have already populated boxes 1A, 1E, 2A, and 2B. Therefore, in most situations, the principal needs only to verify the pre-filled information and complete only boxes 2C, 2E and 4.
If you or your client have any questions on this new 5106 form, please feel free to contact our office.Download the new CBP CF5106 form.