US Customs Export Control Says: I’m Screwed

Package returned for export compliance

Update: It looks like this problem may have been resolved by USPS, with international shipments sent May 11 or later proceeding normally. But there’s still confusion about the source of the problem, the date it was resolved, and whether it’s truly fixed. It appears it’s necessary to buy new postage to reship any returned packages – reshipping using the original postage label reportedly does not work. Unfortunately, all requests for postage refunds have been denied so far.

Help! This is very bad. Since sometime about April 26, nearly every international shipment I’ve sent has been returned by US Export Control, for unknown reasons. The packages come back with an export compliance sticker that says something is “missing”, but doesn’t explain further. I discussed the problem with the staff at my local post office, but they couldn’t explain it either, and said the customs information on the package looked OK to them. They also said that when an outbound package is rejected by US Export Control, there’s basically no recourse: the customs inspectors don’t respond to calls or emails about specific packages. In the staff’s words, “You just have to guess”.

All of the packages were shipped by US Postal Service’s First Class Package International service. I’ve not recently changed anything about the packages, their contents, the address labels, or the customs information printed on the label. I’ve previously shipped thousands of substantially identical packages internationally without incident. But not anymore.

TL;DR – I am completely unable to ship any international packages, and I don’t know why, or who to ask for help. The shipments never get out of the USA.

To put it mildly, this is bad.

The specific package shown in the photo contained a ROM SIMM and an empty plastic case for one of my electronics products. But most of the rejected packages contained a BMOW Floppy Emu – a disk drive emulator for retro Apple computers.

None of the returned packages had been opened, so there was never any time that an export compliance person looked at the contents inside the package, looked at the item description on the label, and decided whether they matched. The decision to return the package was 100 percent based on the information printed on the label, perhaps combined with information submitted electronically when the postage was purchased. But nobody at the post office seems able explain anything more than that.

There are some clues. Here’s a list of every international shipment I made between April 19 and May 6.

Date Destination Tracking Contents Status
4/19/21 Canada LW227139012US Emu Bundle, ROM-inator delivered
4/19/21 Bulgaria UC009977527US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
4/19/21 Canada LW227139026US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/19/21 Germany LW227139349US Emu Bundle delivered
4/19/21 Netherlands LW227139352US Emu Bundle delivered
4/19/21 Italy UC009977717US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
4/19/21 Switzerland UC009977725US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/19/21 Germany LW227139882US Emu Bundle delivered
4/19/21 Austria UC009977734US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
4/19/21 Canada LW227140038US Emu Bundle delivered
4/21/21 Japan LW227159119US Emu Bundle delivered
4/21/21 Italy UC009981138US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/21/21 Italy UC009981141US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/21/21 Belgium LW227159502US Emu Bundle, ROM-inator delivered
4/21/21 Netherlands W227159516US Emu Bundle delivered
4/21/21 UK LW227159935US Emu Bundle delivered
4/21/21 Switzerland UC009981257US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/21/21 Finland UC009981265US Emu Bundle in transit, outside USA
4/23/21 Japan LW227178166US Emu Bundle, ROM-inator delivered
4/23/21 Canada LW227178705US Emu Bundle, ROM-inator, ADB cable delivered
4/23/21 Australia LW227178719US ROM-inator delivered
4/23/21 Canada LW227178722US Emu Bundle, SD card delivered
4/26/21 Canada LW227199020US Emu Bundle, Noisy Disk in transit, outside USA
4/26/21 Australia LW227199033US Emu Bundle delivered
4/26/21 Canada LW227199603US Emu Case, ROM-inator returned to sender
4/26/21 Italy UC009987745US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
4/28/21 Canada LW227224665US Emu Bundle returned to sender
4/30/21 UK LW227242788US Emu Case, Wombat Case returned to sender
4/30/21 Sweden UC009995619US Noisy Disk, Daisy Chainer in transit, outside USA
4/30/21 Italy UC009995640US Noisy Disk in transit, in USA
5/3/21 UK LW227275605US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/3/21 Canada LW227275619US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/3/21 Australia LW227275622US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/3/21 Czech Rep. UC010000416US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
5/3/21 Mexico UC010000420US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/3/21 Belgium LW227276035US Emu Model C, ROM-inator returned to sender
5/3/21 Germany LW227276044US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/3/21 Germany LW227276486US Emu Bundle, SD card, ROM-inator returned to sender
5/5/21 Canada LW227298552US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/5/21 UK LW227298566US Daisy Chainer in transit, outside USA
5/5/21 Netherlands LW227298570US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/5/21 UK LW227299116US ROM-inator in transit, outside USA
5/5/21 Australia LW227299120US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/5/21 France LW227299133US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/5/21 Switzerland UC010004885US Emu Bundle returned to sender
5/6/21 Ireland UC010007326US Emu Bundle in transit, in USA
5/6/21 Canada LW227312529US Emu Bundle, ROM-inator returned to sender

Almost all of the packages shipped prior to April 26 have been delivered, or have at least made it outside the US. The three from before the 26th that show “in transit, in USA” are misleading because they all have tracking numbers starting with the letters UC, which indicates a destination country where tracking normally isn’t available beyond the US border.

But almost every package shipped After April 26 is either still stuck in the US, or has been returned.

Something changed within a few days around or after April 26. The date of change was probably May 1 – roughly when packages shipped April 26 would arrive for customs processing. A new customs inspector employee? New inspection procedures or policies? New export control laws? Or maybe something changed with Shippo, the service that I use to print the address and customs labels?

Notice that the return label says more information is available at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/ if you click on “Export Issues” under Consumer Help. But that section and that heading do not exist. I couldn’t find anything on that site to help explain what’s going on. Edit: see this 2018 archive.org backup of the uspis web site.

With no information and apparently no recourse, I’m starting to panic a little. For the time being I’ll have to disable all ordering for customers outside the USA, which is a large fraction of the total for BMOW. And I’ll have to contact all the customers whose shipments have already been impacted, or who’ve ordered and paid but whose packages haven’t yet shipped, and try to determine what’s the next step.

If you know anyone who works in any type of export manager capacity, who might be able to advise or consult with me on this, that would be fantastic. Or if you know anybody affiliated with the postal inspection service who might have insight into what’s going on, that would be great too. I’ll take all the help I can get to resolve this crisis.

202 Comments

  4. I’ve reached out to Shippo and also to another small electronics shipper, to see if other people are experiencing a similar problem. It would help to know if this is a widespread issue or if it’s just me. If it’s just me, maybe there’s a problem with the product descriptions or HS tariff numbers I’m using (although these haven’t changed in years). If it’s a more widespread problem, then maybe there are some new export requirements. It’s crazy that export control rejects the package without explaining why it was rejected or providing a way to learn more.

  5. You may have to add a commercial invoice that also states the export control number (ECCN) for each individual item.

    The plastic case will be EAR99 NLR, but determining the correct one for electronic items can be more involved. Old and/or slow electronics may still be EAR99, but faster and more sophisticated tech will have a specific classification. If Mouser or Digi-Key sell products with similar specs and function, you can see what they use in the compliance section of the product page.

  7. Regarding the ECCN information: it’s my understanding that by writing NOEEI 30.37(a) on the label in the box for AES/ITN/Exemption, I’m stating that the items don’t require an export license or permit and are valued under $2500, so no commercial invoice or ECCN numbers should be required. In other words, I think what I have included on the form should be OK as-is.

  8. I wonder if it’s the “full legal name” which is the problem? Maybe they have connected different databases and want to find a record of someone with the exact name given.

    • Ahh, full legal name is an interesting theory that might be supported by recent events. I will change it to say Stephen instead of Steve. That wouldn’t seem to fit with something being “missing”, but I like the database suggestion. I haven’t talked about this yet, but I hired an employee a few weeks ago, which involved an insane amount of paperwork and definitely associated my full name, company name, and address in some government databases.

  9. Yet another possibility: there’s a new customs system in Europe called ICS2 that went live recently, and one of its requirements is for more descriptive item descriptions. Some of my rejected packages were for non-EU countries, but maybe US export control is applying the same standards everywhere? There’s a list of examples of unacceptable and acceptable item descriptions here: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/customs/customs_code/guidance_acceptable_goods_description_en.pdf

    The problem with examples like this is they’re geared towards everyday commodity goods everyone is familiar with. So you can write “iPad” or “polyurethane medical gloves” in the item description, but no customs inspector will know what the heck “Floppy Emu” means. I normally write “floppy disk emulator”. If that’s not descriptive enough, I’m not sure what more to add – there’s only space for a few words max.

  10. And another clue: There’s a new step that appears in the tracking info of almost all the packages sent after April 26, but none of the packages before then. It appears early in the tracking history, and shows “Customs Clearance ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)”. Based on the timing, this must be an entirely electronic process, because it happens before San Francisco could plausibly have physically received the package. This is pretty strong evidence that the problem is due to this ICS2 process change, rather than anything that I accidentally changed on my end, or Shippo on theirs.

  11. I just checked tracking on about a dozen packages I’ve shipped internationally through SFO in the last few weeks and didn’t see the ISC entry on any of them. Though ISC rings a bell and I may have seen it occasionally in the past. You may have landed on a watch list for not knowing the secret handshake.

  12. I don’t have my floppyEMU at hand, but I think all of the parts on it are well into EAR99, with many actually being formally “obsolete” by the manufacturer. I had a shipment of 6809P CPUs rejected by customs because I described them as “electronic components” which, of course, is a useless description to a customs official.

    In addition to all previous suggestions (a simple commercial invoice, full legal name, etc.) I would perhaps suggest the description “Obsolete data storage device”. The term “obsolete” seems to be the magic word in exporting retro stuff.

    Good luck!

  13. Hmm, it looks like ISC just means “international sorting center” and ISC San Francisco has existed for a long time, though it never appeared in my tracking info before. ICS2 means international customs service version 2. I transposed the letters and thought they were the same… not sure it’s related after all.

  14. Saw it on HN, share my experience in case it’s useful: I had a DHL package to Hongkong rejected by US custom around Apr 20. It was a return of a product, so I contacted the seller, they said some requirement from customs changed, and ask me to print a new proforma with additional line of “Employer identification number: xxxxxxxxx”. It then went thru the customs around Apr 27.

  16. Reach out to flexport, that’s what customs brokers help with. Trying to figure this out yourself is not a good use of your time. Focus on making awesome products and connecting with customers who want them. Everything else you should turn over to experts, most of all customs regs.

  17. I also sell online (automotive parts) and ship internationally somewhat often (also using Shippo). I noticed that one of my recent shipments (to Canada, shipped out late April) is currently being returned to me, in a very similar fashion of what you describe. However, I had another shipment to Canada shipped a few days later go through with no issue (both packages having the exact same content/label). I’ve sent out several dozens of packages internationally this year (USPS thru Shippo) and have not had this happen until now. So I don’t think this is an isolated incident!

  18. We are experiencing the exact same issue. Every Canada shipment since April 28th has been returned saying missing. Our postmaster said to include the commercial invoice and make a very detailed description. Sending our first one with all the additional info today. Will keep you posted.

  19. Same issue here as well, we sent numerous First class and priority International packages to Canada and most we returned with the same sticker, marking ‘Missing’. Please keep posted if you were able to figure out the reasoning, we are currently waiting for a response from USPS as well.

  20. I read something about descriptions of product need to be detailed. We ship mostly clothing and always just put clothing or garment. We are sending out today’s shipment with way more description. I will keep you guys updated as to whether we get these returned.

  21. This is also happening to us. We have over 30 international packages being rejected at the San Francisco facility. -__- I don’t think this is an isolated incident after reading this thread.

  22. My crystal ball says 75 percent chance this is all due to item descriptions not being detailed enough, 20 percent chance it’s due to absence of a commercial invoice, 5 percent due to Moon being in conjunction with Saturn.

  23. Just happened to me too, trying to send documents to Ireland in a priority mail envelope. Got as far as San Francisco International Distribution Center then straight back to me.

    Not sure what to do other than guess at better descriptions? This isn’t a commercial shipment and I printed the label from USPS’s own site.

  24. We’re experiencing the exact same issue. We’ve unfortunately sent 100’s of international orders since the 26th of April. If anyone figures this out please let us know.

  26. Is anyone having the issue with ISC other than the San Francisco one? From the above I only see SF (p.s. me too), wonder if it’s happening in other ISCs too or only SF.

  27. I wonder, what kind of service this is. It takes 5 days just to ship within greater San Francisco area and now it comes back to you. I wonder, how long it takes to ship to Europe and tracking information is really poor, does not say anything “travelling within the network”….
    Andy

  28. All our shipments are sent back from the San Francisco shipping center. Also, is everyone else using shippo?

  29. Just an update, I contacted Shippo and they mentioned several customers have been experiencing the same issues and they are working towards a solution. I believe the issue is Shippo.

    Another resource I have is a phone number for USPS office of consumer affairs. They almost never answer, but will sometimes call you back. 971-201-3700

    We’re working tirelessly to solve this issue and I will write back with any solutions we do find.

  34. Switch to a different shipper, UPS/FedEx/DHL see if your shipments work with them.

    Alternatively, it could be the USPS hub location your packages are transiting thru. Find a postal service centre on the opposite coast or another end of the same. Have them catch and reship. This will tell you if it is a local issue or a larger system-wide problem.

  35. I just had another order returned to me just now. I use USPS.com to process my First Class/ Priority International orders and have been using it for the past few years with no issues. It is just recently that orders are being rejected from the San Francisco ISC. Still no update from USPS regarding the issue

  36. I went to the post office this morning. They were obviously no help, however they did say other customers have been experiencing the same issue. He gave me the same consumers affair number I listed earlier. I’ve called several times to without any response. I’d suggest others do the same.

    Starting to think this is bigger than just shippo.

  37. It’s still a guess, but I think the problem is probably with the item descriptions being insufficiently descriptive, according to somebody’s subjective judgement. Look at my updated shipment table in the main post. While the correspondence isn’t perfect, all of the packages that *did not* contain an Emu or Emu Case appear to have passed through export control successfully. This tells me that somebody has judged the Emu’s “floppy disk emulator” description to be unacceptable. I’m reshipping four packages today, with the new description “computer external disk drive”, using three different postage purchase services. Now to wait and see what happens.

  38. Hi! We just got our first “Returned Due to Export Compliance” sticker with only the “Missing” box checked.

    Thank you so much for starting this thread! The sticker left us with WTF? what do we do now? There doesn’t seem to be anything actionable…

    Similar to you, I am guessing that someone in Customs is simply trying to match the HS code with the description. So, I’m going to try print the exact same label, but add additional description and see if that makes it through.

  39. I just got two packages back and went to the post office. They couldn’t give me an exact answer, but said my description was not detailed enough. I’ve never had this happen before either. They said to add additional detail to the description (on the original label) and to send it again. We’ll see if it gets kicked back. I figured the postage was invalidated at this point, but I’ll follow their directions.

  40. Same problem experienced here. Shipped from local post office in WA directly to the UK. All of what everyone else is experiencing seems to have happened to me also.

    No shipping service or third party involved.

  42. Someone from USPS Consumer affairs returned my call today. She confirmed she has heard of a lot of people with this same exact issue. She talked with me for a minute about how strange it was, and basically said in a nice way there’s nothing she can really do.

    She gave me two pieces of advice. The first is to go to https://internationalclaims.usps.com/INQUIRY/inquiry/index.do and file a claim. For some reason I was unable to get a claim filed using this. It would error out for one reason or another. The other piece of advice is to call 1-800-222-1811, I have a feeling this is just the generic USPS call center. Most likely just another rabbit hole to go down.

    I have since updated about (30) returned orders with extremely detailed descriptions and sent them back out using the same label. Didn’t make since for me to gamble printing new labels for all of these if they were just going to be returned again. Fingers crossed they don’t come back.

    Makes me feel a little better that this seems to be a widespread problem. Just a matter of time before someone in the right position catches wind of this issue and is able to set it right.

  43. Same issue brewing here. Two packages have already come back and there are more out there which I fear will come back too. They hit “Customs Clearance ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)” in the morning and by afternoon are listed as Return to Sender. Just “Missing” is checked on the box without further info. Sent with Click N Ship, Priority International, signed, reasonably detailed description (Automotive Tools, Trim Removal Tools for example), all lower value items, no invoices as it’s never been required before. Definitely not sending out the higher value $100+ to ship package today via USPS that’s for sure. Hopefully someone here gets an answer soon. Thanks for your post!

  44. Same here. Started in late April. We added invoices to the first returned batch to see if that would help. Our descriptions are not terrible as we are sending records and I put “Vinyl Record” on the description. I’m hoping the invoices do the trick.

  45. There have been 16 replies to the survey so far. Everyone affected shipped by US Postal Service First Class Package International or Priority Mail International. 50 percent bought the postage at USPS.com Click n Ship, 25 percent at Shippo, and 25 percent somewhere else. So it doesn’t look like a Shippo-specific problem. The earliest problem dates are for packages shipped April 26-28. On a scale of 1 (vague) to 5 (super descriptive) most people judged their item descriptions to be a 3 or 4. Two people included a commercial invoice with their shipment and 14 did not. One person included some ECCN or EAR99 info with their shipment, and 15 did not.

    I also called the USPS consumer affairs number yesterday and left a message, but I’ve heard nothing back.

    Yesterday I reshipped four packages, with new postage and more detailed descriptions. I didn’t include a commercial invoice, as I never have in the past. Now I’m watching their tracking progress like an expectant mother. Two have reached “Processed Through Regional Facility”, which I think is hopeful?

  47. Just back from the Post Office; they were confused but helpful.

    They thought it was probably because I didn’t include the other two pages that Click’n’Ship had generated (I’m only shipping documents in a priority mail envelope). I’d printed them out again and took them with me so they put them in a pouch attached to the envelope, printed a new postage label so I wouldn’t have to pay again and put it back in the system. We’ll see what happens.

  48. This was an email directly from Shippo, figured I would share. We’re going to resume our international shipping today.

    “I’m reaching out to provide an update regarding the USPS International shipments that have been returned.

    At the moment, this is still an ongoing investigation as to how we can resolve this issue. Our internal team is currently working as quickly as possible with USPS and engineering to dispute the charges on any failed labels.

    It appears that these packages were impacted by an issue within the USPS system, where some critical information was left off of the shipping label and packages were unable to get through customs. Unfortunately, this bug affected the majority of international shipments through the month of May.

    As I understand it, the issue has now been resolved on USPS’ end — this should not be an issue with any international shipments going forward — and we are currently working with their team to understand if these labels can be refunded due to their error.

    I will reach back out to you once I receive any further updates on this issue. Once again, I apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience as our team works quickly to provide a resolution. “

  49. Same issue exactly as stated repeatedly here. Shippo used, Priority Mail International service, LED components labelled as such with proper tariff codes, using the consolidated USPS shipping label PS 2976-A with the CP-72 customs dec.

    Mailed on 4/26, stopped and returned by San Francisco customs clearing on 5/11. $80 of postage gone. I mail to 40 countries using these same forms, shippers and products, never had this issue. Have over $500 of intl postage in the system at the moment using these forms, and several are severely delayed. Fearing that they will be landing back at the store soon.

  50. Thanks Chase! But does that explanation make sense to you? I don’t really understand it. Based on replies to the survey here, this problem affects postage printed by multiple services including USPS’s own Click n Ship, so it doesn’t really sound like a “label was printed wrong” problem. I’ve scrutinized the label and compared it to an older label, and I don’t see anything that’s left off the labels that were rejected.

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