If you import by ocean into the United States, CBP expects a security filing, the ISF, at least 24 hours before your cargo is loaded at the foreign port. Not when it arrives. Before it sails.
Miss it, file it late or file it wrong, and CBP can assess $5,000 per violation. It is liquidated damages, not a tax, so there is no duty refund that offsets it.
The 10 and the 2
The importer is responsible for ten data elements: seller, buyer, importer of record, consignee number, manufacturer, ship-to party, country of origin, HTS classification, container stuffing location and consolidator. The carrier files two more: the vessel stow plan and container status messages. Hence 10+2.
None of this data is exotic. The problem is timing: it lives in purchase orders, factory confirmations and booking notices that rarely sit in one system. The filing fails when nobody owns collecting it early.
How importers get burned
The classic scenario: a supplier books the vessel directly, the importer learns the sail date after the fact, and the ISF goes in late. Second classic: the manufacturer listed on the ISF does not match the entry documents, and the mismatch flags the shipment for exam.
The fix
Make the ISF part of the purchase order cycle, not the shipping cycle. The moment a booking exists, your broker should have the ten elements. At IBS we file ISF 10+2 and ISF 5+2 as a standing process tied to your suppliers, so the filing is done days before the deadline, every time.