The North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act permits Customs to release entries and liquidate summaries without a Customs officer reviewing the invoice. This "Invoice By Request" feature is available for EIP and the RLF prototype.

QUALIFICATIONS

To qualify for Invoice By Request you must:

1. be a current participant in EIP or RLF
2. be able to transmit a ruling number in the ABI entry summary transaction
3. not have a ruling number assigned to imported merchandise.

HOW TO APPLY INVOICE BY REQUEST

Filers choosing Invoice By Request may do so whenever the above requirements are met. By simply transmitting "Invreq" on each line in the entry summary, the filer is declaring, "I will provide an electronic invoice if requested by Customs."

"Invreq" will be transmitted in positions 3-8 on the 43 record of the ABI entry summary transaction. The "Invreq" ruling will be defined as a binding ruling and will require the "r" in position 9 on the 43 record in the ABI entry summary transaction.

Note: Participants who have existing ruling numbers assigned to them for their merchandise must use them instead of "Invreq."

CARGO SELECTIVITY MESSAGES

If an entry meets the requirements for Invoice By Request, ABI will process the entry summary transaction without the associated electronic invoice(s) on file. If a release is designated paperless by cargo processing, the filer will receive the release message from ABI.

A filer will receive the ABI message "electronic invoice required" if either:

1. An entry is selected for document review or examination, or
2. A paperless release is overridden to an intensive exam.

This message constitutes Customs request that the filer electronically transmit the invoice to Customs.

ENTRY SUMMARY SELECTIVITY MESSAGES

The current messages received by the filer for the entry summary transmission will remain unchanged. The two messages are:

1. "paperless - retain records"
2. "accepted - submit records"

"Paperless - retain records" informs the filer of the legal responsibility to retain the invoice until it is requested by Customs.

"Submit records" constitutes Customs request that the filer electronically transmit the invoice to Customs.

OTHER INVOICE REQUEST MESSAGES

Customs may request invoices apart from the ABI release or summary messages. These requests will normally come during processing by import/entry specialists. These requests will be sent to the filer via the "US" ABI transaction (which all participating EIP/RLF filers must have). If an electronic invoice has been transmitted by ABI and accepted by Customs, a second request will not be made by the ACS system.

SYSTEM CHANGE NOTIFICATION

ABI processing already allows an EIP or RLF entry to be processed without an electronic invoice on file if a ruling is associated with that entry. So the normal 90-day notice associated with system changes will not be given.

ABI QUESTIONS?

Please contact your client rep if you have any questions about ABI.

Application

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