Pourquoi les envois express ne sont plus débloqués instantanément (et que faire)
There was a time not too long ago when “express” meant what it said. A package departed a warehouse in Shenzhen or Ho Chi Minh City, took to the air, and landed on a front porch in Ohio or Toronto three to five days later with no one giving customs a second thought. That version of express shipping is still in marketing brochures. It’s out of business, at least for the millions of low-value parcels that once flowed across U.S. borders under an exemption most consumers had never heard of.
If you’re shipping cross border in 2026 – whether you’re running a Shopify store, managing a wholesale account, or just importing a batch of samples – you’ve undoubtedly seen the trend. Tracking pages say “customs clearance in progress” for days, not hours. Carriers are asking for HS codes and importer numbers they never asked for before. Invoices that used to pass thru automatically are now queued waiting for a formal entry. This is not a glitch. It’s the direct fallout of legislative tweaks that discreetly rewired how low-value trade enters the United States, and grasping those changes has now become a basic necessity for anyone shipping abroad.
The Old Promise: Fast, Cheap, and Mostly Unchecked
For over a decade, goods priced at $800 or less could enter the country duty-free and with minimal paperwork under the U.S. de minimis exemption in 19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C). Congress upped the threshold in 2015 to $800 and cross-border e-commerce accomplished the rest. The number of parcels coming in under this exemption increased from just under 139 million a year in 2015 to over 1.36 billion in 2024 — a rise of well over 600 percent. On a typical day in 2023, approximately 4 million de minimis packages entered the United States. The vast majority of these packages were automatically cleared by a streamlined form called Entry Type 86.
The fact is that it was that volume that made the exemption unsustainable. Customs and Border Protection had little significant information on what was actually inside these parcels, who the ultimate consignee was, or whether claimed values were true. Regulators, lawmakers and domestic manufacturers increasingly said the loophole was being exploited not simply by genuine small sellers but to underprice items, mislabel place of origin and in some cases transfer counterfeit products or banned substances with little scrutiny. Express shipping was in fact operating on borrowed trust and by 2025 the U.S. government judged the trust had run out.
What Actually Changed: The End of De Minimis
The unwinding was done in stages and it’s worth walking throughout the timetable as each step impacts a new kind of shipping. On May 2, 2025, Executive Order 14256 revoked de minimis treatment for goods from China and Hong Kong. On July 30, 2025, Executive Order 14324, “Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries,” made the suspension apply to all countries, effective August 29, 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, went much farther, permanently removing the statutory foundation for the exemption completely, with the repeal taking effect on July 1, 2027.
Thru much of 2025 and early 2026, international postal shipments continued to operate under a temporary, simpler structure, offering mail carriers a grace period with flat-rate duty alternatives as everyone transitioned. That grace time had effectively run out by mid-2026. On June 24, 2026, CBP announced a rule which indefinitely suspends the de minimis exemption for all non-postal modes of entry and establishes a new electronic informal entry mechanism, Entry Type 13, just for international mail. All covered postal shipments were to be subject to the ad valorem duty methodology by February 28, 2026, so shutting the specific-duty workaround that certain shippers relied on.
The practical upshot, however, is simple even if the regulatory background is not: there is no longer a duty-free, paperwork-light channel for low-value goods into the United States. Entry Type 86, the mechanism that allowed so many shipments to sail thru formal review without scrutiny, is gone. All commercial shipments, regardless of value, are now required to have either an informal or a formal customs entry made using the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE.
Old Rules vs. New Rules, Side by Side
The following table summarises the practical differences that a shipper really faces at the border. It is not all-encompassing, but it does capture the changes that matter most for day-to-day functioning.
| Aspect | Avant le 2025 août | Réalité actuelle (2026) |
| Seuil d'exemption de droits de douane | Shipments under $800 entered duty-free | No duty-free threshold for commercial goods; duties apply from the first dollar |
| Entry type used | Entry Type 86 (simplified, minimal data) | Informal or formal entry via ACE, with full data requirements |
| Paperwork required | Basic manifest data, often automated | Commercial invoice, HTSUS classification, country of origin, importer of record data |
| Courrier international | Largely exempt, minimal duty collection | Ad valorem duty methodology mandatory since Feb 28, 2026; new Entry Type 13 process |
| Penalties for errors | Rarely enforced at this value tier | Up to $5,000 for a first violation, $10,000 per repeat violation |
| Les perspectives à long terme | Threshold last raised in 2015 | Statutory repeal of de minimis scheduled for July 1, 2027 |
Beyond De Minimis: The Formal Entry Process Is Now the Default
That’s only part of the story—losing the exemption.” The more significant operational difference is that many more shipments are now being processed by systems that were built for commercial-scale importers, not a customer who buys a $45 phone cover. Under current CBP practice, importations of more than $2,500 typically require a formal entry, including a customs bond, a detailed entry summary, an accurate classification under the Harmonised Tariff Schedule, and supporting documents, such as a packing list and a certificate of origin, generally completed within 10 to 15 days from the date of arrival or release. Shipments below that threshold frequently qualify for informal entry, a speedier process that nonetheless demands accurate data that is never requested in a simplified de minimis file.
That is why so many express parcels that used to clear in a matter of hours now linger for a day or two, often longer. Once the paperwork is approved by ACE, a commercial cargo coming in by air often clears within 24 to 48 hours and express courier shipments can still be cleared in less than 12 hours when all is submitted properly and in advance. But “correctly and in advance” does a lot of heavy lifting there. Manifest data generally needs to be filed up to 24 hours prior to arrival, and any mismatch between the invoice, the HS code and declared value can pull a shipment out of the automated lane and into manual review, where it can languish for two to five more business days, or much longer if it is flagged for a physical exam.
Typical Clearance Windows by Shipment Type
| Type d'expédition | Délai de dédouanement typique | Common Trigger for Delay |
| Compliant express air parcel | Under 12 hours to 48 hours | Rare, but incomplete manifest data still causes holds |
| Informal entry (under $2,500) | 1 à 2 jours ouvrables | Valuation mismatch or missing invoice detail |
| Formal entry (over $2,500) | 3 à 5 jours ouvrables | Missing bond, incorrect HTSUS code, PGA requirements |
| Shipment selected for exam | 3 à 10 jours ouvrables | Random or risk-based selection, new supplier, new lane |
| Examen intensif | Jusqu'à 30 jours | Suspected misclassification, undervaluation, or restricted goods |
Where the Delays Actually Come From
It’s easy to blame sluggish shipments on “customs being backed up,” but the more realistic picture—based on how CBP really processes cargo—is that most delays are caused by recognised, preventable faults, not random bad luck. A shipment can sail thru the same lane dozens of times without incident and then suddenly be stopped, and the explanation is nearly always found in the documentation or the product category, not pure chance.
The main factor is the quality of the documentation. A commercial invoice that is not detailed enough, that has different product descriptions for each shipment, that does not contain Incoterms, or that has valuation figures that do not correspond to the product description will almost immediately raise a compliance flag, because CBP requires accurate information to calculate duty, determine if there are VAT-style liabilities where applicable, and determine if a Partner Government Agency needs to sign off. Right behind are classification errors. One of the most prevalent reasons that formal entries are bounced back for rectification is a single digit error in the Harmonised Tariff Schedule code that changes the duty rate completely.
Some types of things are simply slower by default. Electronics, food products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and anything that can be classified as dual-use or subject to export controls, requires additional certification or agency approval before it can move. If that paperwork isn’t ready at the time of clearance, the shipment waits until it is. Given the current export-control climate, shipments of high-value IT hardware, particularly advanced servers and components with potential dual-use applications, should assume extra assessment as a baseline expectation rather than an exception and have received particular scrutiny.
Physical inspections might introduce an additional element of uncertainty. Some tests are truly random, but many are risk orientated, meaning shipments from a new supplier, an unknown trade path, or a commodity category with a history of compliance problems are statistically more likely to be pulled aside. And there’s the simple fact of timing. When clearance paperwork is filed only after the cargo has already arrived, rather than inside the 24-hour pre-arrival window that ACE is established around, the shipment effectively falls to the back of a queue it didn’t need to join.
It is also interesting to see that the movement has not been even among shipping methods. Ocean freight was never eligible for the same automated de minimis treatment that express air and postal parcels enjoyed, and has actually seen relatively modest disruption in comparison. Industry data from early 2026 indicates only minor backlogs at a handful of high-traffic ports, largely related to documentation errors rather than the policy shift itself. In contrast, express air and international mail felt the brunt of the transition, as these were precisely the channels that the prior exemption was constructed upon. Asymmetry is part of why so many sellers are now thinking about their shipping mix, rather than just paying extra fees on every delivery.
What This Means for E-commerce Sellers and Importers
For a small or midsized merchant, the transformation is no abstraction. This is something that used to arrive in a customer’s hands for a landing cost of, say, $18 and now incurs an additional $3 to $6 in customs and fees, plus a day or two of extra transit time while the entry is processed. That’s multiplied across thousands of monthly shipments and it’s a serious margin question, not a rounding error. Sellers that priced their U.S. offers based on duty-free entrance have had to rethink those numbers. Many have quietly jacked up rates, eaten the difference or moved part of their inventory into U.S.-based fulfilment to decrease how often individual shipments cross the border at all.
There’s also a compliance side that takes novice sellers by surprise. Filing thru ACE, declaring the right country of origin, using a properly licensed and bonded carrier, and having consistent product descriptions are no longer optional best practices, they are the minimum to avoid penalties that can run to $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for each violation thereafter. A seller accustomed to the old de minimis paperwork, which required absolutely nothing, suddenly need the same amount of documentation discipline that official business importers have always been required to have.
Que faire à ce sujet
This is not to say that cross-border shipping has ceased to function. This implies less room for mistakes, and sellers that can adjust their method, not just their pricing, tend to do better. The first real step is just to acknowledge that pre-clearance preparation is now as much (or more) of an issue than how you ship it. Most of the preventable delays, even before they happen, will be solved by filing manifest and entry data well ahead of arrival, by maintaining consistent and validated HS codes rather than guessing, and by making sure commercial invoices are an accurate reflection of what is contained in a cargo and its worth.
Next, choose logistics partners currently working in this new formal-entry reality, not those structured on the old de minimis shortcut. This is where a company like Topway Shipping may make a measurable impact for vendors transporting goods between China and the United States. Established in 2010, Topway Shipping is a Shenzhen-based company founded by a team with over 15 years of international logistics and customs clearance experience, particularly in the China-U.S. lane most impacted by these changes in regulation. Because the company’s services cover the whole chain, first leg transportation from China, foreign entreposage, customs clearance and last mile delivery, a package doesn’t need to be transferred between disconnected vendors at the exact locations where documentation problems are likely to occur.
And that end-to-end structure is more important now than then, because a single data point absent in the first-leg stage can emerge as a multi-day hold at official entrance weeks later. Topway Shipping also provides flexible full-container-load and less-than-container-load ocean freight from China to key ports around the world, thus providing sellers a practical way to rebalance their shipping mix, rebalancing bulkier or less time-sensitive inventory by sea into U.S. warehousing ahead of demand, and leaving express air lanes free for the smaller and faster-moving orders that really need speed. For many sellers, the most dependable strategy to maintain delivery times predictable under the new restrictions is that mix of foreign warehousing and a properly documented customs pipeline, instead of trying to out-run the clearance procedure shipment by shipment.
Apart from partner selection, a few operational behaviours go a long way. Instead of utilising any code a vendor might have put on an old invoice, keeping an updated, vetted list of HS codes for a product catalogue helps save a significant amount of classification-triggered delays. Getting registered as an importer of record with the right bond in place before the volume climbs up, rather than scrambling after you already have a shipment blocked, saves days when it counts. And monitoring CBP’s Cargo Systems Messaging Service for policy updates is not only for big importers anymore, as the rules can now change on pretty short notice for even a single low-value cargo thru an executive order or CBP rulemaking.
Regard vers l'avenir
It is not likely to swing the other way. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act already locks in a permanent statutory repeal of the de minimis exemption beginning July 1, 2027, meaning that if enforcement priorities shift under a future administration, the underlying legal basis for a duty-free, paperwork-light lane will simply no longer be there. In its June 2026 regulation, CBP has also signalled that it intends to maintain the suspension in place until it is confident that reinstating any exemption will not jeopardise revenue collection or facilitate additional abuse, language that reflects a pretty high and lasting standard. Shippers who believe the current situation is a transient phenomenon will probably be disappointed. It’s the shippers that are treating it as the new baseline, building their sourcing, warehouse and carrier partnerships around it that are positioning themselves to continue to make delivery promises that consumers can genuinely count on.
It also helps to recall that CBP itself has been investing in speedier automated processing along with the tougher standards. Improvements to ACE, enhanced pre-arrival data validation and first experimentation with AI-assisted risk score are all being used to condense clearance timelines for correctly submitted shipments, while vigilance is being increased for incorrectly filed shipments. Thus, the system is not just slowing down all over the place, it is becoming more binary. Sometimes, even with clean, well-documented shipments, things can move swiftly, often the same day. This is why the method of shipping matters less than preparation in the first place . The increased delay is almost entirely due to shipments with gaps in their paperwork .
Conclusion
Express shipments are still speedy in absolute terms: a package that clears smoothly can still cross the Pacific and reach a U.S. doorstep within days. The near-instant, no-questions-asked clearance that low-value e-commerce shipments had for most of the last decade is gone. The loss of the de minimis exemption, the move to formal and informal ACE entries for shipments of virtually any value and stricter documentation and classification rules have all combined to make customs clearance a real variable in delivery planning instead of an afterthought. The good news is that the reasons for delay are well established and mostly avoidable: accurate invoicing, correct HS codes, adequate bonding and advance filing fix most of them. With that discipline and a seasoned, end-to-end logistics partner like Topway Shipping, which has spent more than a decade operating the China-U.S. First-leg transportation, foreign warehousing, customs clearance and last-mile delivery via supply chain, combined with flexible FCL and LCL ocean freight options, provide sellers with a practical solution to keep goods flowing reliably in this tougher but ultimately more transparent trading climate.
FAQ
Q: Why did express shipments start taking longer to clear customs?
A: The U.S. stopped, then extended permanently, the de minimis exemption in 2025 and 2026. This means most low-value goods that used to clear automatically now require a formal or informal customs entry with full documentation, which obviously takes more time to process.
Q: Is the de minimis exemption gone for good?
A: Yes, for all purposes. It has been halted indefinitely for non-postal shipments as of June 2026, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently repeals the underlying statute as of July 1, 2027.
Q: Do all shipments now need a customs bond?
A: Bonds are normally required for formal entries (shipments with a value above $2,500). However, many lower-value items can still be shipped using a simpler informal input, but that still needs correct invoice and classification data that wasn’t needed before.
Q: How can sellers reduce the risk of their shipments being delayed?
A: The best ways to avoid preventable holds are to file entry data ahead of arrival, use verified and consistent HS codes, ensure commercial invoices are precise and thorough, and engage with an experienced customs and logistics partner like Topway Shipping.
Q: Does this affect international mail shipments too?
A: Yeah. The ad valorem duty technique is now required for all covered foreign mail shipments since February 28, 2026 and a new electronic informal entry process is now applicable to postal shipments (Entry Type 13).
