IMM Revision: Customer Deposit of International Mailpieces Bearing a Customs
Declaration — Clarification

Effective August 2, 2010, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM^®) sections 225.11, 235.11, and 245.1 to clarify that mailers who enter volume mailings paid with a permit imprint and bearing a customs declara­tion must enter such items through a business mail entry unit (BMEU) or, when authorized by the district BMEU man­ager, through a detached mail unit (DMU) at a mailer’s plant.

In the article “IMM Revision: Customer Deposit of Inter­national Mailpieces” in Postal Bulletin 22273 (12-3-09, pages 17–20), we codified that a mailer must present Express Mail International^®, Priority Mail International^®, and First-Class Mail International^® items bearing customs labels to an employee at a Post Office™ retail service counter. However, that revision focused on mailers of indi­vidual pieces — it neglected to mention volume mailers. Consequently, we are revising the applicable IMM sections to indicate that a mailer who presents a volume mailing paid with a permit imprint must enter the mailing at a BMEU.

Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)

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2 Conditions for Mailing

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220 Express Mail International

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225 Mail Entry and Deposit

225.1 Place of Mailing

225.11 Items Requiring a Completed Customs Declaration

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[In the second paragraph, before the last sentence, add the following sentence:]

***Customers who enter volume mailings paid with a permit imprint under 223.22 must enter such items through a busi­ness mail entry unit (BMEU) or, when authorized by the dis­trict BMEU manager, through a detached mail unit (DMU) at a mailer’s plant.***

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230 Priority Mail International

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235 Mail Entry and Deposit

235.1 Place of Mailing

235.11 Items Requiring a Completed Customs Declaration

[Before the last sentence, add the following sentence:]

***Customers who enter volume mailings paid with a permit imprint under 233.22 must enter such items through a busi­ness mail entry unit (BMEU) or, when authorized by the dis­trict BMEU manager, through an authorized detached mail unit (DMU) at a mailer’s plant.***

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240 First-Class Mail International

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245 Mail Entry and Deposit — Place of Mailing

245.1 Items Requiring a Completed Customs Declaration

[Before the last sentence, add the following sentence:]

***Customers who enter volume mailings paid with a permit imprint under 243.3 must enter such items through a busi­ness mail entry unit (BMEU) or, when authorized by the dis­trict BMEU manager, through an authorized detached mail unit (DMU) at a mailer’s plant.***

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We will incorporate these revisions into the next printed ver­sion of the IMM and into the monthly update of the online IMM, which is available via Postal Explorer^® at http://pe.usps.com.

— Mailing Standards, Pricing, 6-17-10