United States Postal Service® employees must use PS Form 2976-R, USPS Declaration and Dispatch Note, when gathering package information from all customers mailing international packages (including military mail), that require customs forms at retail windows. This method will ensure that every package carries with it Advance Electronic Data as required by various trade compliance rules and regulations.
Effective March 13, 2020, the U.S. Postal Service® will exclusively use PS Form 2976-R to transfer information from customers to retail sales and service associates for data entry. Packages bearing handwritten Customs Declaration forms (PS Form 2976, Customs Declaration CN 22, PS Form 2976-A, Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note CP 72, and PS Form 2976-B, Priority Mail Express International Shipping Label and Customs Form) will no longer be accepted.
Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) personnel, customers at all Military Post Offices (MPOs), Army Post Offices (APOs), Air Post Offices (APOs), and Fleet Post Offices (FPOs) will not use PS Form 2976-R until after August 13, 2020.
MPSA and MPO customers will see a partial implementation of this policy for packages with an international destination. MPO customers sending packages to an international address must create their customs labels online before presenting these items to the MPO for acceptance. While all customers (military and non-military) may use the online solutions from USPS®, MPO customers sending items to international destinations (or any third-party provider capable of creating online customs forms) must exclusively use these methods for sending international packages.
All customers, including those shipping their packages via MPSA, may do the following:
n Generate customs forms online (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm) to print a combined shipping label and customs label without postage, or
n Use Click-N-Ship® (cns.usps.com) to print a label with postage.
Customers presenting the printed shipping label and customs form from Customs Forms Online (CFO) at a retail window will rely on USPS (or MPSA) personnel to select the “PS Form 2976/2976-A/2976-B” button in Retail Systems Software (RSS) as the method for accepting online-created labels.
Customers who present PS Form 2976-R at USPS retail counters will rely on USPS retail sales and service associates to enter complete, correct information from PS Form 2976-R into:
n RSS (by selecting the “PS Form 2976-R” button), or
n CFO (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm), and placing postage on the article at non-RSS offices.
After the shipping label or customs form is printed by either RSS or CFO and placed onto the article, the first pages of multi-part PS Form 2976-R (“1 – Customs Declaration” on page 1 and “2 – Dispatch Note” on page 2) must be placed into the PS Form 2976-E (or 2976-ES) envelope as a back-up copy for use by other agents in international mail processing.
Note: Consistent with existing policies, copy 3 of multi-part PS Form 2976-R (labeled “3 – Post Office Copy”) must be kept at the retail office for records.
USPS will return to sender (RTS) all mailpieces found in the mail stream bearing handwritten customs declaration forms. USPS will not tender mailpieces bearing handwritten customs forms to international mail processing centers, U.S. Customs, international transportation, or foreign posts for delivery. The sole exception to this policy are items originating at MPOs:
n Items from an MPO ZIP Code™ and destined for an international address (accepted until April 4, 2020), and
n Items from an MPO ZIP Code and destined for a domestic address (accepted until September 13, 2020).
Accepting personnel must ensure that customers who submit each package with a completed PS Form 2976-R provide an accurate and complete description of the contents, names, and addresses. Accepting personnel will enter the information from PS Form 2976-R into the Customs Border Protection Manifest (CBPMAN) via RSS with the customer present, as clarifying questions may be required to ensure that PS Form 2976-R contains accurate and complete data.
Beginning August 13, 2020, the MPSA acceptance process will not induct mail with handwritten customs forms. MPSA acceptance policy changes for packages shipped via MPO are as follows:
1. March 13, 2020: MPO customers sending international packages must create their combined shipping label and customs form via electronic means. USPS solutions, such as Click-N-Ship or CFO, will satisfy requirements for any item sent internationally which requires a customs form (according to Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual rules) and will help reduce wait-time in line for MPO customers.
2. August 13, 2020: On this date, MPOs will stop accepting any handwritten customs forms on packages. MPOs will also begin scanning barcodes from CFO receipts and labels, which will simplify transactions and creation of forms at MPOs for all packages.
3. September 13, 2020: Implementation of a final and complete end to all handwritten customs forms in the mail stream will be delayed until this date to allow for transit time of any items coming to the USPS from MPOs. From this date forward, any item discovered in the USPS mail stream (no matter the source or destination) with a handwritten customs form will be RTS.
All customers, including military personnel overseas, may access USPS online solutions. There are two online solutions that will help expedite the transaction for a service member:
n Customs Forms Online (CFO).
n Click-N-Ship.
The best option for a military customer that does not already know the weight of a package or when the customer must present the item to an MPSA representative for acceptance is called “Customs Forms Online.”
The CFO site (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm) will assist a customer in creating and printing a completed label without postage. The CFO label must be applied directly to the package before purchasing postage (from the MPSA representative) in a standard mailing transaction.
Click-N-Ship® (cns.usps.com) is available for any customer, including military personnel outside of the geographic boundaries of the United States, who needs to print a completed combined shipping label and customs form with postage. Customers who know the weight of their package may bypass lines and retail processing (in-person acceptance in certain circumstances still applies), and quickly mail their pre-paid article via existing MPSA acceptance procedures.
To ensure compliance, this message will be sent out through multiple outlets. International Service Center staff must temporarily refrain from enforcing RTS of items with handwritten forms in the following two cases where an APO, FPO, or MPO ZIP Code is contained in the Origin (return) address:
1. If the article is destined for an international address (until the start of Tour One, local time, Saturday, April 4, 2020).
2. If the article is destined for a domestic U.S. address (until September 13, 2020).
Note: Any and all articles discovered in the mail stream bearing a handwritten customs form of any type after September 13, 2020, will be RTS, no matter their origin or destination.
In the event that there is a power outage, the retail system is down, or there is no Internet connectivity at a particular Post Office™, the retail employee must ask the customer to do one of the following:
n Bring the article to a nearby Post Office (where the employee has confirmed connectivity).
n Bring the mailpiece back to the retail location when RSS functionality and Internet connectivity have been restored.
n Complete and print the combined shipping label and customs form elsewhere, using CFO (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm) to print a label without postage or Click-N-Ship® (cns.usps.com) for a label with postage, then return to the retail location with the mailpiece.
Employees in retail Post Offices must do the following:
n Maintain a sufficient supply of PS Form 2976-R on hand to ensure adequate availability in the retail lobby. Retail unit employees may order PS Form 2976-R from the Material Distribution Center using Postal Service Identification Number (PSN) 7530-17-000-7992.
n Educate customers with an international or domestic mailpiece that requires a customs form. Show the customer how to accurately complete PS Form 2976-R, USPS Customs Declaration and Dispatch Note.
n Enter the information that the customer has written in the fields of the PS Form 2976-R worksheet into CBPMAN via RSS. The system will print out the appropriate electronic customs form, barcode, and postage. Ask the customer for a signature on the customs form printed via RSS, and place the combined shipping label and customs form onto the article. Apply the RSS printed barcodes to each page of multi-part PS Form 2976-R, place the appropriate copies of PS Form 2976-R into PS Form 2976-E (Customs Declaration Envelope CP 91), and apply the envelope to the mailpiece.
n Non-RSS offices will use CFO (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm) to generate electronically printed customs forms to affix to customers’ mailpieces.
n Remove all pre-printed hard copies of PS Form 2976, 2976-A, or 2976-B at retail service counters and replace them with the label that is electronically generated from RSS or CFO using the PS Form 2976-R worksheet for accurate data entry and transfer.
After March 13, 2020, inform any customer that presents a mailpiece with a handwritten form that USPS regulation changes now require electronic submission of customs data. Ask the customer to complete PS Form 2976-R and to remove any other customs form from the mailpiece.
USPS employees should let customers know that they can complete and print the combined shipping label and customs form using CFO (usps.com/international/customs-forms.htm) to print a label without postage or Click-N-Ship (cns.usps.com) for a label with postage.
— Trade Policy and Process,
International Processing Operations, 3-12-20
