Generally, a minimum $50,000 bond is subject to immediate approval. Larger limit bonds may require the submission of a completed and importer-signed application as well as a financial statement to obtain approval. This process of approval can take 2-5 working days.

It is the responsibility of the surety company to guarantee its entire interest against a possible loss from a demand by CBP before it issues a bond. As a result, the surety should only approve a bond that contains full security, such as collateral (an instrument to recover the payment).

A surety may, however, be able to obtain sufficient “comfort” to release a bond with little or no collateral. The importer can achieve this through a combination of factors, including but not limited to: financial ability to meet financial obligations to CBP, history, type of commodity, and additional indemnitor.