A shipment can have perfect paperwork and still stall because the importer number on the entry belongs, in CBP's records, to a different name or a dead address. The number is not a formality. It is the identity the whole entry, the bond, and the duty bill hang from.
For a US based importer, the importer of record number is the company's Employer Identification Number, formatted with its two digit suffix where CBP requires it. GHY International's importer guidance walks through the same basics every broker teaches: the name and address attached to that number in CBP's system must match the entity taking responsibility for the entry, and the bond must be written to the same identity.
Mismatches creep in through ordinary business events. A company moves and updates its bank but not its CBP record. A rebrand changes the trading name while entries keep filing under the old legal name. An acquisition leaves two EINs in play and different brokers using different ones. Each is small. Each produces entries that a system comparing identities reads as unrelated importers.
A foreign company importing into the United States without a US EIN uses a CBP assigned number, obtained through CBP Form 5106, the Create or Update Importer Identity Form. The 5106 is also how US importers establish and correct their records. CBP moved this process into its systems with identity verification expectations that are stricter than the paper era, including for the individuals named on the form.
The assigned number comes with a practical burden: a foreign importer still needs a US agent and a bond, and it remains liable for the accuracy of its entries from another time zone. Appointing the broker as the mailbox for CBP notices nobody reads is how foreign importers discover problems at the liquidation and penalty stage instead of the correction stage.
Treat the importer record like a bank mandate. Review it when the company moves, renames, restructures, or changes its responsible officers, and confirm the version your broker files against matches the version CBP holds. A short annual check, broker record against 5106 against bond, closes most identity errors before an entry trips over them.
Watch the suffix question specifically. CBP systems use EIN suffixes to distinguish importer records, and an entry filed with a suffix that does not match the record on file can reject or mis-post. It is the kind of error that looks trivial in a meeting and costs a day at a terminal, which is exactly why it belongs in a checklist rather than in memory.
There is a strategic reason underneath the housekeeping. CBP reads an importer's history through this number: entry accuracy, payment behaviour, claim patterns. Splitting entries across two numbers by accident fragments that history and can make a compliant importer look like two erratic ones. It also complicates bonds, since bond sufficiency is assessed against the activity under the number.
So the rule for growing importers is simple. One legal entity, one number, filed consistently by every broker and forwarder you use, with the 5106 record reviewed like a financial control. The cargo gets the attention. The identity the cargo travels under deserves an hour a year of the same.
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Its Employer Identification Number, including the suffix CBP has on record for the importer where one applies. The name and address attached to that number in CBP's system must match the legal entity responsible for the entry, and the bond must be written to the same identity.
By filing CBP Form 5106 to obtain a CBP assigned number, since it has no US EIN. The foreign importer still needs a customs bond and a US agent, and it stays liable for its entries. Someone has to own reading CBP notices sent to that agent, or problems surface late.
Because CBP's systems compare the number, name, address, and suffix on the entry against the importer record and the bond. A move, rebrand, or restructuring that was never updated on the 5106 record makes a correct shipment look like an identity mismatch, and the entry waits while people reconcile records.
At least annually, and whenever the company moves, renames, restructures, or changes responsible officers. Check three versions against each other: the 5106 record CBP holds, the record your broker files from, and the bond. Most identity errors are visible in that comparison before any entry trips over them.