CAPE Phase 1: What's Covered, What's Excluded, and How to Prepare

Guide

An updated breakdown of CAPE Phase 1 after CBP's April 2026 guidance: covered entries, validation failures, special timing rules, and what importers should do before filing.

CBP’s early CAPE messaging made Phase 1 sound simple. The April 10 and April 13, 2026 guidance made it more concrete and more technical.

The short version: Phase 1 is real, it starts April 20, 2026, and it gives importers a usable electronic path for many IEEPA refunds. But it is still a rules-driven workflow with strict ACE validations.

What Phase 1 Clearly Covers

CBP still centers Phase 1 around two main groups:

1. Unliquidated Entries

These are the cleanest CAPE candidates. Once accepted:

  • The entries will be set to liquidate 45 days from the declaration acceptance date
  • CBP removes the IEEPA Chapter 99 line items and recalculates duties without IEEPA
  • Treasury can issue the refund after liquidation and normal payment processing

2. Recently Liquidated Entries (Within ~80 Days)

If the entry liquidated recently enough, CAPE can still pick it up:

  • CBP will reliquidate the next business day after processing
  • The reliquidation will remove IEEPA duties and trigger a refund

What Many Importers Misread as “Excluded”

Some entries are not rejected outright, but they do not follow the simple 45-day pattern:

  • Extended, suspended, or under-review entries keep that status after CAPE acceptance. Refunds do not pay until liquidation eventually occurs.
  • Warehouse and warehouse withdrawal entries are not accelerated into the 45-day liquidation cycle. They stay on the normal warehouse path.

That distinction matters. Treating every non-standard entry as “excluded” is too broad and can lead to bad filing advice.

What CAPE Will Reject in Phase 1

CBP’s April 13 guidance lists a clearer set of rejection triggers. CAPE will reject or strip out entries that have problems such as:

  • Reconciliation flags or entry type 09
  • Drawback associations or entry type 47
  • USMCA duty deferral entry type 08
  • Open or suspended protests
  • Temporary importation under bond entries
  • Pending-liquidation AD/CVD entries
  • Entries more than about 80 days past liquidation
  • Entries with no IEEPA Chapter 99 line
  • Entries where value was reported on the IEEPA line in a way CBP says is not allowed

Not sure if your entries will pass Phase 1 screening? Check your eligibility now.

What the Filing Rules Look Like Now

The current CAPE filing rules are narrower than many blogs first assumed:

  • The CAPE declaration may only be submitted by the importer of record or the broker that filed the underlying entry summaries
  • The upload is a CSV of entry numbers only
  • One declaration can contain up to 9,999 entries
  • Duplicate entries are not allowed within or across declarations
  • CBP says not to submit entries where a surety paid the IEEPA duties in whole or in part
  • If you plan to file drawback, submit the CAPE declaration first
  • If you need to file a PSC for another issue, do that before CAPE because PSC cannot be used to request the IEEPA refund itself

Refund Timing: Fast Lane vs. Slow Lane

Faster path

  • Standard unliquidated entries
  • Recently liquidated entries inside the 80-day window

Slower path

  • Warehouse entries
  • Entries in suspended, extended, or under-review status
  • Entries that raise a compliance concern after acceptance

CBP’s public estimate is still 60 to 90 days for valid standard refunds, but that estimate does not apply evenly across every entry type.

Operational Detail That Matters More Than People Think

CBP is no longer issuing paper refund checks by default. Refunds are ACH-only, and CBP warned in late March that thousands of certified refunds had already been rejected because the recipient did not have valid banking information on file.

That means “I can file later” is the wrong mindset. The setup work matters:

  1. Make sure the filer is the correct importer or original broker
  2. Confirm the refund recipient’s ACH details are active in ACE
  3. Scrub your entries before uploading
  4. Decide how CAPE fits with protests and other legal options

Key Numbers to Remember

MetricValue
Max entries per declaration9,999
Liquidation timeline (unliquidated entries)45 days from acceptance
Reliquidation timeline (liquidated entries)Next business day
Refund processing time60-90 days
Protest deadline180 days from liquidation
ACH-only refunds effectiveFebruary 6, 2026

Update — April 30, 2026: Phase 1 Status After 10 Days Live

Phase 1 has now been live since April 20, 2026. Three things changed since the original guidance:

  • First disbursements could begin around May 11, 2026. Sandler Travis & Rosenberg reported on April 29 that CBP signaled actual ACH refund disbursements could start as early as that date — meaningfully earlier than the 60-90 day total timeline most importers were planning around. See: First IEEPA refund payments could land May 11 →.
  • CIT Judge Eaton ordered CBP to file a Phase 1 progress report by April 28. That order keeps judicial pressure on CBP to keep CAPE moving and may produce additional public clarity on Phase 1 in early May.
  • April 28 CIT order published the first hard numbers. CBP self-reported that approximately 21% of total IEEPA entries had been accepted through CAPE for duty removal and ~3% had been liquidated and were in the refund stage. The order also reaffirmed that reconciliation entries, certain suspended entries, and finally liquidated entries are excluded from Phase 1 — and surfaced the more troubling fact that IEEPA duties are reportedly still being collected on reconciliation adjustments. CBP must file the next progress report by 12:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Full breakdown with the original PDFs: What the April 28 CIT order reveals about CAPE Phase 1 →.
  • The April 24 ACE account update process matters for old accounts. If your ACE Portal account is years old and the original Trade Account Owner is no longer with the company, the modernized ACE application (released April 1) plus the new April 24 owner-update process may need to run before any ACH refund recipient changes will be honored. Walkthrough: Update the Trade Account Owner on an existing ACE Portal account →.

Nothing about the Phase 1 eligibility rules changed. The unliquidated lane and the ~80-day recently-liquidated lane still work the way the April 13 CSMS described.

Need the filing rules in plain English? Read our full Step-by-Step Guide, review the latest CSV filing checklist, or get a free assessment.

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