What Happens When Customs (CBP) Seizes Your Package at the Border?

Understanding the seizure process and next steps — from someone who spent nearly 30 years on the government side.

Getting a notice that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized your package is a gut punch. Most people have no idea what it means, what happens next, or whether they'll ever see their property again. After spending nearly 30 years on the government side of this process, I've seen that confusion cost people their cases — not because the law was against them, but because they didn't know what to do or how much time they had to do it.

So let me walk you through what actually happens when CBP seizes a package, and what you need to know to protect yourself.

Why CBP Has the Authority to Seize Your Package

CBP enforces an enormous range of federal laws. Any shipment entering or leaving the United States can be seized if CBP has reason to believe it violates those laws — and the authority extends across the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and in some cases, state laws, international laws, treaties and Executive Orders.

The reasons a package gets seized vary widely. It could be prohibited merchandise, missing or falsified documentation, undervalued goods, unlicensed imports, or a violation of intellectual property law. Sometimes it's a genuine mistake on the part of the shipper or the recipient. Other times it's intentional. CBP doesn't always know which it is at the moment of seizure — that gets sorted out through the process that follows.

Here's a distinction that matters more than most people realize. Not everything seized becomes permanently forfeited. A seizure means CBP has taken custody of the property. Forfeiture is the legal step where ownership transfers to the government. Those are two separate things, and your ability to fight for your property depends largely on understanding which situation you're actually in.

Where Does Your Package Go After It's Seized?

The moment CBP seizes your property, it passes into the legal custody of the agency and you no longer have access to it. CBP is required to issue a DHS Form 6051S — the official Custody Receipt for Seized Property and Evidence — which formally documents what was taken, under what authority, and notifies you of the seizure and the seizure number. Also known as the FP&F Number.

From there, the property is placed into either a CBP-certified permanent seizure vault or with a national seized property contractor working under a government contract. Certain high-risk items, including currency, have to be moved to a certified vault within specific policy timeframes. The government has a legal obligation to maintain custody of that property throughout the process — there are rules governing every step of how seized property is handled until the case is resolved. That said, there are exceptions. Perishable merchandise and cargo that presents an immediate public health hazard can be destroyed without waiting for the administrative process to run its course. If your shipment falls into either of those categories, the timeline moves much faster and your options may be more limited from the start.

Under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, known as CAFRA, CBP must provide formal notice of the seizure to interested parties within 60 days of the seizure date. If the seizure was adopted from a state or local agency, that window extends to 90 days. These aren't soft targets — they're legal requirements, and if the government misses them, it affects their ability to proceed with forfeiture.

The Customs Carve-Out — CBP's Preferred Framework

Here's something most people don't know, and that even attorneys outside this area get wrong. CBP — carrying forward the tradition of legacy U.S. Customs — leans heavily on what's known as the Customs Carve-Out. This isn't a rarely used exception. It is the preferred process, and it has been for decades. Whether it applies to your case depends on the facts, but if you're dealing with a customs-related seizure, there's a very good chance this is the framework in play.

Congress exempted a broad category of customs seizures from CAFRA's requirements. Those seizures operate under Title 19 of the United States Code — specifically 19 U.S.C. 1607 and 1608. This covers violations of customs law, including merchandise imported contrary to law, intellectual property violations, and currency reporting violations. The facts of each individual case ultimately determine which path gets taken, but CBP and its predecessors have long favored the Carve-Out process because it gives the agency more control over how a case moves through the system.

Under this framework, CBP first issues a seizure notice to all known parties of interest. That notice is your first real opportunity to act — you can file a petition for remission or mitigation with CBP's Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures office, or file a claim demanding the case be referred to the U.S. Attorney for judicial proceedings. If 30 days pass from the date of that seizure notice without a response, CBP moves to the publication phase — posting a notice of intent to forfeit, typically in a newspaper, for three successive weeks.

Once that first publication runs, the window tightens significantly. You now have 20 days to file a claim and a cost bond if you still want the case sent to federal court. That bond is $5,000 or 10 percent of the property's value, whichever is lower, with a minimum of $250. If that's a financial hardship, a waiver is available.

Let that 20-day window pass without action and the government can administratively declare the property forfeited — no courtroom, no further opportunity to contest. This is why the sequence matters. By the time publication begins, you've already had one chance and didn't take it. What comes after publication is your last.

Because the Carve-Out is the preferred framework for CBP, understanding how it works isn't optional background knowledge — it's central to how you respond. The statutes on your seizure notice will tell you which process applies. If you're not sure what you're reading, that's the moment to call someone who does this work.

What Options Do You Actually Have

There are two broad types of seizures, and which one applies to you shapes what you can do next. Some items are summarily forfeitable — meaning the law prohibits them from entering the United States entirely, and there's very limited room for relief. Other seizures involve property that can potentially be recovered through the administrative process.

For recoverable cases, your options generally include filing a petition for remission or mitigation with CBP's Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures Office, submitting an offer in compromise, requesting that the matter be referred to the U.S. Attorney for a judicial forfeiture proceeding, or abandoning the property altogether. The DHS Form 6051S you received, along with the seizure notice itself, will lay out which of these paths are available to you and the deadlines attached to each.

Under CAFRA, once you've been served a seizure notice, you generally have 35 days to file a claim for judicial proceedings and 30 days to file an administrative petition. Those clocks start running from the date the notice was mailed, not the date you opened it.

I've seen it happen too many times. Someone gets a seizure notice, sets it aside because it's overwhelming, and by the time they deal with it the deadline has passed. CBP does not routinely waive those deadlines. The law in many cases simply doesn't allow it. Miss the window and you may lose the right to challenge the forfeiture entirely.

The First Thing You Should Do Right Now

Open the notice and read it. Read it again. Then read it a third time. You won't understand everything on the first pass — that's normal. What you're looking for are the statutes cited, the property listed and their values, the options listed, and every date or deadline mentioned. Write those dates down the moment you find them.

If you hit a point where you genuinely don't know what you're reading or what to do next, that's your signal to find someone who specializes in CBP administrative proceedings. The Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures process has its own language, its own culture, and its own standards for what actually moves the needle. Experience in that specific environment is what matters.

Your rights are real in this process. CBP has obligations to you just as you have obligations to respond. The difference between people who recover their property and people who don't usually isn't about the facts of the case — it's about whether they acted in time and knew how to make their argument.