What happens after a shipment is seized

First the goods get a value

Seized property is appraised, and the figure used is domestic value rather than what was paid for it.

The regulation defines that term. Domestic value means the price at which the same or similar property is freely offered for sale at the time and place of appraisement. The comparison is made in the same quantity or quantities as seized, and in the ordinary course of trade. Where there is no market at the place of appraisement, the value in the nearest principal market is reported.

That number then does a lot of work. It decides which forfeiture procedure applies, it sets the size of a cost bond, and it determines whether a released-on-payment option exists at all.

For property not under seizure, the same definition applies with the value fixed as of the date of the violation. For entered merchandise, that date is the date of entry or of the act forming the basis of the claim, whichever is later.

Two words in that definition do quiet work. Freely offered rules out a distress price, and ordinary course of trade rules out an unusual one. The result is a replacement-cost figure rather than a receipt.

Summary forfeiture, and the notice that starts the clock

For property valued at no more than five hundred thousand dollars, and for any seized merchandise whose importation is prohibited regardless of value, the process is administrative rather than judicial.

A notice of seizure and intent to forfeit carries three things. It describes the property. It states the time, cause and place of seizure. And it states that anyone wishing to claim the property must file a claim and a bond within twenty days from the date of first publication.

Publication happens on an official government forfeiture website for at least thirty consecutive days. Where the appraised value in one seizure from one person is five thousand dollars or less, a second posting is added. The notice goes up for three successive weeks at the customhouse nearest the place of seizure, or at the appropriate Border Patrol sector office. All known parties in interest are notified in writing of the website address and the date of publication.

Publication can be delayed for up to thirty days where the deciding officer has reason to believe a petition for administrative relief will be filed.

The five-hundred-thousand-dollar ceiling has stated exceptions. There is no value limit on merchandise whose importation is prohibited, on vessels, vehicles or aircraft used to import, export, transport or store a controlled substance, or on monetary instruments.

The claim, the bond, and what filing one actually does

A claim to seized property is filed with the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Officer within twenty days of first publication of the notice.

It carries a bond for costs. The amount is five thousand dollars or ten percent of the value of the claimed property, whichever is lower, but not less than two hundred and fifty dollars. On satisfactory proof of financial inability to post it, the bond requirement is waived.

One sentence in that section corrects a common misreading. Filing a claim and giving a bond does not entitle the claimant to possession of the property. It stops the summary forfeiture proceeding, and nothing more.

What follows is a court case rather than an administrative decision. Where the claim and bond are filed in time, the officer reports the case to the United States attorney for the institution of condemnation proceedings.

A different track exists where the seizure statute calls for proceedings by libel. In that case the summary forfeiture sections do not apply at all, and the matter is referred to the United States attorney from the start.

A separate route exists for high-value property. An offer to pay the appraised domestic value in order to obtain immediate release has to be in writing. Where the value exceeds one hundred thousand dollars, that offer is addressed to the Commissioner rather than decided locally.

The petition for relief, and what it has to contain

Alongside the claim there is a petition for remission or mitigation, which asks the agency itself for relief rather than asking a court.

It is addressed to the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Officer named in the notice, and it need not be in any particular form. Four things have to be set out. A description of the property. The date and place of the violation or seizure. The facts and circumstances relied on to justify relief. And, in a seizure case, proof of a petitionable interest in the property.

The deadlines are different from the claim deadline and are easy to confuse. Petitions for relief from seizures are filed within thirty days from the date of mailing of the notice of seizure. Petitions for relief from penalties are filed within sixty days of the mailing of the notice of penalty incurred. Extensions may be granted where circumstances warrant.

The regulation attaches a warning to the document itself. A false statement contained in a petition may subject the petitioner to prosecution under the federal false statements statute.

The deciding officer holds one authority worth naming. Notwithstanding any other delegation, that officer is always empowered to cancel a claim on definitely determining that the act or omission forming its basis did not occur.

Where the amount at issue falls outside a local officer's delegated authority, the petition is referred upward. It goes to the penalties branch at headquarters, which holds the same power to remit or mitigate on such terms and conditions as the circumstances warrant.

What becomes of the goods

Where no petition is filed, or a petition is denied, and the property is not retained for official use, it is disposed of under the Tariff Act.

One paragraph applies specifically to regulated products. Before seized drugs, insecticides, seeds, plants, nursery stock and other articles requiring inspection by other government agencies are sold, they are inspected by a representative of that agency. Where they are found not to meet that agency's requirements, they are destroyed forthwith.

Cost can end the story early. Where the expense of keeping merchandise is disproportionate to its value, destruction or other disposition may be ordered. Storage expense is presumed disproportionate once it has reached, or is anticipated to reach, fifty percent of the value of the property.

Destruction does not extinguish the claimant's rights. The regulation states that the right of a claimant to seized property that has been destroyed or otherwise disposed of is not extinguished. Notice of the seizure is still published, and a successful claimant is compensated from the forfeiture fund.

Controlled substances in the first two schedules follow a different path entirely. They are deemed contraband and summarily forfeited, and the ordinary notice procedures do not apply to them.

The regulation describes the step that precedes that. The forfeitures officer contacts the drug agency official responsible for import permits, and where the answer is that no permit for lawful importation was issued, declares the substances contraband and forfeited.

Sources

Each document below is named as it names itself, with the date printed on that document rather than the day it was read.

1. 19 CFR 162.43 and 162.44 — Appraisement of seized property at domestic value, and release on payment of appraised value with the hundred-thousand-dollar dividing line — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
2. 19 CFR 162.45, 162.45a and 162.47 — Summary forfeiture notice contents and publication, summary forfeiture of Schedule I and II controlled substances, and the claim, cost bond and bond waiver — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
3. 19 CFR 162.46 and 162.48 — Disposition of summarily forfeited goods including inspection by other agencies before sale, and disposition of perishable and other seized property with the fifty-percent storage-cost presumption — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
4. 19 CFR 171.1 and 171.2 — Petition for relief, its required contents, the false statement warning, and the thirty-day and sixty-day filing windows — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026
5. 19 CFR 171.11 — Petitions acted on by the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Officer, including the standing power to cancel a claim where the act forming its basis did not occur — Office of the Federal Register, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, September 2026