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

The basic philosophy of a surety company, before issuing a bond, is to theoretically secure their entire interest against the possible loss from the demand from CBP. Thus, ideally, the surety would only approve a bond when secured fully, such as by collateral (instrument to recover amount of payment).

However, the surety can obtain enough of a degree of “comfort” to allow release of a bond with reduced or no collateral. This can be achieved by a combination of factors, including but not limited to: financial ability of the importer to satisfy the financial obligations to CBP, history, type of commodity, additional indemnitor, etc.