Your IOR Number Can Stop Working Two Different Ways. Today Only One of Them Is News

CBP begins voiding inaccurate importer of record numbers today. A second, quieter rule has been live since July 16: no entry in 366 days and ACE deactivates your IOR automatically. You will find out at the worst possible moment — and the way back runs through the same Form 5106.

Today, September 18, 2026, is the date CBP said it would begin voiding importer of record numbers whose CBP Form 5106 data is incomplete or inaccurate. That rule has had attention because it came out of an executive order.

A second rule has been running since July 16, 2026 with far less notice, and it catches people who have done nothing wrong at all.

366 days without an entry and ACE switches you off

CBP introduced an "Inactive for Entry Purposes" status in ACE. Under 19 CFR 24.5, an importer of record that has not filed an entry in 366 days is deactivated automatically. CBP is working through the backlog in order — the longest-dormant accounts first — and will keep going until every account past 366 days carries the status.

The two rules are unrelated in everything but their effect:

• What triggers it. The voiding rule is about whose address, email and phone are on the form. The dormancy rule is about nothing but elapsed time since your last entry.
• How far it reaches. A voided IOR number is invalid for any purpose. A deactivated one is blocked only for entry — you can still act as consignee, file drawback claims and reconciliations, secure bonds and transmit ISF. Everything looks healthy until someone tries to file.

That second point is the trap. An importer who ships once a year can sail past 366 days without a single signal. The ISF goes through. The bond is fine. The problem surfaces at the entry, with cargo already on the ground and the clock running.

The two error codes to recognise

If this is what has happened, your broker will see one of these, and they name the cause plainly rather than looking like a data error:

• Entry Summary — F875: IMPORTER INACTIVE FOR ENTRY PURPOSES. The IOR number is ineligible to transmit an entry summary because too long has passed since the last successfully submitted one.
• Cargo Release — 333: IMPORTER INACTIVE FOR ENTRY PURPOSES. Returned on an add/replace/update transaction when the IOR account is deactivated.

Getting switched back on

There are two routes, and the easy one belongs to your broker:

• Through ABI. A customs broker submits an Importer/Consignee Create/Update (TP) message with Action Code A to flip the status from Inactive back to Active.
• By form. An importer who cannot reactivate through ABI submits a revised CBP Form 5106, with every mandatory field completed, to their Center Entry Team for manual reactivation.

Notice where the second route leads. The way back from the dormancy rule is a complete and accurate 5106 — the very document the voiding rule is now being enforced against. A company that has been dormant for a year is also a company whose 5106 has not been looked at in a year. Fixing one problem with a stale form risks walking into the other.

What this is worth doing about

If you import seasonally or occasionally, count the months. If your last entry was more than about ten months ago, assume the status is coming and deal with it before your next booking rather than after the vessel arrives. Reactivation through ABI is quick; a manual reactivation through a Center is not something to start with a container on the ground.

While you are in the form, check the three fields that the other rule turns on — physical address, email and phone must be genuinely the importer's own, not a broker's, a forwarder's or a P.O. box. That test is covered in our piece on the voiding rule.

Questions go to CBP directly. The Entry Summary Accounts & Revenue division (esar@cbp.dhs.gov) owns this; technical problems go to your assigned client representative or the ACE Account Service Desk at 866-530-4172.

We do not file your entries and we do not hold your IOR number — but we do see the rejection when it happens, and a deactivated IOR looks exactly like a dozen other filing problems from the outside. If a shipment of ours stalls at entry, tell your broker to check for F875 or 333 early rather than late. Contact us.