Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced an update to the 5106 form effective March 18, 2019. The new form is different than the previous 5106 form and now calls for a substantial amount of new information for the principal.
Although CBP would like the principal to complete all the boxes on the form, there are only a few of the boxes that are required. The required boxes (marked with a red * on the form) are as follows:
1A – Importer/Business/Private Party
Name
1E – Type of action
2A – Mailing Address
2B – Physical Address
2C – Telephone number for the individual signing the form
2E – Email address for the individual signing the form
4 – Certification
The importer can choose to complete more boxes than the minimum, however the importer will need to carefully consider whether or not providing this additional information makes sense in their particular situation, based on what they are trying to accomplish when filing this document. CBP has indicated that completing all the fields can result in some advantages for the importer however CBP has not provided a list of these advantages at this time.