One of our members recently made a flight to Mexico and about a week after returning to the USA he received a letter from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that he had a "Port Exception" event. In short, he had made an erroneous eAPIS filing. This member had filed his eAPIS manifests using the iAPIS application on his iphone.

What occurred is that he entered the USA through the Yuma, AZ airport. The identifier for Yuma, AZ used to be KYUM. However, a couple of years ago this was changed to KNYL. While this change was made in the CBP system, the folks at iAPIS apparently had not made the change in their database and the member was unable to force the application to use the right code. Therefore, his eAPIS manifest was transmitted to CBP as KYUM which created issues within the CBP system.

The member reports that all of the CBP officials both at the port as well as within the eAPIS group at CBP were "very professional and helpful throughout this incident and were sympathetic to the issue I faced". It is also important to note that no fines were issued as a result of this incident. However, the member did have a few stressful moments from the time he received the letter and until the situation was worked out.

As the member points out, "However, it was a stark reminder that the PIC can be liable for not making a CBP manifest true, correct, and accurate, even if a third party handler makes a mistake." Furthermore, the member reports that he sent a complete report to the publishers of iAPIS and they have acknowledge receipt but to date there has not been an update.

It is important to remember that when you use a third party application for submitting an eAPIS manifest, that you should carefully review the manifest information as the PIC is ultimately the one responsible for the accuracy of what is being transmitted.

Rick Gardner
Caribbean Sky Tours