The IEEPA refunds CAPE portal officially opens on April 20, 2026, giving importers and licensed customs brokers the first operational process to recover duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
This is one of the biggest ACE refund updates of the year.
CBP confirmed that the new system, called CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries), will allow eligible refund requests to be submitted directly through the ACE portal. For companies that paid significant IEEPA duties over the past months, this is the first clear and structured refund path.
The important part is that this first phase is time-sensitive.
Importers that wait too long may miss the 80-day liquidation window for recently liquidated entries, which could delay recovery options until later phases. See our complete IEEPA refund timeline and court updates here.
IEEPA Refunds CAPE Portal: Which Entries Qualify in Phase 1?
CBP is starting with a limited but highly valuable first phase.
The IEEPA refunds CAPE portal currently covers:
- Entries that are still unliquidated
- Entries liquidated within the past 80 days
- Entries in suspended, extended, or under review status
- Certain warehouse entries where the refund validates at liquidation
This part is critical because many importers assumed liquidated entries were already lost.
That is not the case.
As long as the entry is within the 80-day period, CBP still has enough legal room to reliquidate it before the 90-day voluntary reliquidation limit.
For importers with large duty exposure, this may be the highest-priority review bucket.
Who Can File in the IEEPA Refunds CAPE Portal?
CBP kept filing authority very narrow.
Only the following parties can submit through the IEEPA refunds CAPE portal:
- The Importer of Record
- The licensed customs broker who originally filed the entry
No consultants, vendors, freight forwarders, or outside service firms can file unless they are the actual filing customs broker.
For brokers, there is major efficiency here.
One CAPE declaration can include up to 9,999 entries, even across multiple importers, as long as those entries were originally filed by the same broker.
That creates a strong opportunity for brokers to proactively help clients organize refund recovery in large batches.
The Biggest Risk: ACH Setup Delays
The single biggest operational mistake will likely be ACH refund setup issues.
Even if the CAPE declaration is accepted, CBP will not release the refund until ACH banking details are properly established inside ACE.
This means importers should confirm right away:
- ACE portal login is active
- Importer sub-account permissions are available
- ACH refund bank details are current
- refund routing via CBP Form 4811, notify party is correct
- Internal treasury teams know where refunds should land
Many refunds may get held simply because the treasury and customs teams are not aligned.
How Fast Will IEEPA Refunds Be Paid?
CBP’s target processing time is relatively fast.
For valid CAPE claims, refunds are expected within:
60 to 90 days after CAPE acceptance
However, there are exceptions.
If the entries remain suspended, extended, warehouse status, or subject to other liquidation holds, the refund may not issue immediately.
Instead, the validated refund amount will remain tied to the entry until final liquidation.
This distinction is very important for finance teams that are forecasting cash recovery timing.
Expert Strategy: Do Not Rush the CSV Upload
The real expert move is entry validation before speed.
Once a CAPE declaration is accepted, it cannot be amended.
That means missed entries require an entirely new declaration, while duplicate entries will reject automatically.
The smartest workflow is:
- Run ACE reports for all IEEPA duty entries
- Sort by liquidation date
- Prioritize the 80-day window first
- Confirm ACH enrollment
- Validate 4811 refund routing
- Upload in smaller, clean CSV batches
That process reduces operational mistakes and gives importers cleaner accounting support.
What Later CAPE Phases Will Likely Include
CBP already confirmed that the next CAPE phases are being built.
Future functionality is expected to include:
- Reconciliation entries
- Drawback claims
- Open protests
- Non-ACE legacy entries
- AD/CVD pending liquidation cases
- Final liquidated entries
This means the IEEPA refunds CAPE portal launch on April 20 is only the first step in a much larger refund recovery cycle.
Final CustomsIntel Take
The IEEPA refunds CAPE portal transforms refund recovery from legal headlines into real operational execution.
For importers, the immediate priority is identifying entries inside the 80-day reliquidation window.
For customs brokers, this is the perfect time to lead clients through:
- Entry universe review
- ACH validation
- Refund routing
- Treasury coordination
- Phased CSV upload strategy
The companies that organize now will likely recover funds faster and with fewer ACE rejection issues.
See here Official CBP IEEPA refund CAPE guidance
