Manually arrive your goods in the UK
Additional steps you or someone acting on your behalf may need to take to tell HMRC that your goods have arrived in the UK at a location using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service.
You do not need to take any action if:
- your pre-lodged import declaration has an arrived status
- you have declared your goods orally or by conduct
- you have made a declaration in your records
Telling customs about your goods
If you are importing goods, your full import declaration is usually ‘arrived’ automatically.
This means that normally you do not need to do anything to make sure that HMRC is aware that the goods are in the country.
When you need to tell HMRC
You may need to tell HMRC that your goods have arrived in the UK using software. You will need to do this if you have submitted either a:
- full import declaration
- simplified frontier declaration
The person who has made the declaration must do this if your goods have arrived in the UK and the import declaration for your goods has an unarrived status on the Customs Declaration Service. This includes when your haulier has boarded without a goods movement reference being checked in by a carrier, for example as a result of HMRC or third-party system downtime or outages.
You must tell HMRC within 10 calendar days after your goods were imported.
If you are moving goods that need an import declaration from Northern Ireland to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) through a location which requires a pre-lodged declaration, you need to update the status of your import declaration to ‘arrived’ by 11:59pm on the working day after the day your goods arrived in Great Britain.
If you use Customs Declaration Service software
You should manually arrive the declaration through your software under the process for a non-inventory linked location (NILP). If you are unsure how to do this, speak to your software provider.
If you cannot do this, you will need to submit a replacement arrived import entry which matches your pre-lodged entry. You can withdraw the pre-lodged entry after replacing it with an arrived entry. The original declaration will cancel automatically after 30 days of submission if it is not arrived.
If the vehicle reference number was not known at the point the declaration was submitted, it can be added up until this point.
If you’re moving goods through a temporary storage location that is using Goods Vehicle Movement Service
If the goods are moving through a temporary storage location that is using Goods Vehicle Movement Service to facilitate control of goods, there could be some occasions where the goods are placed into temporary storage if there are issues with the boarding of goods movement references.
If moving through these locations, you should continue to monitor the status of the goods movement reference. If the goods movement reference has not progressed to either an ‘inspection required’ or a ‘completed’ state, you should check with your carrier or border location of arrival. You may need to take further action to claim the consignment unit on the location’s inventory system, and amend or re-submit your declaration, before the goods can leave.
After manually arriving your declaration
After you have manually arrived your import declaration, you will either be:
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Given customs clearance, this means your goods have been customs cleared and no further action is required.
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Asked to have your goods cleared by the National Clearance Hub. Find out how to clear goods entering, leaving or transiting the UK. Your goods will not be cleared for a customs procedure (free circulation for example) until you have received a customs clearance.
If your declaration is not arrived
Pre-lodged declaration
If your pre-lodged declaration is not arrived in Customs Declaration Service within 30 days of submission, your entry will automatically be invalidated. If your goods have physically arrived, you must submit a replacement entry as soon as possible. Once your replacement declaration is accepted your goods will be cleared.
Simplified frontier declaration
If you submitted a simplified frontier declaration which has invalidated after 30 days, you must complete a supplementary declaration for your goods. Once your supplementary declaration is accepted your goods will be cleared.
Full import declaration
If you submitted an unarrived full import declaration which has automatically invalidated after 30 days, you must complete a replacement entry as soon as possible. You must:
- submit your declaration using pound sterling
- make sure the rate of duty has not changed since you made the original declaration, you can check the Trade Tariff: look up commodity codes, duty and VAT rates tool for rates of duty and VAT
If there has been a change in duty or import VAT then you must manually calculate the amount of duty and import VAT owed by using AI code OVR01 in Data Element 2/2. You must keep a record of your manual calculation and any supporting evidence for calculations that may be requested.
After you have manually arrived your full import declaration, you will either be:
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Given customs clearance, this means your goods have been customs cleared and no further action is required.
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Asked to have your goods cleared by the National Clearance Hub. Find out how to clear goods entering, leaving or transiting the UK. Your goods will not be cleared for a customs procedure (free circulation for example) until you have received a customs clearance.
Updates to this page
Last updated 31 January 2024 + show all updates
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Information about when to tell HMRC you are moving goods that need an import declaration from Northern Ireland to Great Britain has been added.
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Information about what to do if your declaration has been invalidated has been added.
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The guidance has been updated to clarify that you should only now use the Customs Declaration Service to manually arrive your goods.
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More information about how you manually arrive your goods in the UK if you use the Customs Declaration Service software has been added.
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First published.