How to become a licensed customs broker

A customs broker is a person licensed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to transact customs business on behalf of importers: filing entries, classifying goods, calculating duties, and dealing with CBP so importers do not have to. It is one of the few private roles that CBP licenses directly. This guide walks the whole path from deciding to pursue it to holding the license, with each requirement sourced against CBP and 19 CFR Part 111.

The path in five steps

1. Confirm you can sit the exam. On exam day you must be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old and not an officer or employee of the U.S. Treasury Department. There is no experience or degree requirement to take the test.
2. Register and pass the Customs Broker License Examination. Register and pay the $390 examination fee through CBP's eCBP portal, then pass the open-book, 80-question exam with a score of 75 percent or higher. This is the knowledge gate.
3. Submit the individual license application. After passing, file the license application with CBP and pay the $300 individual license application fee. You must apply within three years of passing, or the result expires.
4. Clear the background investigation. CBP vets each applicant for good moral character, which includes a review of criminal history, financial responsibility, and any prior customs violations.
5. Receive the license and, if needed, a permit. Once approved you hold an individual customs broker license. To actually conduct business you may also need a permit, which carries an annual user fee.

Eligibility, exam versus license

A point that trips people up: the requirements to take the exam are looser than the requirements to hold the license. It is worth seeing them side by side.

Requirement	To take the exam	To hold the license
U.S. citizen	Yes	Yes
Minimum age	18	21 at application
Not a government employee	Not a U.S. Treasury officer or employee	Not an officer or employee of the U.S. Government
Good moral character	Not assessed	Required, via background investigation
Passing exam grade	This is the exam	Passed within the prior 3 years

So an 18-year-old citizen can pass the exam and then simply wait until 21 to apply, as long as the three-year clock has not run out.

The exam is the hard part

The application and vetting are procedural: fill out the forms, pay the fees, pass the background check. The genuinely difficult step is the exam, which passes only a minority of candidates each sitting. It is open book across roughly 6,500 pages of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and Title 19 CFR, and it is decided far more by how fast you can find the governing citation than by how much you have memorized. That is why the bulk of this site is built around lookup-speed training rather than flashcards.

If you are at the start of the exam step, read the customs broker exam guide for the full format, then the open-book strategy guide for the method, and run a timed drill in the navigation trainer to benchmark your current speed. When you are ready to test recall, use the free practice test.

What the license is worth

A customs broker license opens a specific career. Licensed brokers work at customs brokerage firms, freight forwarders, large importers, and logistics companies, and the license is a durable professional credential because CBP issues relatively few each year. Some brokers work as individuals; many operate under a corporate broker’s permit at a firm. The credential also carries ongoing obligations: every license holder files a triennial status report (with a $100 fee) every three years to keep the license current, and a broker running a permit pays an annual permit user fee.

The demand side is steady: every formal import entry into the United States can involve a broker, and the rules change often enough that importers value someone who tracks them. It is not a fast credential to earn, precisely because the exam is hard, and that difficulty is part of why the license holds its value.

Maintaining the license

Getting licensed is not the end of the obligations. To keep a license in good standing you must:

• File the triennial status report every three years, with its $100 fee, so CBP knows you are still active and eligible.
• Keep up with continuing education where applicable, and stay current on regulatory changes, since brokers are held responsible for exercising “responsible supervision and control” over customs business.
• Pay the annual permit user fee if you operate under a permit.

For the terminology you will meet throughout this process, the glossary defines the core terms, from entry summary to liquidation.

Sources: U.S. Customs and Border Protection customs-broker pages and Customs Broker Fees (cbp.gov), and 19 CFR Part 111, especially the basic license requirements and fees sections (ecfr.gov). Requirements and fees reviewed 2026-07-22. Fees are set by regulation and change periodically; confirm the current figures against cbp.gov before you apply or pay.