Your bottles clear customs.
Your competitors' don't.
Clearance navigates TTB permits, COLA approvals, FDA prior notice, and state-by-state compliance so your Barolo lands in four days, not four weeks.
Import Pipeline — Every Node Covered
Avg. clearance time
First-pass approval rate
COLAs filed this year
Active registrations
The Compliance Reality
of wine shipments face at least
one compliance hold
The U.S. import system wasn't designed for boutique importers. It was designed for freight forwarders with dedicated compliance teams. Every hold costs you $200–$800/day in demurrage while your bottles sit on a dock in New Jersey.
The average self-filing importer experiences 2.3 holds per year. At $600/day average demurrage across an 8-day average hold duration, that's $11,040 in preventable costs — before you account for rerouting, re-labeling, or destroyed inventory.
Where Shipments Get Stuck
Four hold types account for 100% of delays
COLA / Label Non-Compliance
34%Wrong alcohol percentage, missing importer name, unapproved net contents — TTB rejects on first review.
FDA Prior Notice Errors
28%Incorrect product codes, missing manufacturer data, or late submission triggers automatic hold at port.
State Registration Gaps
23%Bottles legal at the federal level, blocked at state distribution because the license wasn't current.
Bond & Duty Calculation Errors
15%Incorrect HS codes or duty rate misclassification triggers CBP exam and potential seizure.
Clearance eliminates all four hold types before your container reaches the pier.
Pre-clearance review, proactive COLA monitoring, real-time FDA filing, and 47-state registration coverage — included in every entry fee.
The Real Cost of Self-Filing
Filing yourself costs more than our fee
This isn't a pitch — it's arithmetic. Eight dimensions, real numbers, sourced from CBP public data and our own entry records from 2025.
* Per-entry cost comparison based on 2025 CBP data and Clearance entry records. Demurrage figures sourced from Port of NJ/NY published rates.
Get Your Rate ComparisonResults on Record
Numbers that close the argument
Three clients. Three situations where self-filing had already failed. Three outcomes that paid for years of brokerage fees.
in demurrage saved
A 40-foot reefer container of Piedmontese Barolo and Barbaresco was held at Port Newark for a COLA discrepancy on net contents. Self-filing had produced the wrong label language. Clearance resolved the hold in 11 hours, re-filed corrected documentation, and had the container moving by morning. The importer's previous broker had quoted 4–6 business days.
Boutique wine importer, 6 countries
New York, NY
registered in one filing cycle
A Chicago-based restaurant group launching a house mezcal and bourbon program needed distributor licenses and state registration across their 14 operating markets. Clearance filed all 14 simultaneously using our existing relationships with state alcohol boards, completing the cycle in 19 days. The group's previous attempt had stalled at 6 states after 3 months.
Restaurant group, private-label spirits
Chicago, IL
emergency clearance, harvest shipment
An FDA prior notice error triggered an automatic hold on 1,800 cases of Burgundy Premier Cru timed for a member allocation release. The wine club's internal team had filed the prior notice with a mismatched product code. Clearance's after-hours desk corrected the filing at 11:40 PM, received FDA confirmation at 2:15 AM, and the container was released before the morning shift.
DTC wine club, 22,000 members
San Francisco, CA
Free Resource
The Importer's Compliance Checklist
A 23-point pre-shipment checklist covering COLA requirements, FDA prior notice fields, CBP entry documentation, and state registration triggers. Used by our team on every single entry.
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Your rate comparison, in 24 hours
Three questions. We'll send a line-by-line comparison against what you're currently paying — including demurrage exposure you may not have quantified.