Is the CBP Refund Claims Portal Open Yet?

Informational only — not legal advice.

As of March 12, 2026, CBP's proposed CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) claims portal is still under development — reported 70% complete. The portal is intended for importers and brokers to submit IEEPA refund requests through ACE, but refund routing would still follow the Importer of Record or a Form 4811 designee. A future portal does not eliminate the need for document retrieval, IOR confirmation, or deadline management.

What CBP has actually said about CAPE

On March 12, 2026, CBP filed a declaration in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States identifying its proposed ACE-based refund workflow as CAPE ("Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries"). The current declaration is tied to the IEEPA refund rollout, but the operational shape is broader than a one-statute title suggests. CBP said CAPE would include four integrated components:

• Claim Portal
• Mass Processing
• Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation
• Refund

CBP also gave component-level progress estimates as of March 11, 2026:

• Claim Portal — 70% complete
• Mass Processing — 40% complete
• Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation — 80% complete
• Refund — 60% complete

Source: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

So: is the portal open?

As of the current primary-source record, there is no public evidence that the CAPE Claim Portal is open for filing.

That answer is important because there is a big difference between:

• CBP saying it is building a portal, and
• CBP saying the portal is live and available for submissions

The March 12 declaration says the Claim Portal is being developed and describes what it is supposed to do. It does not say the portal has launched or that importers can already log in and submit IEEPA refund claims through CAPE. See: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

Who would use it if it opens?

CBP says the CAPE Claim Portal is intended to be the web-based entry point for:

• importers, and
• brokers

to submit IEEPA refund requests. The same declaration says the portal is intended to be available in both importer and broker ACE Portal accounts. See: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

But filing access is not the same as claim ownership

That does not mean every party who could submit in CAPE would own the refund right.

CBP’s described refund component says refunds would be consolidated by liquidation/reliquidation date and routed to:

• the Importer of Record (IOR), or
• a party the IOR designated to receive refunds via CBP Form 4811

That means a broker may be able to submit, but the refund path still turns on the entry record and the IOR/payee setup. See: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

Why a future portal still does not solve the hard part

A future CAPE portal would mainly be a submission and processing mechanism, not a substitute for claim preparation.

CBP’s own workflow description includes:

• Mass Processing
• Review
• Liquidation/Reliquidation
• Refund routing

That is why the upstream work still matters:

1) You still need the entry records

Most importers cannot file anything cleanly without:

• CBP Form 7501 entry summaries, or
• ACE entry summary exports

See: CBP Form 7501 overview and Form 7501 PDF

2) You still need to know who controls the claim

If you economically paid the tariff but are not the Importer of Record, a later portal will not automatically fix that mismatch. Refund rights and filing posture still depend on what the entry papers show and which party has authority to act.

For the broader protest framework, see:

• CBP — Protests
• 19 U.S.C. §1514

3) You still need to separate tariff regimes correctly

CBP ended collection of IEEPA duties effective February 24, 2026 at 12:00 a.m. ET, but a separate Section 122 surcharge began one minute later. Those are different legal regimes and should not be mixed in refund calculations.

Sources:

• CBP CSMS #67834313 — Ending Collection of IEEPA Duties
• CBP CSMS #67844987 — Imposing Temporary Section 122 Duties

4) You still need liquidation and deadline analysis

CBP’s existing relief framework still turns heavily on liquidation status. In general, once liquidation occurs, the post-liquidation remedy is a protest, and the timing rule is commonly 180 days from liquidation. See:

• CBP — Protests
• 19 U.S.C. §1514

Practical consequence: waiting for CAPE does not automatically eliminate the need to track deadlines entry by entry.

Why someone would still use RefundArrow even if CAPE launches

The honest answer is that a portal does not remove the hard operational work. It mainly changes where a submission might eventually be made.

RefundArrow is still useful for the upstream work:

• Document retrieval first — most users still need help getting their 7501s / ACE exports
• IOR vs consignee diagnosis — portal access does not answer who actually controls the claim
• Deadline triage — liquidation-driven timing still matters
• Duty separation — you still need to isolate the relevant tariff layer from Section 122 / 232 / 301 and other nonrefundable duties
• Broker-ready organization — someone still needs to hand off a claim-ready file instead of a pile of customs invoices

In plain English: even if CBP opens CAPE, many importers will still need help getting from “I think I paid these tariffs” to “here is a clean, supportable set of entries and documents.”

What to do now instead of waiting

If you already have documents

If you do not have documents yet

Start with:

1. your customs broker or carrier brokerage
2. any prior customs packets or duty invoices
3. your AP records for shipment identifiers and broker references

Your immediate goals are:

• get the entry numbers
• get the 7501s or ACE exports
• confirm the Importer of Record
• record liquidation status/date for each affected entry

What the court said on March 12, 2026

The same day CBP filed the CAPE declaration, the CIT entered an order continuing the suspension of its earlier immediate-compliance directive and requiring another short progress report by 2:00 p.m. EDT on March 19, 2026.

That tells you two things:

1. the court is still actively supervising the refund-process rollout, and
2. this topic is changing on a weekly cadence, so any portal-status page needs a clear “last verified” date

Source: CIT order, Mar. 12, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Does CAPE mean refunds will be automatic?

No. CBP’s own described workflow includes review and liquidation/reliquidation, which means a future portal would be a submission and processing mechanism, not a substitute for records, standing, or deadline work. See: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

If I paid the tariff, can I file even if I am not the Importer of Record?

Do not assume that. Refund routing still appears to turn on the IOR and any Form 4811 designee. Confirm what the entry papers show first. See: CBP declaration, Mar. 12, 2026

Should I wait for CAPE before gathering my records?

No. The safest move is to gather the records now. A future portal does not change the need to identify the right entries, the IOR, and liquidation status.