Finally Liquidated IEEPA Entries: CAPE Phase 1, CIT Orders, and Refund Options

Quick Answer

If an IEEPA entry is finally liquidated, it is likely outside CAPE Phase 1. CBP says Phase 1 covers certain unliquidated entries and certain entries liquidated within the preceding 80 days. Entries beyond that window may need a separate preservation, protest, later-CAPE-phase, or court-order analysis. Start with the entry liquidation date, IOR, CAPE validation result, and any open protest or CIT posture before assuming the refund is gone.

Informational only - not legal advice.

Why this matters now

Many refund delays are not banking problems. Some are entry-status problems.

CBP's CAPE workflow is real and active, but Phase 1 is not universal. CBP's IEEPA Duty Refunds page says Phase 1 is limited to certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation. In the May 26, 2026 court record, CBP reported millions of accepted entries and also millions of entry-level validation failures, including entries beyond CBP's 90-day voluntary reliquidation authority, entries without an IEEPA Chapter 99 code, and duplicate CAPE submissions.

That means a rejected or unpaid entry may be in one of several buckets:

Entry status	CAPE Phase 1 posture	Practical next check
Unliquidated	Potentially eligible if other validation rules pass	CAPE acceptance and entry validation
Liquidated within preceding 80 days	Potentially eligible if other validation rules pass	Liquidation date and CAPE acceptance date
Extended, suspended, under review, or warehouse	May be included, but refund can wait for liquidation	Liquidation status and compliance review
Finally liquidated	Generally outside Phase 1	Protest/CIT/later phase analysis
Reconciliation flagged	CBP says it is working on phased solutions	Reconciliation status and deadline

What "finally liquidated" means

Liquidation is CBP's final computation of duties for an entry. A liquidation is not always immediately beyond correction, but once the statutory voluntary reliquidation and protest windows close, the entry is much harder to change administratively.

For CAPE Phase 1, CBP uses an 80-day lookback for liquidated entries so it has enough time to process reliquidation before the 90th day under 19 U.S.C. 1501. That is why an entry that looks only slightly older than the Phase 1 window can be treated differently from a recently liquidated entry.

What court orders changed - and what they did not change

The IEEPA refund litigation pushed CBP to build CAPE, and court orders addressed unliquidated, not-finally-liquidated, and finally liquidated entries. But CBP's public Phase 1 workflow still does not automatically cover every finally liquidated entry.

The conservative reading for importers is:

Do not confuse the court's refund scope with the current ACE workflow.
Do not treat CAPE rejection as legal advice that no refund path exists.
Do not assume a later CAPE phase will arrive before your preservation deadline.

CBP says that, for Phase 1 entries, a CIT case is not required to receive an IEEPA refund due to you. CBP also says it offers no legal guidance on whether a CIT case must be filed for other entries.

What to ask your broker or internal trade team

Ask for a status package that separates the entry status from the payment status:

entry number and IOR number,
liquidation date and current liquidation status,
whether the entry was included on a CAPE Declaration,
CAPE accepted/rejected result and rejection reason,
whether a protest is open or deadline-sensitive,
whether the entry is flagged for reconciliation,
whether any CIT complaint, court order, or counsel instruction covers the entry.

If an entry is outside Phase 1, the next question is not only "why didn't CBP pay?" It is "what procedural path still exists for this entry?"