Amendment of a declaration after release

If Customs has already released the goods for the export procedure, any errors in the export declaration can only be corrected by making a request for amendment after release (request for administrative review).

Amendment after release can be requested by the declarant or the declarant’s representative provided in the export declaration. In special situations, amendment can be requested in writing via the Customs Registry Office.

If the amendment request is submitted by a declarant who didn’t submit the original export declaration, the amendment request can only concern declared goods that have already exited the territory of the EU. 

The exporter and the representative have to ensure that the details provided in the export declaration are correct, so that a possible amendment process won’t delay the transport of the goods. The declarant must also make sure that only one export declaration is made for the goods in question.

When to make an amendment request?

An amendment request must be made as soon as the error is detected. The party making the request must wait for the amendment decision to be accepted before the goods can exit the customs territory of the EU.

An amendment request can also be made after the goods have exited the customs territory of the EU, but under certain restrictions, which mainly concern re-export declarations. The amendment request must be made no later than within three years from the time Customs has accepted the original export declaration as received for the procedure. 
Finnish Customs only amends Finnish export declarations, that is, export declarations for goods placed under the export procedure in Finland.

The location of the goods, that is, the place in Finland where the goods are available for inspection, must also be provided in the amendment request. If the goods are not in Finland, the location provided in the original declaration should also be provided in the request.

Appeal against an amendment decision

You can make an appeal against Customs’ decision on your amendment request (request for administrative review). Send a free-form petition of appeal to the Customs Registry Office.

Other things to note

The written request for amendment or invalidation must be made with customs form no. 701s (in Finnish) on Customs’ website. The form is sent to Customs by e-mail or by post. The amendment or invalidation request has to contain the MRN or the transaction identifier of the export transaction as well as the reasons for the amendment or invalidation.

In a request for amendment, the customer must provide all the new information affected by the amendment. The status of the export declaration is entered in the form (waiting for release/has been released).  The required documents and reports shall be attached to the request.

The one-hour processing time is not applied to the processing of the amendment request. If the export goods have already exited the Union, the amendment is not considered urgent, and Customs will process the request as non-urgent.

Amendment and invalidation request, customs form 701s (in Finnish)

An electronic amendment request can be made either via the e-service or via message exchange. Amendment of an export declaration submitted via message exchange can be requested in the Customs Clearance Service. In the service, the export declaration is retrieved using the MRN. 

  • In the Customs Clearance Service

An electronic amendment request can be made in  Customs’ Customs Clearance Service. The declarant must identify themselves in the service to search for the declaration to be amended.

For detailed instructions, see the user manual.

  • Message exchange

To submit an amendment request via message exchange, the sender of the request must be registered as a message exchange customer in export.

In message exchange, an amendment request is made using the following messages:

  • FI513 amendment request
  • FI583 amendment request for declaration for ship supplies 
  • FI593 amendment request for declaration for goods in pipelines. 

As a response to a correct amendment request, Customs’ system sends a registration notification (FI526) and then either an amendment acceptance notification (FI503) or an amendment request rejection notification (FI505), as well as a related decision in PDF format (amendment decision or rejection decision). If, in the checks upon receipt, the amendment request is found to have an incorrect format, the message declarant will only receive a rejection notification (FI516) without a rejection decision. 

If Customs doesn’t accept the amendment request and is making an adverse decision, Customs will send a hearing request (FI530). The company will send a hearing response (FI546) and provide its rejoinder to Customs’ proposed decision.

In an electronic amendment request, the same fields are to be filled in as in the export declaration to be amended, but with amended details. In addition, the following must be provided:

  • date and time of amendment request
  • reason code for amendment request
    • M ‒ Other errors observed by declarant
    • T ‒ Erroneous declaration data. UCC Article 173(3) or Administrative Procedure Act, section 50
  • description of the reason for the amendment request
    • free-form description of the reason for the amendment 
    • Alternatively, you can send the description as an attachment. In that case, upload the attachment and, in the message, enter “provided information” as well as the attachment reference number issued by Customs.
  • MRN of the original declaration to be amended
  • the party making the request, that is, the declarant in the original declaration.
  • in message exchange, provide “OIK” as the amendment type in the amendment request (FI513). This type of amendment is always made after release.

If you as a message declarant wish to remove a goods item, send the amendment request (FI513) without the goods item details. However, don’t change the goods item sequence numbers of the other goods items. They must be the same as in the original declaration, and the missing goods item is jumped over.

Amendment can’t be requested for all details in the export declaration. If one of the following details in the export declaration is incorrect, the declaration must be invalidated. After this, a new export declaration with the correct details must be submitted.

The following details can’t be amended:

  • MRN
  • LRN
  • declaration type and additional declaration type
  • actual date of export and date of presentation
  • security indicator 
  • the following trader details:
    • representative 
    • declarant
    • exporter
    • service provider
    • AEO
  • location and related details, such as address or contact person for control
  • customs offices, customs offices of export, exit and presentation.

Re-export from customs warehouse (3171) can only be amended to re-export (procedure code beginning with 31).

If the original export declaration contains excise goods and e-ADs are used as the previous documents for the goods item, the commodity codes and net masses of the goods items can’t be amended unless the e-ADs have also been amended. In these cases, no goods items can be removed either.

The procedure code can be amended in the following situations:

  • The procedure for permanent export beginning with 10 can be amended to the temporary export procedure code beginning with 21, 22 or 23. Amendment to temporary export can also be requested after the goods have exited the EU. However, amending permanent export to export for outward processing (procedure code 21xx, simplified authorisation procedure) is only possible if the goods are still in Finland. After the amendment request, Customs will give you instructions for submitting a new export declaration depending on whether you use an authorisation granted by the Customs Authorisation Centre or an export declaration (simplified authorisation procedure) as the outward processing authorisation. The INF number must be provided in the new export declaration.
  • If you wish to amend permanent export (10XX) to re-export (31XX) or a re-export declaration to a declaration for permanent export, contact the Electronic Service Centre (Spake). Spake will decide whether to accept the amendment request. You can contact Spake via the Customs Clearance Service or with the message “Free-form contact request” (FI539).

Updated: