Advance enquiry on sampling of foods and consumer goods

If you have sufficient information for submitting a final customs declaration, choose option D for the declaration.

If you still do not have all the information required for your customs declaration, you should use the E/F declaration. If you need to submit simplified customs declarations regularly, remember to apply for an SDE authorisation.

Customs does not control any other information content in an advance customs declaration submitted based on an advance enquiry on sampling. Such declarations are used only for considering if samples should be taken of goods.

The declarant is responsible for ensuring that the details provided in the notification are correct.
 

Here is what you do to make an advance enquiry on sampling with a customs declaration submitted in advance (D, E and F):

• On the declaration header, enter the additional confirmation code “FIKUS – Advance enquiry on sampling” and the description “Advance enquiry on sampling, estimated arrival date dd/mm.”.
• Provide the previous document:
  • If the correct previous document is known, enter the information as instructed on the page “Providing the previous document”.
  • If the previous document is not known, provide the previous document code “1ZZZ – Other previous document” and the document reference “not yet known”. 
    Correct the information before presenting the goods. See the instructions on corrections in the section "How to amend previous document details and other details”.
  • Note that if the consignment is arriving by road from Norway without a transit procedure, you should not provide any previous document information.  
• Enter the reference number of the TRACES declaration on goods for which a TRACES declaration is required. An advance enquiry on sampling cannot be submitted before the required TRACES declarations are in place. 
• You can add the estimated time of arrival in the additional reference section so that Customs can consider the order of urgency in processing declarations, where possible. Customs processes declarations mainly in their order of arrival, but strives to consider the estimated times of arrivals of goods in the processing. 
• Attach the commercial invoice and other possible documents pertaining to the consignment, such as the bill of lading or a corresponding document. The supported attachment file types are pdf, jpg, png and tif. The maximum attachment size is 5 MB.
  • If you have attached for example a phytosanitary certificate or a certificate of compliance from the country where fruits and vegetables originate to your TRACES declaration, you do not need to attach them to the advance enquiry on sampling. 
• Check the other instructions on pre-lodged declarations at Pre-lodged declarations.

Customs replies to your advance enquiry in the Customs Clearance Service or in message format. In reply, Customs will notify you whether or not the import goods are to be sampled. Customs will also provide any other possible further instructions.

If you must submit a new customs declaration in order to correct information in the previous document or for splitting a declaration, enter the reply from Customs in the new customs declaration as instructed under “How to amend previous document details and other details”. 

If the goods are not presented within 30 days and the declaration is invalidated automatically, you can provide the reply from Customs to your advance enquiry on sampling in the new customs declaration. You can do this if the information in your declaration remains the same.

If there are changes to the information in the declaration for example due to the goods being sold, you should submit a new advance enquiry on sampling with a pre-lodged declaration. You can also request for invalidation of the original declaration.

If you provided the previous document code 1ZZZ in your pre-lodged customs declaration for the advance enquiry on sampling, you should amend the details of the previous document. Amend the details before the goods are presented to Customs. Customs will not be able to continue processing your declaration until the details of the previous document have been amended and the goods are presented to Customs. Do not remove the additional information code “FIKUS – Advance enquiry on sampling” from the pre-lodged declaration being amended.

The goods have already been presented to Customs

If the carrier has already presented the goods to Customs, you can no longer amend the pre-lodged declaration and you need to submit a new declaration. Provide the following details in the new declaration:

• Standard customs declaration (A). You can use a simplified declaration (B, C) if you do not yet have all the required details available for the declaration. 
• Additional information code and the MRN of the declaration with which the advance enquiry was made. Provide one of the following additional information codes: 
  • “FICON – Declarant requests the contact of the Customs Officer” and the description ”Samples to be taken, 25FIU0000XXXXXXXRX”
  • “FIXXX – Other additional information” and the description “No samples, 25FIU0000XXXXXXXRX”.

Do not provide the additional information code “FIKUS – Advance enquiry on sampling” in the new declaration.

Read more about submitting a replacement declaration. 

Amending other details

In addition to the previous document details, be sure to amend any other incorrect or insufficient details in the customs declaration. For example, if you have provided details of a means of transport according to estimates in the advance enquiry, you should amend the details.

Note that the declarant is responsible for ensuring that the details provided in the declaration are correct.

Details you cannot amend after the declaration is submitted

• additional declaration type
• declarant
• representative
• status of representation
• requested procedure.

If samples are to be taken of some of the goods declared in the customs declaration, the declaration can be split before the sampling under certain conditions.

After splitting the declaration, the goods that are not sampled can be released for free circulation. If the declaration has not been split, none of the goods in the declaration will be released from customs supervision until the examination results are ready. That is why it pays to split the customs declaration in these situations.

Here is how you split your declaration:

• If the original declaration is in the registered status, you can correct the information in the declaration so that the goods selected for sampling remain in the declaration.

You should also fill in a new customs declaration for goods that will not be sampled. Provide additional information code “FIXXX – Other additional information” and the description "No samples and the MRN of the declaration with which the advance enquiry was made". 

In this new declaration, the additional information codes “FIJAE – Split declaration” and “FIKUS – Advance enquiry on sampling” are not to be provided.

If the previous document has already been presented, you cannot correct the information in your pre-lodged declaration. See instructions for customs declarations involving advance enquiries on sampling under “How to amend previous document details and other details”.

• If the original declaration is approved, you should fill in two new customs declarations, in both of which you should include the additional information code “FIJAE – Split declaration” and the MRN of the original import declaration as the code specifier in the description field. Do not provide the additional information code “FIKUS” in your new declarations. 
  
  Read more about splitting a customs declaration.