The most common question we get from importers is not “am I owed money.” It is “why did some of my entries go through and others did not.” The answer is almost always the phase structure of CAPE.
CBP built CAPE to process a very large number of refunds in a short window. To do that, it sorted entries by liquidation status and opened the system in stages. Which stage applies to you depends on where each entry sits on that timeline. Here is the map.
First, what liquidation means
When an entry is filed, CBP has a window to review it and finalize the duties. That finalization is called liquidation. Once an entry is liquidated, there is a further 180-day window to protest. After that window closes without a protest, the entry is “finally liquidated” and, under normal rules, the duties are settled for good.
The Supreme Court decision and the CIT’s refund order upended the “settled for good” part. But CBP still had to decide how to handle entries at each stage, and the phases reflect that.
Phase 1: unliquidated and recently liquidated entries
Opened April 20, 2026.
Covers entries that have not yet liquidated, and entries that liquidated within 80 days of the date you submit the CAPE declaration.
This is the simplest path. The importer of record submits a CAPE declaration in the ACE Portal, identifies the entries, and CBP validates and recalculates. Refunds go to Treasury for payment with interest. As of the government’s August 4 status report, more than 17 million validated entries had been liquidated without IEEPA duties and entered the refund process under this phase.
If your entries were filed in mid-2025 or later, many of them are probably still in Phase 1 territory. That will not stay true forever. Entries liquidate on a rolling basis, generally about a year after entry, and the 80-day clock starts at liquidation.
Phase 2: entries flagged for reconciliation
Opened June 29, 2026.
Covers entries flagged for reconciliation (entry types 01, 02, and 06) where the reconciliation entry (type 09) has not been filed. Same liquidation limits as Phase 1: unliquidated or within 80 days.
The sequencing here matters. CAPE removes the IEEPA duties from the flagged entries first. Then you file the reconciliation entry. That keeps the refund separate from whatever value or classification adjustments the reconciliation is meant to address. If your broker files reconciliation entries on your behalf, coordinate before anything gets submitted.
Excluded from Phase 1 and 2 are reconciliation summaries that were already filed, as well as certain antidumping and countervailing duty entries awaiting liquidation instructions from Commerce.
Phase 3: finally liquidated entries
This is where it gets complicated.
Phase 3 covers entries liquidated more than 80 days before the refund request, including entries that were finally liquidated before CAPE existed. Under normal customs law, CBP does not have authority to reliquidate an entry after the protest window closes.
On July 17, 2026, the CIT issued an order providing that authority. The catch is scope. The order applies to importers who have filed their own case seeking IEEPA refunds at the court. Those plaintiffs submit identifying information to CBP, receive instructions, and then file a CAPE declaration for the finally liquidated entries. CBP filed a progress report on the Phase 3 process on August 4.
Importers who have not filed at the CIT are, for now, outside that order. The government has appealed the underlying refund order, and how finally liquidated entries get handled for non-plaintiffs is an open question. Our read is that waiting is the wrong strategy.
How to sort your own entries
Log into the ACE Portal. Run the ES-003 Entry Summary Detail Report and export it. Add a column for days since liquidation. Then sort:
Unliquidated: Phase 1, file now.
Liquidated, under 80 days: Phase 1, file before the clock runs.
Flagged for reconciliation, type 09 not filed: Phase 2.
Liquidated, over 80 days: Phase 3. Talk to counsel about a CIT filing.
Some importers have entries in all three buckets. That is normal.
What the 80-day line does to your refund
An entry that could have been claimed with an administrative filing becomes an entry that depends on court action once it crosses 80 days past liquidation. The refund amount does not change. The certainty and the effort do. Every week of delay moves more entries across that line.