A shipment held at customs almost always traces back to a documentation gap rather than a policy problem — and most of those gaps are avoidable with a pre-shipment check.
Before You Book
Confirm your IEC is active (including the annual DGFT confirmation), your AD Code is registered with the correct bank branch, and any category-specific licence — APEDA, FSSAI, or a specific export licence — is current, not just applied for.
Commercial Documents
Invoice and packing list details must match exactly: quantities, weights, HS codes and buyer details should be identical across the commercial invoice, packing list and shipping bill. Even minor mismatches are a common cause of manual review.
Certificates of Origin and Compliance
Confirm in advance which certificates your destination market requires — a Certificate of Origin, phytosanitary certificate, or product-specific compliance certificate can each take days to arrange, and cannot be rushed at the last minute.
Bank and Payment Documentation
Where payment is via letter of credit, confirm the LC terms match your shipping documents exactly before goods leave the warehouse — discrepancies here delay both customs clearance and payment release.
Our Recommendation
Run this checklist at least a week before your planned ship date, not the day of booking. Our documentation team reviews shipments against this exact list as standard practice, specifically to keep freight moving on schedule.