There are many hurdles to becoming a U.S. Customs broker, and many more reasons to do so. You might want to become a U.S. Customs Broker to work in the trade compliance industry, put you foot in the door of a big company, or to import your own products once you obtain your license. But, what is exactly needed to become a U.S. Customs Broker? There are four requirements to becoming a U.S. Customs Broker. Some of these requirements may seem a little silly and vague, but they are part of the requirements non-the-less. In this article, I will go through each requirement and briefly discuss these requirements in detail.

The first requirement to becoming a U.S. Customs Broker is that the individual who is applying for the U.S. Customs Broker License needs to be a U.S. citizen. I have had multiple individuals in the past reach out to me asking on how to study for the U.S. Customs Broker License Exam (also known as CBLE) because they were working as a Customs Broker in another country or because they wanted to become a U.S. Customs Broker to get into the industry within the U.S. Some of these individuals were not U.S. citizens, therefore, had to re-evaluate their career pathways.

The second requirement is to be at least 21 years ago. This requirement needs to be met when an individual is applying for the license itself, NOT when an individual is taking the CBLE. This means that if you are at least 18 years old, you can take the CBLE. But, if you pass the exam before reaching age 21, you will need to wait to be 21 years old before you can apply for the Customs Broker License with U.S. Customs.

The third requirement is that the individual must be “of good moral character”. This is one of those vague statement that I mentioned earlier. There is no exact definition of what it means to be “of good moral character”, but there are certain things which might potentially disqualify someone from obtain a Customs Broker License. Things that might impact an applicant will include criminal records and such. If there are things that might be vague on whether they fall under “of good moral character” or not, I suggest you reach out to CBP and find out before you even start preparing for the exam.

The fourth and last requirement that an individual must meet to become a U.S. Customs Broker is to be able to pass the CBLE (Customs Broker License Examination). You will pass this exam if you are able to obtain a score of 75% or more. If you do not achieve a score of 75%, there is an appeal process in which you can fight for questions that you feel were incorrect or had better answers than what CBP stated. I would say that passing this exam is the hardest obstacle that you can face on your journey to becoming a U.S. Customs Broker.

These requirements can also be found in 19 CFR part 111.