NEWS & BLOG
Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-10-01 Origin: Site
1A, 4A, 7H, 1H, 2H, 5H, 9H. They look like random license plates. In reality, they are the difference between a container that clears in hours and one that misses its window and sails back to China at your expense.
Over the last shipping season, 5H and 9H exams have been hitting China-to-USA lanes at unusually high rates. Containers are being held, delivery windows are slipping, and the only exit left is an expensive reshipping or abandonment. This guide decodes all seven exam codes, ranks their risk, and shows the structural fix that turns a customs lottery into a controlled process.
CBP doesn't announce "we're auditing your trade." It tags your file with a two-character exam code. Here is what each one means, in plain language.
| Code | Exam type | What it actually checks | Open the container? | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Document review | Paperwork only — the lightest touch | No | Low |
| 4A | Transitional exam | Docs reviewed first; can escalate into a physical exam | Maybe | Medium |
| 7H | X-ray scan | Non-intrusive imaging; escalates to open if something looks off | No (usually) | Medium |
| 1H | Physical / manifest exam | Manual opening and inspection — the most common US-line exam | Yes | Medium |
| 2H | USDA agriculture exam | Specialized check for wood pallets, plants, animal products | Yes | Medium |
| 5H | Deep trade-doc audit | Verifies the entire shipment's trade authenticity | Maybe | High |
| 9H | IOR qualification exam | Verifies the importer of record's legal validity | Maybe | High |
This is the section to screenshot. Most shippers fear the wrong thing.
5H audits this shipment's trade documents.
9H audits the importer of record's legal existence and validity.
Read that twice. They are not the same risk. A 5H problem is usually fixable with better paperwork — invoices, valuation, country-of-origin, HTS codes. A 9H problem is about who is importing, not what.
Here is the nightmare scenario we keep seeing on the US-bound lanes: the goods are perfect, the commercial invoice is clean, the HTS classification is correct — and the container is still detained. Why? The IOR entity behind the entry is expired, mismatched, or simply not qualified. Under a 9H exam, that alone is enough to hold the cargo and, at the extreme, force a return to origin.
The cruel part: perfect cargo + broken IOR = forced return risk. No amount of invoice polishing saves a 9H if the importer of record doesn't hold up.
There is no magic code to avoid. But two things consistently reduce loss when exams hit:
Most of the pain above comes from one structural gap: the buyer is wearing the importer-of-record hat without the infrastructure to wear it well. That is exactly where DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) rewrites the outcome.
Under a DDP shipment, the shipper / logistics provider acts as the importer of record and owns the entry end-to-end — duties, customs clearance and final delivery included. For a China-to-USA move, that means:
STU Supply Chain runs a dedicated DDP service from Shenzhen to Los Angeles — duties paid, customs cleared, delivered. Built for importers who would rather not discover a 9H exam the hard way.
See the Shenzhen → Los Angeles DDP service →9H is an importer-of-record (IOR) qualification exam. CBP verifies that the entity listed as importer is a valid, qualified U.S. party. If the IOR is expired, mismatched or unqualified, the cargo can be held and even forced back — even when the goods and their documents are perfect.
5H audits the trade documents of this specific shipment (invoice, value, origin, HTS). 9H audits the importer of record's legal validity. A 5H issue is usually fixed with better paperwork; a 9H issue is fixed by having a qualified IOR — which is why DDP (where the provider is the IOR) removes the exposure.
It varies sharply by port and backlog. Light document reviews (1A) can clear in hours; physical (1H), agriculture (2H), deep-doc (5H) and IOR (9H) exams can take days to weeks. Published averages are industry reference only — Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York and Savannah do not run at the same speed.
DDP doesn't make exams disappear, but it changes who carries the IOR risk. Because the DDP provider acts as the importer of record with established U.S. qualification, the severe 9H exposure that hits first-time buyers is structurally removed, and document consistency is handled by professionals.
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the seller/provider pays duties, handles customs clearance and delivers to the U.S. door. For China-to-USA freight — e.g. Shenzhen to Los Angeles — it gives the buyer a single accountable partner and removes the importer-of-record burden.
FAQPage JSON-LD below into your page <head> or before </body> to improve eligibility for Google rich results and AI Overviews. Update the dateModified when you revise. You can't choose your exam code. But you can choose a structure where a 9H never becomes your problem: clean, consistent documents and a qualified importer of record. Pair that with a DDP lane built for the China-to-USA corridor, and the seven codes stop being a threat and go back to being paperwork.