New York & New Jersey
A customs broker for the Port of New York & New Jersey
The largest container port on the East Coast moved 8.9 million TEU in 2025 and finished the year as the nation's second-busiest gateway for loaded containers. Borderless clears entries here under a national permit (CBP filer code NQR): filed electronically, priced in the open, with the port's exam and agency quirks handled for you.
At this port
Filing NY/NJ entries through Borderless
Exams tracked from designation to release
Three Centralized Examination Stations process every physical exam here, and your carrier picks which one. Borderless tracks the designation and CBP's authorization so an exam costs you days rather than weeks.
PGA filings bundled into the rate
About one import container in six here is food. FDA, USDA, and APHIS filings are priced on the rate card: one agency included on Starter, $35 per agency on the agreement plans, never a surprise on the invoice.
0% duty-disbursement
Most brokers charge 2–5% of your duty bill to advance it to CBP. We set up direct ACH payment to CBP free, so that line disappears from your invoice.
Filed before the vessel arrives
ISF before loading, entry ready at arrival. At a port whose peak months run 28% above its quiet ones, filing early is the difference between free flow and demurrage.
The port
What actually moves through NY/NJ
The Port of New York & New Jersey moved roughly $246 billion in goods in 2024 and 8,897,531 TEU in 2025. It's a genuinely two-sided gateway: China leads origins (more than a quarter of 2024 import loads), but Italy, Germany, France, and Turkey together make Europe a first-class trade lane here, which shapes everything from vessel schedules to which agencies see your cargo. Furniture is the top import commodity; food alone was over 730,000 TEU in 2024, roughly one import container in six.
Five container terminals work the harbor: Maher and APM in Elizabeth, Port Newark Container Terminal, Port Liberty Bayonne, and Port Liberty New York on Staten Island (the former GCT terminals; both names still appear in port documents). Red Hook in Brooklyn is the exception that matters below. The harbor's 50-foot channels and the raised Bayonne Bridge opened the docks to vessels over 18,000 TEU, and the port receives 72% of East Coast first ports of call, so cargo discharged here can leave on ExpressRail's on-dock trains toward 50+ inland destinations the same day.
Timing matters here. Peak season is July and August (August 2025 hit 835,845 TEU, the fourth-highest month in the port's history); the December-February trough runs about 28% below peak. And winter is a real operational risk: a February 2026 blizzard closed port facilities for three days, the first such closure in over a decade, then pushed the delayed vessels into a March that made NY/NJ the nation's busiest port that month.
Exams
How exams work here (differently than most ports)
Every physical exam at this port runs through one of three Centralized Examination Stations, all approved for all four exam types, and here's the part that surprises importers: your ocean carrier designates which CES your container goes to, sometimes a different station for New York calls than for New Jersey calls. The transfer usually happens within one business day of the CES receiving CBP's authorization, the importer bears the exam cost, and CTPAT cargo gets preferential treatment. Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn is the one exception: CBP still examines freight on that terminal.
CBP's Port of New York/Newark also runs its cargo-release workflow email-first, with dedicated mailboxes by function and a subject-line convention for agriculture inquiries. None of this is hard once you know it; all of it costs days if you don't. Part of what you're paying a broker for at this port is knowing which lane a problem goes into before the container lands.
Operating conditions worth knowing, as reported in the port's published performance council minutes in late 2025: truck turn times under 40 minutes and rail dwell under two days at Maher; no single port-wide truck appointment system (the port's PortTruckPass portal exists precisely because each terminal runs its own); chassis pooled across depot locations rather than held at terminals; and FDA's move to a centralized service center measurably lengthening container processing times. These shift month to month; we track the council's minutes so you don't have to.
Beyond the docks
Air and rail: the metro's other doors
JFK handled roughly 1.56 million tons of air freight in 2025, nearly half of it international inbound, with CBP, USDA, FDA, and Fish & Wildlife offices on or beside the airport. Newark Liberty adds about 679,000 tons and sits directly next to Port Newark inside Foreign-Trade Zone 49, which makes air-sea and sea-air conversions genuinely practical in this metro. We file air and ocean entries under the same flat rates, so mixed-mode importers keep one broker and one price.
Questions
Filing into NY/NJ: common questions
Do I need a customs broker located in New York or New Jersey to clear at this port?
No. Customs entries are filed electronically in CBP's ACE system, and a broker with a national permit files at any U.S. port. Borderless clears shipments at NY/NJ remotely under filer code NQR, the same way local brokers do, and CBP's own port processes here run email-first.
Who decides where my container gets examined at NY/NJ?
Your ocean carrier. Physical exams at this port run through three Centralized Examination Stations, and the carrier designates which CES its containers go to, sometimes a different one for New York calls than New Jersey calls. Knowing your carrier's designation before arrival is part of managing an exam well. The one exception is Red Hook in Brooklyn, where CBP still examines on the terminal.
How long does a customs exam take at the Port of NY & NJ?
The container transfer to the exam station usually happens within one business day of the CES receiving CBP's transfer authorization, per the Port Authority's published guidance, and containers shouldn't be held up waiting on a charges guarantee. Total time then depends on the exam type and queue. The importer pays exam costs, and CTPAT cargo gets preferential treatment.
Which government agencies will touch my shipment here?
For a large share of importers: FDA and USDA. Roughly one import container in six at this port is food (about 16% of 2024 import loads), so FDA and APHIS filings are routine work here, not an edge case. The port's own agency list also includes APHIS Veterinary Services, FSIS, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Figures from the Port Authority of NY & NJ's published cargo statistics, its 2024 "Port At A Glance," and Council on Port Performance meeting minutes, verified August 30, 2026. Year labels matter: rankings cited are for the years stated. Borderless files at every U.S. port under a national permit and keeps no office in the harbor; seeport coverageand the LA / Long Beach page.
Importing through NY/NJ?
Flat published rates, ISF filed before loading, and a broker who knows which mailbox your problem goes to. Tell us about your shipments.