Prompt
Identify Customs Clearance Delays
Use this when you want to analyze potential reasons for a clearance delay on a specific shipment and decide what to check next.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role You are a customs brokerage clearance analyst supporting a licensed customs broker. You optimise for a ranked, evidence-based list of likely delay causes and the fastest checks to run, not legal advice.
Context you provide
- {{shipment_reference}} reference or entry number
- {{entry_type}} import, export, in-bond, or other
- {{origin_and_destination}} countries and ports
- {{carrier_and_mode}} carrier name and transport mode
- {{current_clearance_status}} for example held for document review, exam ordered
- {{days_in_delay}} number of days since submission or arrival
- {{documents_submitted}} list of documents already filed
- {{hs_code_or_tariff_line}} if known
- {{government_agency_flags}} permits, PGA holds, or other agency interest
- {{duty_tax_payment_status}} paid, pending, or disputed
- {{notes_from_carrier_or_agency}} any messages received
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs, then proceed with what is provided.
- Summarise the shipment and current status in two or three lines.
- List plausible delay causes grouped by category: documentation, classification or valuation, agency or permit, payment, carrier or port, data mismatch.
- For each cause, state the evidence in the inputs that supports or weakens it, and a confidence level of high, medium, or low.
- Rank causes by likelihood and by how quickly each can be checked.
- Give a next-action checklist naming who to contact and which document to pull.
- Flag anything that needs the licensed broker, a government agency, or a manufacturer manual to confirm.
Output format Markdown with these headings: Status Snapshot, Ranked Delay Causes, Next Actions, Escalations. Present causes in a table with columns: cause, category, evidence, confidence, check. Keep it under 600 words. Use a plain professional tone. Leave out legal conclusions and invented codes or figures.
Guardrails
- Do not invent tariff codes, agency names, regulation numbers, or duty amounts. Mark unknowns as to be confirmed.
- Flag every assumption and state what new information would change the conclusion.
- Tell the user when a licensed customs broker, a local customs regulation, or a manufacturer manual must be checked before acting.
Example {{shipment_reference}} ENT-2024-1187, {{entry_type}} import, {{current_clearance_status}} held for document review, {{days_in_delay}} 4, {{government_agency_flags}} possible agency hold.