46 U.S.C. § 60105
Section 60105 · Clearance of vessels
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Angelex Ltd. v. United States (2013)
Most recently applied in Angelex Ltd. v. United States (September 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Vessels of the United States.—Except as otherwise provided by law, a vessel of the United States shall obtain clearance from the Secretary of Homeland Security before proceeding from a port or place in the United States—
(1) for a foreign port or place;
(2) for another port or place in the United States if the vessel has on board foreign merchandise for which entry has not been made; or
(3) outside the territorial sea to visit a hovering vessel or to receive merchandise while outside the territorial sea.
(b) Other Vessels.—Except as otherwise provided by law, a vessel that is not a vessel of the United States shall obtain clearance from the Secretary before proceeding from a port or place in the United States—
(1) for a foreign port or place;
(2) for another port or place in the United States; or
(3) outside the territorial sea to visit a hovering vessel or to receive or deliver merchandise while outside the territorial sea.
(c) Regulations.—The Secretary may by regulation—
(1) prescribe the manner in which clearance under this section is to be obtained, including the documents, data, or information which shall be submitted or transmitted, pursuant to an authorized data interchange system, to obtain the clearance;
(2) permit clearance to be obtained before all requirements for clearance are complied with, but only if the owner or operator of the vessel files a bond in an amount set by the Secretary conditioned on the compliance by the owner or operator with all specified requirements for clearance within a time period (not exceeding 4 business days) established by the Secretary; and
(3) permit clearance to be obtained at a place other than a designated port of entry, under conditions the Secretary may prescribe.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 60105 46 App.:91. R.S. §4197; Aug. 5, 1935, ch. 438, title II, §209, 49 Stat. 526; June 16, 1938, ch. 476, §1, 52 Stat. 758; Sept. 1, 1954, ch. 1213, title V, §501(a), 68 Stat. 1140; Pub. L. 103–182, title VI, §686(b), Dec. 8, 1993, 107 Stat. 2221; Pub. L. 106–476, title I, §1452(a)(3), Nov. 9, 2000, 114 Stat. 2167. The Secretary of Homeland Security is substituted for the Customs Service and for the Secretary of the Treasury because the functions of the Customs Service and of the Secretary of the Treasury relating thereto were transferred to the Secretary of Homeland Security by section 403(1) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107–296, 116 Stat. 2178).