AES Response Code 802 Goes Fatal Sept 25, 2026: EEI Filers Must Act

Key Points

• Effective September 25, 2026, CBP will change AESTIR Commodity Filing Response Code 802 from a Verify severity to a Fatal severity, at the request of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
• Once the change takes effect, any Electronic Export Information (EEI) submission that triggers Code 802 will be outright rejected, not merely flagged for review.
• Code 802 fires when a BIS license tolerance is exceeded; the EEI must be corrected and resubmitted before it will be accepted.
• An ACE Certification environment maintenance window is scheduled for August 26, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, during which certification testing will be unavailable.

On this page

1. What is changing and why
2. What Response Code 802 means
3. Impact on EEI filers and compliance teams
4. ACE Certification maintenance window on August 26
5. What exporters and brokers should do now
6. Key references

CBP, acting on a BIS request, will elevate AESTIR Commodity Response Code 802 from Verify to Fatal on September 25, 2026. Any EEI that exceeds a BIS license tolerance will be rejected at submission rather than passed through with a warning, forcing exporters to correct the underlying data before the shipment can proceed in AES.

The links in this article go to the primary documents: the official CBP CSMS notices themselves. Read the source.

What is changing and why

CBP published CSMS #69647661 on August 25, 2026, announcing the severity upgrade. The change originates with BIS, the agency that administers Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and issues the licenses that underlie Code 802. Elevating the code to Fatal aligns AES enforcement with BIS's view that a license tolerance breach is a compliance failure that must be corrected before export, not simply noted after the fact.

What Response Code 802 means

AESTIR Response Code 802 carries the narrative text: "BIS LIC TOLERANCE EXCEEDED: [License Number]." It fires when the declared license value on the CL1 Input Record exceeds the tolerance allowed under the referenced BIS export license. Under the current Verify severity, AES passes the EEI through and alerts the filer. Under the new Fatal severity, AES will reject the EEI entirely. The submission will not be accepted, and the shipment cannot legally depart until a corrected EEI is filed and accepted.

Impact on EEI filers and compliance teams

For exporters and freight forwarders who file EEI directly in AES, and for customs brokers who file on behalf of exporters, the practical consequence is immediate: a Code 802 error that previously allowed a shipment to move with a warning will now stop it cold. Operations teams that rely on workarounds or plan to clean up license data after the fact will need to change their workflows before September 25. Companies with high-volume license-based exports, particularly those shipping dual-use goods under EAR licenses with cumulative value tolerances, face the greatest exposure.

ACE Certification maintenance window on August 26

Separately, CSMS #69648556 notifies trade participants of a standard invasive maintenance window in the ACE Certification environment on August 26, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET. The Certification environment is used for testing EDI connections, new CATAIR implementations, and partner government agency message-set integrations. No impact to the ACE Production environment is stated, but any certification testing or integration work scheduled during that window should be rescheduled.

What exporters and brokers should do now

• Audit open BIS licenses now. Pull every active export license used in AES filings and verify that remaining authorized value is not at or near tolerance limits before September 25, 2026.
• Update internal EEI filing procedures. Remove any process steps that treat Code 802 as a soft warning to be resolved post-shipment. After September 25, the EEI must be corrected before AES will accept it.
• Coordinate with technology and AES service providers. Confirm that internal AES systems or third-party filing platforms will surface a Fatal 802 rejection clearly and route it for immediate correction rather than logging it as a non-blocking alert.
• Avoid ACE Certification testing on August 26 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET. Reschedule any integration or EDI testing planned during that maintenance window.

Key references

• CSMS #69647661 - CBP notice announcing AESTIR Response Code 802 severity change to Fatal, effective September 25, 2026.
• CSMS #69648556 - CBP notice of ACE Certification standard invasive maintenance window, August 26, 2026, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET.