CFIA NISC Processing Delays: What Import Managers Need to Know

NISC Is Backed Up

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed this week that its National Import Service Centre is running behind on import declarations. The systems themselves are fine. The agency is asking importers and brokers to keep filing Integrated Import Declaration (IID) transactions as usual and to use the CFIA Shipment Tracker instead of calling or emailing.

That tells you two things. One, the backlog is human capacity, not system downtime. Two, the volume of status calls is making it worse.

If you’re importing food, plants, or animals, your clearance timeline just stretched. How much depends on what you’re bringing in and whether CBSA needs both the CFIA release and the customs release before freight moves.

How CFIA and CBSA Releases Interact

Most people outside the trade floor think customs clearance is a single gate. It’s not.

When you import a regulated good that falls under CFIA jurisdiction, CBSA won’t release the shipment until CFIA clears it. Your broker files the CAD (Commercial Accounting Declaration, the CARM-era replacement for the old B3), and CBSA pulls that filing into its risk assessment. If the tariff classification or product description triggers an OGD flag for CFIA, the cargo sits until NISC reviews the IID and issues a release decision.

That decision can be immediate, or it can take days. When NISC is running behind, you’re looking at the latter.

The delay hits hardest on perishable goods. Fresh produce, live plants, dairy, meat—anything with a short shelf life or a narrow delivery window. A three-day slip on a reefer container of berries can turn a profitable load into a writeoff. A two-day delay on a nursery shipment in spring planting season means your buyer’s retail schedule is already behind before the truck leaves the port.

What You Can Control

You can’t speed up NISC’s review queue. You can make sure your filing doesn’t sit longer than it has to.

First, file the IID early. If your broker waits until the cargo arrives to submit the CFIA declaration, you’ve already lost a day. Get the IID in as soon as you have the commercial invoice, packing list, and phytosanitary or health certificate. NISC processes declarations in the order they come in. Early filing means early review.

Second, check the Shipment Tracker yourself. The tracker updates faster than a phone call will, and it’s the same information NISC staff would give you if you reached them. Calling to ask “where is my shipment” ties up the same people who are working through the backlog.

Third, make sure your documentation is clean. Incomplete IID submissions or mismatches between the CFIA declaration and the commercial invoice will kick your file back to the bottom of the queue. If the HS classification on the CAD doesn’t align with the product description on the IID, NISC will hold the file until your broker reconciles it. That’s a one-day delay that you caused.

If you’re not sure your brokerage team is filing IIDs the same day they get documents, ask them. If they’re waiting for CBSA release before touching the CFIA side, you’re doing it backwards.

What NISC Delays Mean for Dwell and Demurrage

Cargo that can’t clear CFIA can’t clear CBSA. Cargo that can’t clear CBSA can’t leave the terminal or the sufferance warehouse.

If your shipment is sitting at the Port of Montreal, you’re on the terminal’s free time clock. Once free time expires, demurrage starts. The terminal doesn’t care that NISC is behind. The bill comes regardless.

If your freight is already at a sufferance warehouse waiting for the CFIA release, dwell charges are accruing daily. Most warehouses bill by the pallet-day. A three-day NISC delay on a 20-pallet shipment can add CAD 200 to CAD 400 in storage fees, depending on the rate card. That’s on top of whatever drayage and handling you’ve already paid.

Some importers try to pull the cargo into their own facility and clear it there. That only works if you hold a sufferance warehouse licence. If you don’t, the cargo has to stay in bonded storage until both CBSA and CFIA release it. Moving it early is a violation, and AMPS penalties for unauthorised removal start at CAD 1,000.

If you’re running regular food or plant imports through Montreal and you’re tired of paying terminal demurrage every time CFIA slows down, a standing arrangement with a licensed sufferance warehouse makes sense. We work with FENGYE Logistics’ Montreal facility on exactly this scenario—cargo moves off the terminal to bonded storage, and you wait out the CFIA review without the demurrage clock ticking at port rates.

Fresh Produce and the PARS Window

If you’re using PARS (Pre-Arrival Review System) to release prior to arrival, NISC delays can still catch you.

PARS works well when CBSA is the only gatekeeper. Your broker files the CAD before the truck crosses, CBSA reviews and releases, and the driver rolls through the border with a clean release number. Total border time: ten minutes.

But if the load requires CFIA clearance and NISC hasn’t processed the IID yet, PARS won’t help. The truck will be refused entry or held at primary until CFIA clears. Your driver sits. Your delivery window closes. Your buyer starts calling.

The fix is the same: file the IID days ahead of the shipment, not hours. If NISC is running three days behind, your IID needs to be in their queue at least four days before the truck is scheduled to cross. That’s not always realistic for fresh produce, but it’s the only way to preserve the PARS advantage when CFIA is in the loop.

Should You Call NISC?

No, unless the Shipment Tracker shows an error or your cargo has been sitting with no status update for more than five business days.

NISC’s ask is explicit: use the tracker, don’t call. That’s not a suggestion. It’s triage. Every call they take is time they’re not spending clearing the backlog.

If you’re three days into a delay and the tracker shows “In Review,” calling won’t move your file up. It will pull a NISC officer off review work to tell you what the tracker already says.

If your file has been in review for seven days and it’s a standard commodity import with no obvious red flags, then call. That’s an outlier, and it might be stuck for a reason the tracker won’t show.

The Broader CFIA and CBSA Coordination Issue

This backlog is a capacity problem, not a policy change. NISC has always been the bottleneck for certain product lines—live plants, seeds, soil, meat and poultry, dairy, eggs. The difference now is volume.

Import volumes for food and agricultural products have been climbing since 2021. NISC staffing hasn’t kept pace. When a seasonal spike hits—spring nursery stock, summer berries, fall apple exports reversed as Canadian imports of southern-hemisphere fruit—the review queue grows faster than NISC can clear it.

CBSA has no authority to override a CFIA hold. Even if your CAD is clean, your duties are paid through CARM, and your RPP bond is sufficient, CBSA won’t issue final release until CFIA does. The two agencies coordinate at the system level, but NISC sets its own review timeline.

That coordination gap is where clearance delays live. Your broker can file everything perfectly, your paperwork can be flawless, and your cargo still sits because NISC is working through a hundred other files ahead of yours.

If you’re building lead time into your supply chain, add three to five days for any shipment that requires CFIA clearance until NISC catches up. That’s conservative, but it’s better than explaining to your buyer why the delivery is late.

What We’re Telling Clients

File early. Use the tracker. Don’t call unless the file is stuck, not just slow. Budget for extra dwell time if your cargo is temperature-sensitive or time-sensitive.

If you’re importing food, plants, or animals on a regular cadence and the NISC delays are starting to cost you real money in demurrage or spoilage, we should probably look at your filing process and your storage plan together. That’s the kind of call where an hour of compliance planning saves you five figures over the next quarter. Get in touch.

Source: CSCB