MRN
Also known as: Movement Reference Number
The MRN, Movement Reference Number, is the unique number Customs assigns to an accepted declaration. It is eighteen characters long and follows the shipment through the whole process.
How is an MRN built up?
An MRN consists of eighteen characters: two digits for the year, two letters for the country, twelve characters that identify the office and the declaration, and a check character. A Dutch number in 2026 starts with 26NL. That check character makes it possible to spot a typing error at once, which is useful at manual entry at the desk or at the terminal. The number is assigned on acceptance, not on filing. A refused declaration gets no MRN, only an error message. That distinction is in the operation the difference between a container that may leave the gate and a file that is still open. Without an MRN there is no declaration to report. An internal file number of the forwarder is not an MRN. The MRN is the number under which Customs knows the declaration. Anyone in the chain who passes on the internal number instead of the MRN gets a refusal without a clear cause, because the terminal or the office of destination does not recognise that number.
What do you use the MRN for?
With the MRN you report goods at a terminal, you link a transport document to a declaration and you follow the status of a shipment. In customs transit it is the key with which the office of destination reports the procedure. On export it is the number with which the office of exit confirms departure. In the Netherlands the MRN is also the basis for release: without an accepted MRN a container does not leave the terminal. The terminal links the number via Portbase to the container number. That link is a separate step, besides the acceptance of the declaration itself. Both have to be there. On a shipment with a T1 and a later IMA there are two MRNs. Reporting the wrong number produces a refusal. So pass on per link the number of that declaration, not the number of the file. A file can have three MRNs and only one container number.
Does every declaration get an MRN?
Every accepted declaration gets one: import, export, customs transit and summary declarations. A refused declaration gets no MRN, only an error message. A draft or a draft IMA in DMS is not yet a declaration; the number only arises on acceptance by Customs. An MRN applies to a declaration, not to a container. A shipment with three declarations has three MRNs, and a declaration with fifty containers has one. Those fifty containers all need the same number at reporting. Anyone who expects an own MRN per container is looking for a number that is not there. DECO declarations also get a reference, in the Dutch system for the e-commerce flow. That is a different channel from DMS, but the principle is the same: without an accepted number the shipment does not move. Do not confuse the DECO number with an IMA MRN if the same seller has both flows.
How do you use the MRN in the chain?
On arrival in a Dutch seaport the terminal links the MRN to the container number via Portbase. Without that link the terminal does not release the container, even if the declaration was accepted long ago. The declarant must therefore not only have the number, they must also pass it on to the party that collects the container. In customs transit the MRN travels with the accompanying document. The office of destination uses it to report the arrival, after which the office of departure discharges the procedure. On export the office of exit uses the MRN to confirm that the goods have left the EU. That message comes back to the declarant and is the proof for the VAT zero rate. In all three cases the MRN is the key with which two systems look at the same shipment. A number that sits in the declaration system and not at the terminal, or the other way around, is a shipment that stands still while everyone thinks it is on the way.
What goes wrong with MRNs?
The most common error is an MRN that has been created but not passed on to the party that needs it. The container then stands at the terminal while the declaration is in order, and nobody sees where it sticks. The second error is mixing up MRNs within a shipment. A cargo with a T1 and a separate import declaration has two numbers. A third is the assumption that an MRN identifies a container. It does not: it identifies a declaration. A declaration with twenty containers has one, and those twenty containers all need the same number at reporting. A fourth is a typing error in the eighteen characters, which the check character sometimes catches and sometimes does not if two characters have been swapped. A fifth is keeping the old number after a correction. A replaced declaration gets a new MRN. The old number is then dead. Reporting with the old number produces a refusal, while the new number sits ready in the declarant's system.
How do you follow a shipment with an MRN?
For customs transit the EU offers a public MRN follow-up with which you can look up the status of a T1 or T2: accepted, in transit, arrived, discharged. That is the tool with which you see whether the office of destination has reported back, without calling the office. For import and export declarations you see the status in your own declaration system, not in that public tool. In the Netherlands you see the release status of an IMA back in DMS, and the terminal status via Portbase or MyTerminal. The MRN is the key in both. A green light in DMS and a red light at the terminal means the link is missing, not that the declaration has been refused. Keep the MRN with the file, beside the container number and the internal file number. Anyone who gets a question from Customs six months later has nothing on the internal number. The MRN is what Customs knows, and it is what you need in an enquiry, an appeal or a discharge.
Where do you find the MRN and what do you pass on?
The MRN stands on the accompanying document of the declaration and in the feedback from the declaration system. In customs transit it stands on the Transit Accompanying Document that travels with the shipment. On import and export it stands in the acceptance message. Print or save that message; without that confirmation you have no proof of acceptance. Pass the MRN on to the party that needs it: the terminal, the carrier, the office of destination, the consignee. Do that with eighteen characters, without spaces, with the right year. A number from last year on a shipment of this year is a different file. Do not pass on the internal file number as MRN, and do not pass on the MRN of the T1 if the terminal asks for the IMA number. Say which declaration the number belongs to. In a chain with T1, IMA and export that is the difference between a container that moves and a container that stands.