19 CFR 122.22 Requires Pilots of Private Aircraft to Transmit eAPIS Manifest and Notice to CBP at Least 60 Minutes Before Departure

Under 19 CFR 122.22, the pilot of every private aircraft flight arriving in the United States from a foreign place, or departing the United States for one, must see that a manifest covering each person aboard, crew included, and a notice of arrival or departure for the aircraft are sent electronically to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in one transmission. The transmission is due no later than 60 minutes before departure, which the regulation defines as the point at which the aircraft is airborne and en route directly to its destination.

The pilot is responsible for the submission, accuracy, correctness, timeliness and completeness of the information, but may authorize another party, such as a scheduler, dispatcher or trip-support provider, to submit it. For each traveler, the manifest requires twelve data elements: full name, date of birth, gender, citizenship, country of residence, status on board, travel document type, document number, country of issuance, expiration date, alien registration number where applicable, and address while in the United States. The pilot must compare each traveler's travel document with the information being transmitted. The notice of arrival or departure requires twenty items covering the aircraft, the flight and itinerary, the owner or lessee, the operator, the pilot, and a 24-hour emergency contact.

CBP's definitions in 19 CFR 122.1 classify a flight as private or commercial by the flight itself rather than by FAA operating part. A private aircraft is one on a personal or business flight that is not carrying passengers or cargo for commercial purposes, which includes a Part 91 flight department's own flights.

Outbound, the pilot must receive a DHS message approving departure; inbound, a DHS message approving landing before leaving the foreign airport. The aircraft may not leave until CBP responds. It must land at the airport designated in its APIS transmission unless CBP instructs otherwise or the FAA requires a change for safety. A diverted emergency flight not originally destined for the United States must transmit no later than 30 minutes before arrival.

The National Business Aviation Association notes that CBP requires all general aviation and commercial aircraft on international flights to or from the United States to provide passenger manifest and aircraft information before departure through the Advance Passenger Information System, and points to 19 CFR Part 122 for the legal requirements for private and commercial operations.

The rule places legal responsibility on the pilot, not on the scheduler or trip-support provider who often files the data. Delegation is permitted, but the pilot still answers for accuracy, timeliness and completeness. In practice, flight departments and trip-support firms need a clear internal handoff on who collects traveler documents and who checks them against the transmitted data before the 60-minute mark.

Because CBP sorts flights by what they do rather than by FAA part, the private-versus-commercial question turns on whether passengers or cargo are carried for payment or other commercial purposes. A company flying its own staff on a Part 91 flight is treated as private, while carriage for compensation falls on the commercial side. Operators that mix flight types, or that route trips through different providers, face different obligations from one leg to the next.

The 60-minute deadline is anchored to the moment the aircraft is airborne and en route directly to its destination, not to scheduled departure. The no-departure-without-a-response condition therefore sets the practical timeline: manifests and notices have to be complete early enough for CBP's reply to arrive before the aircraft leaves.