The ability to query a consignee in ACS was shut off with the  September 15, 2017 ACE deployment, and CBP is not planning to create this same ability in the new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).  Read on:

In CBP’s legacy system, ACS, there was a way to query a consignee “as a means for filers to obtain a number which may be used as the ultimate consignee number in cargo release and border cargo release processing when the actual consignee number is not immediately available.”  The application identifier associated with this query was ‘KN.’

This Consignee Name/Address Query transaction allowed a filer to query ACS’s Importer File by transmitting the name and address for an ultimate consignee of interest and receiving a name and address information plus the consignee identification number.

Most importantly, this functionality also provided the ability to determine if CBP had assigned an identification number to a non-resident importer of record.  This feature was a valuable tool for brokers, but no longer.

In a response from the ACE Support Hotline, CBP stated; “U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is aware of the trade communities concerns related to the discontinuation of the KN application in the Automated Commercial System (ACS). At this time, CBP has decided not to develop or transition the KN application in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). To query a Foreign-Based Importer of Record (IOR) number that is already on file with CBP, filers should contact their local or Remote Location Filing (RLF) ports to obtain the CBP-Assigned  IOR number.”

This is one update to ACE that seems to run contrary to the tenant of making information more accessible and transparent.  Brokers and local CBP port staff will have to take additional, and sometimes manual steps to determine this information.