How to Download a Shipping Bill Copy from ICEGATE

Which copy you actually want

"Shipping bill copy" covers more than one document, and asking for the wrong one is most of the delay. ICEGATE's Download e-Copy widget offers six documents, and three of them are on the export side:

• Shipping Bill (SB) after assessment. The bill as customs assessed it. This is what a bank, a buyer or an internal file usually means.
• Shipping Bill after Let Export Order (LEO). The same bill carrying the order that permitted clearance and loading of the goods for export. This is the copy that shows the goods were cleared to leave.
• Gate pass for Let Export Order (LEO). The gate document, not the bill. Useful at the port, rarely what a bank is asking for.

Each row then offers two files: an Acknowledgement Copy and a Signed Document Copy. When somebody says "send me the shipping bill", they almost always mean the signed copy.

The route, step by step

1. Log in to the ICEGATE portal with your ICEGATE ID and password, choosing the user type ICEGATE User.
2. On the dashboard, click the Download e-Copy widget. It expands into its list of documents.
3. Click Shipping Bill (SB) for the assessed copy, or Let Export Order (LEO) for the copy after LEO.
4. Choose how to find the bill. Date takes a date range. Job Number takes the location code, the job number and the job date.
5. Click Search. The matching jobs appear as rows.
6. On the row you want, click the Download Link against the Acknowledgement Copy or the Signed Document Copy. The PDF downloads.

The widget is reachable by authorised custom broker, IEC and SEZ users. So an exporter registered in their own right sees their own bills, and the broker who filed for them reaches the same job from their side. ICEGATE rearranges its dashboard between releases, so if you do not see that name, the thing you are looking for is the download utility for e-copies of documents already filed, and it takes the same two inputs either way: a date range, or a location code with a job number and job date.

The two links expire, at different speeds

This is the part that catches people, and it is worth knowing before you promise a document to somebody.

• The Acknowledgement Copy link stays visible for 7 days. After that it is disabled automatically.
• The Signed Document Copy link stays visible for 90 days. Past that window the document has to be fetched from the backend, which ICEGATE puts at 60 minutes, and it then downloads on its own.

The practical reading: pull the signed copy into your own filing the week the bill clears, not the quarter somebody asks for it. A shipping bill that is three months old is still available, it just stops being instant.

If you are not registered on ICEGATE

An ICEGATE login is a separate thing from your DGFT login. Registration runs under the role Importer/Exporter, and the portal validates a GSTIN and, for an importer or exporter, a valid IEC. It then fetches the contact details already held in GSTN and DGFT records, so the email address and mobile number you verify by one time password have to be the ones sitting on those records. If they are stale, the fix is upstream: correct them in GSTN, or in DGFT for an importer or exporter, and come back. Part way through, the portal issues a reference id that is valid for fifteen days, so a registration begun and abandoned does not have to be begun again from nothing inside that window.

Keep the same discipline you keep on the AD code: one identity, one registered mailbox, one set of contact details that actually reach somebody. Most portal grief downstream is an old email address upstream.

Downloading without a login: the honest answer

This is the real question behind most searches for a shipping bill download, so here it is plainly. ICEGATE's public enquiry services run without any login and will show the bill's data on screen: shipping bill details, item wise reward details, current status, EGM status, drawback query details, other government agency details, IGST invoice details, gateway EGM status, payment details and eDocument validity. Enquiry results carry a Print link, so what is on screen can be printed or saved. What public enquiry does not hand over is the customs copy of the bill as a PDF. That document is behind the login.

Two things to try before you register:

• The mailbox registered at ICEGATE. ICEGATE's own FAQ answers the question "Where do User get Final Print?" with "Registered mail ID". Search that inbox for the job number first.
• The customs broker who filed the bill. Authorised custom broker users reach the same Download e-Copy widget, so the firm that filed your bill can pull the assessed copy, the LEO copy and the gate pass without you registering at all.

If what you actually need is where the bill has reached rather than the document itself, that is a different enquiry and it is free: see how to check shipping bill status, LEO and EGM. And if the bill is being chased because the money against it has not been squared away, the ledger side of that story is in how shipping bills actually close in EDPMS, which is the same reconciliation that produces your eBRC.

You have the PDF. Now get the data out of it

Almost nobody downloads a shipping bill in order to read it. They download it to copy the shipping bill number and date into a bank form, to check the FOB value against an invoice, to lift the item lines into a spreadsheet, or to key the port code and AD code into a portal that will reject a single wrong character. Doing that by eye across forty bills is where an afternoon goes, and it is where the typo that costs you a rejection gets made.

Drop the PDF into the free shipping bill extractor and it reads back every field the bill carries, checked against the arithmetic the bill performs on itself, as CSV or JSON. No sign-up, ten bills a day, and the file is kept so the extractor can be improved against real documents.

Frequently asked questions

How do I download a shipping bill copy from ICEGATE?

Log in to ICEGATE, open the Download e-Copy widget on the dashboard, click Shipping Bill (SB) for the assessed copy or Let Export Order (LEO) for the copy after LEO, search by date range or job number, and click the download link for the Acknowledgement Copy or the Signed Document Copy.

Can I download a shipping bill without logging in?

No. ICEGATE's public enquiry shows a bill's details and status without a login, and the result can be printed, but the customs copy of the bill as a PDF is a post login download. The other routes are the mailbox registered at ICEGATE, which is where ICEGATE says the final print goes, and the customs broker who filed the bill.

How long does the ICEGATE download link stay live?

The Acknowledgement Copy link is visible for 7 days. The Signed Document Copy link is visible for 90 days, after which the document is fetched from the backend, which ICEGATE puts at 60 minutes, and downloads automatically.

What is the difference between the assessed copy and the LEO copy?

The assessed copy is the shipping bill as customs assessed it. The LEO copy is the same bill after the Let Export Order, the order permitting clearance and loading of the goods for export. ICEGATE offers both, plus a gate pass for the Let Export Order.