When your temporary admission mission is complete and you no longer need your ATA Carnet, you must follow these steps to formally return it and ensure it is discharged correctly.

1. Finalise Your Transactions

Before starting the return process, ensure that all necessary border crossings have been recorded. For digital countries, these transactions should be visible in your History or Notifications tab in the ATA Carnet App or ATA Carnet Desktop.

2. Notify Your Issuing Association (IA)

Once your goods are back in their home country or have been regularised (e.g., definitively exported), you must notify the Chamber of Commerce (IA) that issued your carnet.

• If you are using a digital-only carnet (Use Case 3), you simply notify the IA that the carnet will no longer be used for future travels.
• If you are using a hybrid paper-digital carnet (Use Cases 2, 4, 5, or 6), you must physically return the paper carnet to the IA for discharge.

3. System Update and Deactivation

The returning of the carnet is managed by your Issuing Association through their local issuing system or the ATA Gateway.

• Status Change: The IA will update the lifecycle status of your carnet to Returned.
• Security Lock: Marking the carnet as returned is a critical security step that blocks any further unauthorized digital declarations or Customs transactions using that specific carnet ID.

4. Receive Confirmation

Once the IA has processed the return in the system:

• Push Notification: You will receive an automatic push notification on your smartphone via the ATA Carnet App informing you that the carnet status has changed to "Returned".
• Visibility: You will still be able to view the carnet data and your transaction history in your app or desktop application for your records, but the document will be marked as inactive.

Important Notes

Unused Vouchers: If your digital carnet has unused transaction sets at the time of return, the IA will ensure the digital document is blocked to prevent any misuse after the official discharge.

Reversion Window: If a carnet is marked as "Returned" by mistake, the IA can move it back to "Issued" status, but this action is strictly limited to 30 days after the initial return status was applied.

Liability: Returning the document correctly is essential to ensure your guarantee security is released or maintained according to your NGA’s procedures.