How much do you actually verify before you accept a power of attorney?

To mark the difference plainly: we do not use a power of attorney in that form here. Representation is either direct or indirect, and where it is indirect the representative becomes jointly liable for the customs debt.

That liability is precisely why the verification is not optional. A representative who accepts an appointment without establishing who the principal actually is has taken on a debt on behalf of a party they cannot identify.

Your standard does not read as strict to me. It reads as someone who has understood what they are signing. And the difficulty you describe, an inexperienced importer who cannot see why any of it matters, is the same on both sides of the Atlantic.

Your employer is not stricter than most. Your employer is doing it properly.

Direct execution by the importer of record, identification, and the 5106 is the floor, not the ceiling. I have had a client film himself signing so that there could be no argument later about who executed it. That file is still in my records.

And the forwarder is not arguing with you. He is arguing with the fact that he does not want to go back to his own customer and ask for paperwork. That is his problem. Take the shortcut and it becomes yours.

There are two questions in your post and they have different answers.

The first is whether your standard is correct. It is, and the reason is that the power of attorney is the instrument by which you acquire the authority to act at all. If it was not validly granted, everything filed under it is exposed, and the exposure sits with you, not with the forwarder who wanted it done quickly.

The second question is the one you have not asked yet: what to do when an importer edits the document. It happens far more often than people expect: a paragraph struck through, a clause quietly narrowed. Never accept an amended power of attorney without reading what was changed. An importer who removes the wording that lets you correct an entry has left you holding an obligation you can no longer perform.

Speaking from the side of the desk that annoyed you: he is not arguing about the rules. He is arguing because his customer is waiting and he has decided the paperwork is the thing standing between them.

That is worth knowing, because it tells you how to move him. Do not send another link. Tell him what happens to the shipment if the document is wrong: where it sits, what it costs per day, and who gets the invoice. He will find his importer's identification in about ten minutes.

Most importers I deal with sign what we ask for without a word. The ones who fight it have usually never been told what it is for.

That reframing helps more than the rule did, thank you.

I think what I was really asking is whether it was safe to hold the line as the most junior person in the conversation. It sounds like the answer is that the risk lands on us whoever did the pushing, so holding it is simply the job.

Next time I will try Tomás's version and lead with what happens to the shipment rather than with the requirement.