LRN number
You set the LRN number yourself, from the series assigned at EDI registration. Almost every Swedish text on the LRN says you apply for the number, but you do not. Swedish Customs give you the MRN, and EORI identifies you as an operator.
Three numbers that get confused
LRN, MRN and EORI answer three different questions. Which message, which case, and which operator. Confuse them and the conclusions go wrong in ways that cost time.
- LRN
- Local reference number. You set it yourself, from your own series, before the message is sent. It belongs to the message, not to the consignment.
- MRN
- Master reference number. Swedish Customs assign it once the particulars have been accepted. Eighteen characters.
- EORI
- Identifies you as an operator, not your consignment. One per company, valid across the EU, and you apply for it once.
- Tull-id
- The old Swedish name for the LRN. It still turns up in older texts and in some systems. So it is not a fourth number.
What is what
The key difference is direction. The LRN goes from you to Swedish Customs, the MRN from Swedish Customs to you. Everything else follows from that.
The number does not exist at Swedish Customs until you have sent it. That is why nobody can look up your LRN in advance.
What an LRN looks like
The format is national, that is Swedish, even though the requirement to use an LRN is common to the whole union.
- The series is given to you
- An LRN series is assigned automatically when your EDI registration is approved. The series starts with two or three letters.
- The number you make
- From the series you generate each individual LRN yourself, with a serial number and a closing check digit.
- The pattern
- XYZ000001C, where C is the check digit. Ten characters in a fixed format.
- Unique
- The same LRN may not be used in different message flows. When a series runs out you apply for a new one.
Series, number and check digit
In transit a different pattern applies, where a country code and year open the number. So if your LRN looks different in the transit system, that is not an error.
Where the numbers appear in an export
The chain is easiest to follow in the export flow. You send the export declaration with your LRN in IE515. If the particulars are accepted an MRN comes back, and after that a notice of release. It is the MRN you pass on to the carrier, not the LRN.
The rest of the chain, that is presentation at the place of exit and the certificate that the goods left the union, is on the page about the new export system.
Read on
More on how exports work, whatever the country, is on our page about exporting from Sweden.
Common questions
Do you apply for an LRN?
No. This is the commonest misconception about the LRN and it appears in almost all Swedish copy on the subject. You apply for an LRN series, and that happens automatically as part of the EDI registration. Each individual number you generate yourself from the series.
It also means Swedish Customs cannot find an LRN for you before you have sent it. The number does not exist at the authority until the message arrives.
What is the difference from an MRN?
Direction. The LRN goes from you to Swedish Customs and is your reference on the message. The MRN goes from Swedish Customs to you and is assigned once the particulars have been accepted. The MRN is eighteen characters.
On export the MRN arrives in message IE528 and the release in IE529. It is the MRN, not the LRN, that should travel onward through the logistics chain, because it is the reference other operators and other member states' customs offices can use.
Is the LRN a Swedish invention?
No. EU legislation requires all member states to use an LRN when exchanging information with business. What is national is the format. Each member state decides how the number looks, so the Swedish pattern of a letter series, a serial number and a check digit applies only here.
Is the LRN used for both import and export?
Yes, and not only on declarations. Every electronic message sent to Swedish Customs must be given an LRN, so that includes notifications. It makes the number the common thread through your whole exchange with the authority.
Is the LRN the same as Tull-id?
Yes. Tull-id is the older Swedish name and LRN the one used now. Swedish Customs themselves write "state the LRN (tull-id) or the MRN" in their guidance. So where you meet both words in the same text it is one number, not two. What it is not, however, is something you get out of an EORI application.
What has EORI got to do with it?
Nothing, other than that both are needed. EORI identifies you as an economic operator and you have exactly one, valid across the union. The LRN identifies a message. Confusing them leads to the false conclusion that you apply for an LRN the way you apply for an EORI. More on EORI is in the guide to EORI numbers.
What do I do if the declaration is rejected?
Then no MRN has been assigned, because the MRN only comes once the particulars are accepted. The correction is sent as a new message, and since the same LRN may not be reused across message flows you take a fresh number from the series. That is also why series run out and need renewing.
What applies in the old system?
Swedish Customs are decommissioning their old customs data system in stages, and the LRN belongs to the new systems. A text describing the LRN as something arising in the old system is therefore out of date whatever else it says.
