Techniques for reducing latency associated with metaframe error correction. Embodiments receive, via a first port of a plurality of ports, a stream of bits within a metaframe. Upon evaluating a first cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for a first portion of the stream of bits and determining that the first CRC is valid, a measure of latency incurred in transmitting the first portion is reduced, relative to first performing forward error correction (FEC) decoding for the first portion prior to transmission, by transmitting the first portion of the stream of bits without performing FEC decoding for the first portion of the stream of bits. Upon evaluating a second CRC for a second portion of the stream of bits and determining that the second CRC is invalid, FEC decoding is performed for the second portion of the stream of bits before forwarding the second portion of the stream of bits.