What's it like entering a different country by boat?

[Scraphound]

I want to cruise some day in the future. One thing I've always wondered is what's the protocol for entering another country. It's a pretty big deal when you fly in by plane. Like, you need a passport, visa, they check your bags, etc.

Do you get stopped when you enter a country by private boat? Does someone come aboard and check your papers and make sure you're not bringing in unvaccinated pets or invasive plants, or whatever?

I've always wondered what the experience is.

I'm a long way from sailing anywhere abroad, but maybe some day.

[StuM]

Short answer - yes.


In almost every country, you will require clearance by different agencies, and will frequently be required to remain on board in a quarantine area, flying a yellow "Q Flag" until cleared.


Immigration - they will inspect the personal documents of all on board. Does everyone hold the necessary passport and visa to enter the country.
Customs - Are you carrying any probibited imports (firearms, drugs, pornography, more than the allowed alcohol/tobacco,.....)
Agriculture/Quarantine - Are you carrying anything prohibited - fresh produce, termite infested woodwork, fouled vessel bottom (invasive marine species such as mussels etc).


All three agenices will have standard declaration forms that need to be completed.
In some cases, they will also require a prior notification a minimum of x days before arrival.

[wholybee]

Yes, it is often a "pretty big deal" but not always.
The "typical" procedure is that upon arrival you raise a yellow flag, and notify via VHF your arrival. The yellow flag means that you are in quarantine, and not allowed to come in contact with anyone else. A health officer will come to the boat, or talk to you via radio, and after answering a few questions about any illnesses or deaths on board, clear you to meet with customs and immigration. Customs then comes on board, asks about your stores, many places have restrictions on food that can be brought in, and they might confiscate some of your provisions. Some places will bring a drug dog on board. They ask about drugs, firearms, alcohol. You fill out paperwork to allow your boat into the country for a specified amount of time, after which it will be considered imported and taxes due. Next immigration comes, and depending on the visa rules for the country, checks or issues a visa, stamps the passport, and grants you permission to leave your boat. The whole process can take from half a day to several. There may or may not be a cost involved for each step.

Variations are that many marinas help facilitate this if you stay there. So, you go to the quarantine dock, and they help everything go quickly and smoothly. Sometimes you need to get a port captain involved and follow the port captain's direction on where to dock or anchor, and bring the captains paperwork to the immigration office.

Some countries will not send anyone to your boat, but ask that the captain bring all paperwork and passports to the local offices to process in person. A marina is often helpful here, as they will know everywhere you need to go, and either drive you or hail a cab for you.

Many places skip the health inspection, although since covid maybe none skip it anymore. Some places require all the paperwork completed online several days or a couple weeks before you arrive. A US boat entering the US can do it all on an app in a few minutes without anyone checking the boat or seeing anyone in person.

It can be a very bad idea to just show up, without knowing what the procedure is for the countries you are visiting. You could be denied entry, fined, have your boat impounded, or wind up in jail.

[Scraphound]

Thanks for the info.



What happens if you have multiple people on the boat but one of them is denied entry? Is everyone forced to turn back?

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Scraphound

Thanks for the info.



What happens if you have multiple people on the boat but one of them is denied entry? Is everyone forced to turn back?

That would probably depend on the circumstance and reason for denial, or even the mood of the immigration officer. An option is that that one person could be required to stay on the boat, or be allowed to come to land but not leave the marina. Or the whole boat could be denied. It is certainly best for the captain to have everything worked out so that doesn't happen. I have never had it happen to me, and I am always thorough checking my crew's visas, passports, and entry requirements (which vary by passport nationality).
I am aware of several cases of crew members being allowed/required to stay on the yacht or marina, and one incident when a yacht was refused entry, and escorted back offshore. Even a couple incidents of "we can't stamp your passport or allow you to enter, but if you happen to sneak ashore, we won't arrest you until xx date." to allow provisioning, repairs etc. for someone that otherwise can't enter a country.
Being courteous goes a long way. The boat escorted offshore was a sailor who I know can be arrogant and believes his rights as an American apply to wherever he is in the world. The sailors I know that were allowed to stay 2 weeks without checking in are super nice and friendly, and just wanted to make a few repairs and wait for better weather.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by wholybee

That would probably depend on the circumstance and reason for denial, or even the mood of the immigration officer. An option is that that one person could be required to stay on the boat, or be allowed to come to land but not leave the marina. Or the whole boat could be denied.

Or the "denied entry person" escorted to the airport and put on the first available plane out of the country - at the skipper's expense!

[Zanshin]

Originally Posted by Scraphound

What happens if you have multiple people on the boat but one of them is denied entry? Is everyone forced to turn back?

That happened to me once when clearing to Sint Maarten. I had two friends aboard, both South African. One had a Schengen Visa and the other, a female medical doctor, had a letter from the Sint Maarten consulate stating that her US-Visas were sufficient to allow entry.
She was denied entry! The officers stated that they'd changed the rules. They told me she'd have to stay in a cell overnight and then be flown out the next day. I convinced them to allow her to stay aboard instead of a cell, and that I couldn't let a guest be treated like that and would leave the next day for Antigua with my 2 passengers. There was a lot of problem with that, as I was a volunteer at the Heineken Regatta and they couldn't replace me at short notice. Despite ministers getting involved the new Immigration minister didn't budge until it was too late.
I left Sint Maarten but didn't go to Antigua, I sailed around the island to French St. Martin and it took us 10 minutes to clear in there...

[stormalong]

I have been to 62 countries and, counting departments of France, about 20 more.

In most countries it is a simple process. The captain reports to customs with all passports and vessel documentation while all others must stay aboard. In many countries customs and immigration are handled by the same person or office.

A few countries, like New Zealand and Australia there are very strict restrictions on animals, plants and certain foods such as meats and fresh vegetables. These restrictions are due to invasive species wreaking havoc on their ecosystems. Respect that they are trying to protect their country and do not try to hide anything - that is how you get into trouble.

NZ and Australia also require advance notice of arrival and Australia requires a visa for each person prior to entry. BIG fines in Australia if you are do not comply.

You can check country by country on noonsite.com.

Be both respectful and friendly and in most places you will get the same in return. There are a few exceptions, especially in the Caribbean where there can be resentment for anyone that is so wealthy that they can afford to not work and to travel by yacht. And yes, even on a modest boat you will be far better off than many of the local people and considered wealthy.

If you encounter a grumpy customs officer just do what they say and be courteous. Never argue with them. Some of them (very few) are on a power trip.

All comments above are based on personal experience and information from other cruisers. It is also a little dated since I stopped cruising a little over a decade ago.

A couple of stories:

New Zealand. A boat arrives at Opua, Bay of Islands. Customs had some kind of advance warning about this boat. They hauled it, X-rayed it and took it apart, found nothing but it was a three day process for them to get through customs.

I arrived in NZ with a peacock feather that I had aboard for years and on display. The customs guy asked me about it and then said I had a choice. They could send it to Auckland at my expense for examination or they could confiscate it. They put it in the burn bag.

I was at St Helena Island prior to them having an airport. A crew member from another boat is at a bar, pulls out a joint and lights up. He is promptly arrested, the captain of the boat had to quarantine him aboard until the weekly ship came and the the captain had to pay the fare on the ship for the guy's deportation.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by stormalong

I have been to 62 countries and, counting departments of France, about 20 more.

In most countries it is a simple process. The captain reports to customs with all passports and vessel documentation while all others must stay aboard. In many countries customs and immigration are handled by the same person or office.

A few countries, like New Zealand and Australia there are very strict restrictions on animals, plants and certain foods such as meats and fresh vegetables. These restrictions are due to invasive species wreaking havoc on their ecosystems. Respect that they are trying to protect their country and do not try to hide anything - that is how you get into trouble.

NZ and Australia also require advance notice of arrival and Australia requires a visa for each person prior to entry. BIG fines in Australia if you are do not comply.

You can check country by country on noonsite.com.

Be both respectful and friendly and in most places you will get the same in return. There are a few exceptions, especially in the Caribbean where there can be resentment for anyone that is so wealthy that they can afford to not work and to travel by yacht. And yes, even on a modest boat you will be far better off than many of the local people and considered wealthy.

If you encounter a grumpy customs officer just do what they say and be courteous. Never argue with them. Some of them (very few) are on a power trip.

All comments above are based on personal experience and information from other cruisers. It is also a little dated since I stopped cruising a little over a decade ago.

A couple of stories:

New Zealand. A boat arrives at Opua, Bay of Islands. Customs had some kind of advance warning about this boat. They hauled it, X-rayed it and took it apart, found nothing but it was a three day process for them to get through customs.

I arrived in NZ with a peacock feather that I had aboard for years and on display. The customs guy asked me about it and then said I had a choice. They could send it to Auckland at my expense for examination or they could confiscate it. They put it in the burn bag.

I was at St Helena Island prior to them having an airport. A crew member from another boat is at a bar, pulls out a joint and lights up. He is promptly arrested, the captain of the boat had to quarantine him aboard until the weekly ship came and the the captain had to pay the fare on the ship for the guy's deportation.

Agree most countries are quite straight forward. I would say the Q flag protocol is largely not used by officials. You simply report when you arrive.

The main issues are crew issues not boat based. The captain needs to be assured all crew have the correct personal documents to enter the country. Often crew tykes for arrival by boat differ from arrival in the airport.

Things that really complicate things are firearms , drugs or pets. , leave all behind.

[chrisr]

imho most countries these days require pre-notice of arrival via email. you can arrive without the notice but it's going to make your life difficult so best to just follow the rules

as somebody said earlier, there is super good guidance for each country on noonsite

cheers,

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by StuM

Or the "denied entry person" escorted to the airport and put on the first available plane out of the country - at the skipper's expense!

I kicked a crewmember off my boat in Fiji because I caught him using drugs there. I fully expected to have to pay for his ticket after removing him from my crew list. So, I escort him to immigration, remove him from my crew list, and the idiot starts fighting with the immigration officer saying he is allowed to stay even without a plane ticket or being on a sailboat. Never fight with officials in foreign ports. She made him call his mom collect and have her buy the ticket.

But yes, it is normally at the skipper's expense anytime crew needs to leave the country.

[goboatingnow]

Yes technically you can be denied clearance and asked to leave as you say some countries just deport the transgressor at your expense.

Hacked said that in most cases if you have a clean boat and crew with the necessary docs most countries are easily enough to clear in.

Covid has completed things and will leave a legacy. Advance notification procedures are increasingly commonplace and can cause issues.

[Cheechako]

You have pretty adequate answers; Customs, Immigration and Agriculteral. I'll just add that the attitude in each country or even port can be different. They may come to your boat. They may not. When you present your papers at their office it may be just a quick stamp and done. Or they may inquire about many things. They may have a "welcome to my country" attitude, or they me be grouchy as hell!
I have arrived late, stayed on the boat and went immediately to check in in the am... and been raked over the coals for waiting.

I learned; be pleasant, NEVER offer any more than what they ask, if you made a mistake, act like a dumb pleasant tourist!