TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Clearing in/out recent experience

Just back from ten great days of sailing. I posted a question a couple of months ago concerning the "new" BVI clearing in changes. Turned out, all was just as it used to be. Flew into to Beef Island on Seaborne, deplaned and breezed through immigration / customs without a hitch. Both of the agents were friendly and courteous. They were even passing out complimentry bug spray (oil) while standing in line.

We had a visit to St John on our agenda again this trip since six of our party had never sailed / visited the BVI's or St John. I cleared out at Jost - had my crew with me just in case but it wasn't required (as always). Kudos to immigration officer Mark Morris at Jost for his always friendly and helpful assistance. I've interacted with Mark numerous times in the past and he is a pleasure to deal with - all went smoothly and quickly.

Clearing IN at Cruz Bay was FAST. All the crew members were there. I had filled out my paperwork earlier so I wasn't at the desk more than three minutes.

Cleared back IN to the BVI's at West End the next afternoon (did not bother to clear OUT at St John and it wasn't a problem (not had it ever been). Again, all went quickly and smoothly - just showed them my BVI clear out copies from a few days earlier, paid my eleven dollars to the cashier, got stamped, returned and received "another" stamp and was out of there within ten minutes, tops. They did NOT require my crew to be present (although I had them waiting outside). We were lucky of course as there were no ferry passengers waiting ahead of us.

Bottom line, all clearing in / out went as it always has.

Excellent news!
G

I had a very similar experience about 1 week ago.

Thanks a lot for this information. Did you also clear out separately on St. John or maybe already when clearing in on St. John in combination? Or did you skip this step?

sunbvi - in our 20+ trips to the bvi's / usvi's have never cleared out of the usvi's when going back to the bvi's and it's never been a problem. If I were proceeding to maybe St Martin, etc then maybe I'd consider it. I've never been asked for clear out papers by the bvi immigration/customs officers.

sunbvi - the U.S. is one of the few countries which does not require boats to clear out. This can cause issues in other countries since they all require outbound clearance papers in order to clear in. Since the BVI is a common destination and right next door to the USVI the officials there know the score and don't ask for paperwork.
It is possible to clear out of the US, they just use the same form that you clear in on and put a big red stamp on it. I did it when leaving the continental US in Norfolk bound for the Caribbean and also when I leave the USVI for St. Martin or Antigua.

I too cleared BVI>>>USVI and back with no issues a few weeks ago. I even changed crew in STT and allI had to do was list the new crew and for the ones left behind in STT (to catch their flights), I just put "NOB"(Not on Board) beside their names. Very easy.

Unfortunately the clearing seems to be much more complicated for us as we are not Americans and coming for vacation from Europe.

I thought the very comfortable ESTA-Visum would be enough but probably we need a "real/big" Visum. Does anybody have own experience as Non-American regarding this or know more about this/where we can ask for more information?