TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Immigration fools

If anyone was in the North Sound this weekend, I'm sure you had a chance to see some of the superyachts racing in the YCCS Loro Piana racing.

This event brings millions of dollars into the local economy through provisioning, fuel, transport, lodging etc. A 150' yacht will do a Bucket style race with as many as 35 people on board

A good friend of mine was flying from Miami to photograph as a guest on one of the boats. He is one of the top yachting photographers.

The very wise immigration official decided that a journalist should not be welcome and promptly put him on a plane back to San Juan.

I suppose the tourism in the BVI is so busy that they don't want these boats and crews back?

Good news is, he took a plane to St Barth and is relaxing there.

Be careful what you tell the power hungry officials

I'm guessing immigration decided he would be "working" without a permit? Has happened before.

Working as a reporter/producer I ran into the same thing heading into Canada to shoot with a locally hired camera crew. I told them what I was doing and opened a can of worms..we always had problems in Mexico too. The answer is to just be a "tourist"..nonetheless I hope our Tourist Board reads this because it is total BS..time to drag the Immigration Officers in for a chat and explain " promotion of our islands 101 " to them..

If you come to the BVI for any commercial reason, NEVER tell immigration that the trip is commercial. Never ending problems. Always take the easy way. Every trip is for personal reasons. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

This is no different than how it works in any other country in the world - including the US. Lying to enter a country more easily is generally a bad idea.

I guess it is hard to lie about your intentions with bags and pelican boxes of photographic equipment.

It is not the same in all countries. Many of the islands gladly welcome the photographers and journalists that come all winter long, with or without permission. St Maarten, St Barth, and St Vincent & the Grenadines to name a few.

Antigua, St Kitts & Nevis, and St Lucia are all "no tell" ports in my experience. I'll add BVIs to that list.
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A few years back, one of our sailing crew came from Italy and proudly told the US officials he was coming to sail the Bermuda race as a professional sailor. He was on the next flight back to Genoa.

I think they BVI immigration people have a particular problem with foreign journalists of any type. Back when all of that Mossack Fonseca stuff broke, there were stories of reporters being denied entry to the country and turned back even after getting permission to interview the governor.

The normal pain point with island immigration is letting in people who will steal jobs from the locals, but the sensitivity towards journalists seems to be centered around making it difficult to look into dodgier financial aspects of the island economy. Not sure if they can be bothered to discriminate between reporters and photojournalists, immigration just treats them all as "persona non grata".

After traveling all over the world for work, the answer is always "traveling for pleasure, nothing to declare" after a painful shakedown in Turkey.

Cheers, RickG

Seem to remember that Mossack Fonseca's branch in Road Town, British Virgin Islands, last I knew, shares a building with the local government's Tourist Board. Hey, if the BVI is a good enough place for Bernie Madoff to use in his Ponzi scheme..... Just sayin'

Just wondering how all the professional crews get to race in ail the regattas in the BVi. Do they all get trade licenses?

wait, you mean other countries have immigration laws and rules? I thought the entire world was a globalist open territory and ONLY THE USA was bad and working to enforce her borders.

sorry, could not resist.

Please resist..thank you..

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

it's hard... especially when you see people advising others to be less than forthcoming at any international border. It's really just not worth the trouble one could get in to... I've had the same trouble traveling internationally for business.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Right On! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Be forthcoming ..fifthcoming..I offer no further advice ...you are a wiseman/person...

Our race crew always had to lie, except in St Maarten, St Barth and a few others noted earlier

Antigua in particular is bad

Malcom,
Respectfully, you're out of line here.
On an internet thread about immigration
you're likely to hear an opinion different
than your's, which ever side of the boat
you fish off of
This is the part when tolerance and diversity
come into play.
I'll climb off my soap box now.

Mike

Since you're so open to opinion, I'll give you mine. Malcom is dead on and you are completely off base. Malcom is correct to point out that comments about U.S. politics have no place in a travel forum about the BVI. Comment on BVI politics might be 1 thing, but adding U.S. commentary should not be tolerated.

Yes, we need to keep US politics out of this forum. Plenty of other places to discuss politics.

sorry folks... my comment was really tongue in cheek and as is typical when more than 1 person gets involved in anything we see diverse opinions. It is interesting to see the responses though... for the record, my little joke is really not much different than many other funy comments here. maybe some people need to lighten up. Why no upset at all for the folks advising people to violate the LAW by suggesting that others LIE to immigration officials and to break the laws of the BVI? Why would any PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST be unwilling to pay the legal fees set forth by the country he or she is visiting to conduct their trade?

Seems hypocrisy knows no boundaries.

I'm kind of surprised that no one takes exception to the BVI officers enforcing work visa requirements as "fools". Are they not performing the duties they are hired for?

OK, I guess everyone has their own opinion on this one and this thread is going nowhere but down, so will end it here.