TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico Food/ alcohol into BVI from USVI

Hi all,
We will be entering BVI at JVD next next week on a boat from USVI . Will be staying a few weeks. What are the regulations regarding food and alcohol? Have been on the boat for a week and have food and booze . Are fresh veggies , fruit , meat issues? I know they are when returning to USVI but wondering about BVI from USVI.

I've done 3 entries at JVD this year and never was asked about food or liquor. On SailClear I listed that I had 1 liter of liquor per person onboard.

I have not used SailClear before. Can you please provide your experienece using it? Thanks

Last time I did this was pre covid. Boat with 8 passengers for 7 days cost a little over $1000 cash in customs entry/departure and cruising fees.
No issues with any food or booze on board.
What are the current fees adding up to?

Thanks

I'm coming in on my private vessel so no cruising tax
- $10 per person environmental tax
- Miscellaneous Customs fees varied from $15 to $17.50 to $22 for the past 3 entries
- BVI Ports Authority "Harbour Fee" is $1/ft
- I skip the National Parks so no parks permit needed

- On departure, the Customs services & forms fee was $4 for each departure

SailClear replaces the old BVI legal-sized form (with 4 multi-color carbon copies) with the vessel manifest and crew/passenger list.

Download the SailClear app. It's straightforward to setup an account. You then enter your vessel information (registration #, hull ID #, owner info, vessel dimensions & tonnage). You also populate your database of crew/passengers (name, DOB, passport info, address). This can all be done from home.

If you don't have access to a smartphone or computer with internet access so that you can submit an Arrival Notification, the BVI Customs office does have a SailClear computer kiosk where you can stand and type in this info (and hopefully you don't have others in front of you trying to do the same).

The app has an Arrivals Notification menu where you enter where & when you are arriving, where you came from, when you plan to depart BVI, and next poet of call, and a brief customs declarations regarding weapons, cash >$10K, tobacco and alcohol. Once you submit you should get a Notification ID number that you'll need to present to BVI Customs in-person.

There is a similar Departure Notification option. You'll need to submit and get your Notification ID before going to the BVI Customs window im person.

Upon entry at BVI C&I, you'll visit their windows in the following order:
- Immigration - provide your passports
- Customs - give them SailClear #. They'll print out hardcopies of your SailClear manifest in triplicate. Sign & date each copy on front and back). They'll calculate your Customs fee.
- Treasury - pay your Customs fees
- Immigration - they keep one copy of your SailClear form
- BVI Port Authority - pay your harbour fee, $1/ft

On departure, visit the windows in this order:
1. Customs. Give them SailClear #. You'll get triplicate copies of forms to sign and date again. They will determine Customs fee.
2. Treasury - pay Customs service fee.
3. Immigration - present passport and SailClear manifest.
Wave good-bye!

Thank you very much for the details on SailClear. Very much appreciated.

Cheers

Rob

It was super simple and happened exactly how Baardj posted above . Remember its Island time and everything is slower than rxpected and you will be fine. Its hot inside and we brought water without issue . At JVD there are restrooms in the departure area around back. Very pleasant experience

Avoid ferry arrivals - can really add time to your wait.