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Customs and Manifest Questions


packedandready
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When the ship pulls into a port it must be cleared by customs. What exactly happens during that procedure?

 

When the manifest is turned in before sailing, who is it turned in to? What is checked?

 

We've been cruising since 2004 and have just taken these things for granted without thinking about it. We're cruising next week so have "everything cruise" on my mind.

 

 

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When a ship pulls into a Port of Call, it is cleared by immigration, not customs. A ship is never cleared by customs, only the passengers are when they debark at the home port. The manifest goes, I believe, to Homeland Security. EM

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Many key points unanswered here...

 

What port? Answers will depend on country.

 

Stop, or end of cruise? Answer will vary.

 

In many cases, the ship will provided requested info to immigration officials in advance..maybe days (names, passport numbers, etc), to expedite the process.

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We sat in on the port clearance meeting once in Roatan. Customs was part of that meeting, and as we intended to take goods off the ship we were required to provide an inventory of those goods. The ship had to provide a manifest of goods as well as a passenger and crew manifest.

 

I didn't pay too much attention to all the details, but the ink pads and stamps were flying.

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CruiserBruce has it right.

 

It varies by not only port but sometimes year over year or voyage over voyage.

 

In some places the manifest is provided in advance. In other places it is not.

 

Even on ships and countries that require that all passports be in the ships hands sometimes they will come on board and review them for a few hours. Sometimes the passports are taken to another location and reviewed after the ship cleared.

 

Keith

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Ships clear both customs and immigration at every port, both into and leaving port. While passengers are not required to clear customs at intermediate ports of call, the ship is, and makes a declaration of things like fuel, water and lube oils, as well as some "portable" goods like company provided electronics. Crew declarations are prepared when a crew member signs on, and requested updates monthly or so, for the crew's personal belongings, which must be declared on the crew manifest. The manifest is provided both entering and leaving port, as the ship may be liable for customs duties on the amount of fuel burned while in port.

 

As for immigrations, they check the information given on the passenger and crew manifests for proper documentation, and whether or not any individual is wanted in that country, just like immigrations at an airport.

 

If the cruise is sailing from the US, the passenger manifest is turned in to CBP, and they use the entire length of the cruise, if necessary, to vet the passengers based on the documentation provided, against all US databases, to ensure they know who you are, whether or not you are entitled to re-entry into the US at the end of the cruise, and whether you are a person of interest to any law enforcement agency in the US.

 

Most other countries do similar things with cruise ship manifests to the US, to a greater or lesser degree of thoroughness.

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Ships clear both customs and immigration at every port, both into and leaving port. While passengers are not required to clear customs at intermediate ports of call, the ship is, and makes a declaration of things like fuel, water and lube oils, as well as some "portable" goods like company provided electronics. Crew declarations are prepared when a crew member signs on, and requested updates monthly or so, for the crew's personal belongings, which must be declared on the crew manifest. The manifest is provided both entering and leaving port, as the ship may be liable for customs duties on the amount of fuel burned while in port.

 

 

 

As for immigrations, they check the information given on the passenger and crew manifests for proper documentation, and whether or not any individual is wanted in that country, just like immigrations at an airport.

 

 

 

If the cruise is sailing from the US, the passenger manifest is turned in to CBP, and they use the entire length of the cruise, if necessary, to vet the passengers based on the documentation provided, against all US databases, to ensure they know who you are, whether or not you are entitled to re-entry into the US at the end of the cruise, and whether you are a person of interest to any law enforcement agency in the US.

 

 

 

Most other countries do similar things with cruise ship manifests to the US, to a greater or lesser degree of thoroughness.

 

 

 

Thank you so much. Was the info I was interested in.

 

 

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For a large number of cruisers on these boards the question here is academic. Closed-loop Caribbean cruises are really in a class of their own when it comes to immigration procedures. The port authorities on the islands essentially abdicate their controls to the cruise lines - whose agents eye-ball birth certificates and ID's, or passports as passengers board - and then provide passenger manifests to the local authorities - who rarely look at anyone's documents.

 

They assume that everyone who comes ashore from a cruise ship has been checked by the line and will, in any event, be leaving the same afternoon when the ship pulls out. They figure the revenue the passengers bring is worth the minor surrender of sovereign control.

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For a large number of cruisers on these boards the question here is academic. Closed-loop Caribbean cruises are really in a class of their own when it comes to immigration procedures. The port authorities on the islands essentially abdicate their controls to the cruise lines - whose agents eye-ball birth certificates and ID's, or passports as passengers board - and then provide passenger manifests to the local authorities - who rarely look at anyone's documents.

 

They assume that everyone who comes ashore from a cruise ship has been checked by the line and will, in any event, be leaving the same afternoon when the ship pulls out. They figure the revenue the passengers bring is worth the minor surrender of sovereign control.

 

That's not quite how it works. The birth certificate and driver's license info is input onto the passenger manifest just like a passport number, country of issue, and expiration date would be. This is what the immigration officials in the Caribbean ports look at, on the passenger manifest, and don't need to see the original documents. This is based on the WHTI, which is an international agreement between all nations (except Belize) of the Western Hemisphere, that closed loop cruises by US and Canadian citizens will only require birth certificate and driver's license. The countries are not "delegating" anything to the cruise lines. Even outside the Caribbean, many countries don't need to see the original documents when a ship enters port, just the data on the manifest.

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That's not quite how it works. The birth certificate and driver's license info is input onto the passenger manifest just like a passport number, country of issue, and expiration date would be. This is what the immigration officials in the Caribbean ports look at, on the passenger manifest, and don't need to see the original documents. This is based on the WHTI, which is an international agreement between all nations (except Belize) of the Western Hemisphere, that closed loop cruises by US and Canadian citizens will only require birth certificate and driver's license. The countries are not "delegating" anything to the cruise lines. Even outside the Caribbean, many countries don't need to see the original documents when a ship enters port, just the data on the manifest.

 

An administrative detail-type question, chengkp75: If most of the ports require the same information, how does the Purser's staff provide this to them? The information is probably all contained within the ship's computer. Is a separate manifest then prepared for each Port Authority or does the Purser print out one copy of the manifest and simply show that to each of the Port's inspectors when they board?

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That's not quite how it works. The birth certificate and driver's license info is input onto the passenger manifest just like a passport number, country of issue, and expiration date would be. This is what the immigration officials in the Caribbean ports look at, on the passenger manifest, and don't need to see the original documents. This is based on the WHTI, which is an international agreement between all nations (except Belize) of the Western Hemisphere, that closed loop cruises by US and Canadian citizens will only require birth certificate and driver's license. The countries are not "delegating" anything to the cruise lines. Even outside the Caribbean, many countries don't need to see the original documents when a ship enters port, just the data on the manifest.

 

But the immigration officials are relying on the passenger manifest prepared by the cruise lines' agents - who may or may not have cared about the validity of the documents they looked at. The fact that they are relying upon the representatives of the cruise line having inspected the documents is delegating the inspection of those documents to the line

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An administrative detail-type question, chengkp75: If most of the ports require the same information, how does the Purser's staff provide this to them? The information is probably all contained within the ship's computer. Is a separate manifest then prepared for each Port Authority or does the Purser print out one copy of the manifest and simply show that to each of the Port's inspectors when they board?

 

A separate manifest is printed for each port, sometimes one for arrival and one for departure, and the local authorities take this for their records.

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But the immigration officials are relying on the passenger manifest prepared by the cruise lines' agents - who may or may not have cared about the validity of the documents they looked at. The fact that they are relying upon the representatives of the cruise line having inspected the documents is delegating the inspection of those documents to the line

 

Well, then they are also delegating this to every ship Captain of every ship that comes into their port, since most will look only at the document information on the manifest, and not at the original documents, so this is in no way unique to closed loop cruises in the Caribbean. My passport sits in the Captain's safe all tour, and rarely, if ever, comes out for inspection by immigrations. And as I said, in other parts of the world, even cruise ships on cruises that require passports, the port officials don't always look at the originals, they will run the data from the manifest. It's really a question of how thorough the port officials wish to be, and this again is not limited to the Caribbean. I was mainly disagreeing with your contention that closed loop Caribbean cruises are somehow different in immigration procedure than any others.

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And thinking about it even further, the Caribbean countries are not delegating the inspection of documentation to the cruise lines, per the WHTI, they are delegating it to CBP. The reason the other countries agreed to this, when there is no reciprocity, is because they are getting something out of it, namely that the US CBP does the checking, and if there is any problem with someone's documents, or if someone is a person of interest to a particular country, then CBP will notify them.

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And thinking about it even further, the Caribbean countries are not delegating the inspection of documentation to the cruise lines, per the WHTI, they are delegating it to CBP. The reason the other countries agreed to this, when there is no reciprocity, is because they are getting something out of it, namely that the US CBP does the checking, and if there is any problem with someone's documents, or if someone is a person of interest to a particular country, then CBP will notify them.

 

What they are REALLY getting out of it is tourist dollars - coming in without their having to do the monitoring.

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