Clearing Customs?

[FranknBeans]

Having a bit of a brain freeze!  We are doing Pacific Coastal Cruise  b2b with Alaska cruise.

 

We are in Astoria before San Francisco. Do we have to clear customs in both ports or just Astoria?

Looking at an excursion that makes it tight if we have line up for customs clearance to San Francisco?

[bluesea777]

Would be helpful if you tell us when, which ship, and where from and to this Pacific Coastal cruise is.

 

😎

[BirdTravels]

Jewel. Vancouver R/T, then down to Los Angeles.

 

The first US Port is Astoria Oregon where you would "clear customs"

Edited September 27, 2019 by BirdTravels

[casofilia]

Having been to Astoria on a cruise I would be VERY dubious about being able to clear C&I there.   I would expect to have to do it in SF.

 

However if the Pacific Coastal is just a tack-on few days from an Alaskan cruise that ends in Vancouver, it might be that you are able to clear the US C&I authorities in Vancouver before re-boarding unless you are visiting Victoria.

[FLAHAM]

Not sure what "clearing customs" means these days.  Disembarked the Escape in New York last Sunday after a cruise to Maine and the Maritimes.  After a few seconds of "face recognition" we just walked out of the port with no customs officials in sight.

[hallux]

I've seen it discussed in other threads that if the first port stop is a US city then C&I is done upon boarding in Vancouver.

 

There is a Vancouver expert on the boards, @martincath can you confirm?

[martincath]

Yep, @hallux, the legislation enabling US CBP to work in Canada requires that the cleared ship or plane departs Canada within hours of passenger clearance and makes no stops anywhere else before physically entering the US. This is optional - just because a ship could be precleared does not mean it has to be - but that decision rests 100% with CBP, not the cruiseline. It's really early or late in the season ships that impacts, as CBP have to decide whether sending some folks to the pier here or to the pier in the first US port is more efficient when they've stopped staffing Canada Place on a regular basis as they do each Oct-April (edit - sloppy wording! Oct-April is when we do NOT have CBP at the Vancouver pier, for clarity).

 

A stop in Victoria, Nanaimo etc, means it cannot be precleared and the first US port would always be where clearance happens - no matter how small that port is and how inefficient the clearance will be, as it's a legal requirement in the US! If the ship fails to make it to the planned first US port, expect customs/immigration to suck even more as wherever it first stops legally the ship MUST be cleared, but the staff there won't be expecting it so there won't be enough people scheduled...

 

Assuming the info above is correct that it's the Jewel repo, then Victoria is visited after Vancovuer which means Preclearance cannot legally occur in Vancouver. Astoria is the first scheduled US port, so that means it is 100% where clearance is planned to happen - but in Fall repo seasons it's one of the most-often-cancelled (the Columbia Bar is one of the scariest bits of commonly-navigated water on the planet; the number of shipwrecks there is just obscene when you consider how short a time that there have been cities and ports there, and if you do make it to Astoria visit the Maritime Museum where the exhibit on the Columbia Bar Pilots is outstanding... and the things they had to do before choppers could land them onto ships may involve bringing a change of underwear! 😉) which does complicate matters.

 

Fancy cruiselines occasionally spring for CBP staff to get paid to travel on board, so they can clear pax en route before arrivial in the US and then they disembark at the first US port.... but NCL ain't fancy! So personally I would assume that Astoria will suck enormously and will take until noon to disembark everyone as CBP there need to process you all. And if Astoria is missed, San Francisco will suck even more enormously - I've been through an expected clearance at SF, and even with all their desks manned at Pier 27 it took over 3 hours to clear the Golden Princess, a ship of ballpark similar pax load to Jewel. Since SF would only know you need clearance with maybe a day's notice, if Astoria does get missed I would expect the single worst immigration experience of your life OP, and I would cancel any excursions in SF before mid-afternoon if you have internet access and can do so from onboard!

 

Now just maybe NCL will drop some cash, pay for CBP officers O/T and give them a cabin, and they'll board in Victoria (they live here year round to process folks on the Seattle Clipper ferry) or Vancouver, then process you all on Tuesday evening after leaving Victoria, but I'd be extremely (and pleasantly!) surprised if that was the case.

Edited September 28, 2019 by martincath

[hallux]

Ah, I missed Victoria, the OP didn't mention it and I didn't look up the itinerary.  Thanks for your expertise @martincath

[martincath]

No worries @hallux- I do like the 'using @username pops an immediate alert' functionality of the new boards, guarantees a timely reply if the 'pooter is on.

[NW Pacific]

Live in Astoria area.  So far the repositioning ships have made it in, yesterday 3 in port, today one.  I have no credible facts about when the passengers get "cleared" but I most seriously doubt it will be in Astoria.

[bonvoyagie]

On the Dawn it only took a few hours to clear the ship at Bar Harbor - the C&I officials came onboard, we showed our passports and got a sticker on our room cards - that was it. I think for foreign passports it  took a bit longer. 

 

Since the Jewel is going to Victoria after Vancouver they can not be pre-cleared in Vancouver so the next US port is where the inspection will take place  - be it Astoria or San Fran, Monterey, or the final stop LA.