Clearance Costs, Virgin Islands
We’ve moved over to the USVI for a few days to pick up the kids, who are flying into St Thomas. We did some quick back-of-the envelope math trying to figure out which would be the more economical option, having them get over to the BVI individually, or us moving the boat west (gasp) to pick them up and deliver them again.
Having the kids get themselves to the BVI would involve a taxi (or possibly public transport), at a cost of potentially $90 EACH, each way. Then a ferry at $60 each, again each way. There’s also a flight option, which initially, back in November, seemed to be a very affordable $100 round trip. Unfortunately, by the time we started investigating with some purpose, it was closer to $400 round trip. Yes, from St Thomas to Tortola, about a 15 minute flight. At bare minimum, if you’re only talking about the ferry trip, it was a $240 deal, and likely quite a bit more expensive.
Bringing the boat to the USVI and back (because the cruising, in our opinion, is so vastly superior in the BVI there’s no question about going back there to share it with the kids) was a bit more of a crap shoot in terms of costs. There are clearance fees out of the BVI. Clearance back INTO the BVI. Clearance into the US. What exactly any of these costs are is hard to nail down. Our research seemed to indicate that at bare minimum, clearing out of the BVI would cost $20 a head. So $40 and then $80. Clearing in? Cost us $37 the first time, though we don’t have a break down. This next time will include a national parks fee so we can visit the Baths ($50 for the week), though we’d have paid that even if the kids brought themselves in. People we’ve met have talked about the clearance fees being a little whimsical - the last time they cleared in, it cost them $1 a foot. Was that what we paid? No idea. WAGging the BVI clearance/entry fees gave us probably a rough estimate of $160. Definitely ahead financially (though the bashing back east is a head scratcher!)
Figuring out what it might cost to get into the USVI was even harder to suss out. There’s a Customs and Border Patrol app called ROAM with no mention of any fees. Do we need to head to a port of entry (Cruz Bay, St John, or Red Hook or Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas)? Also not clear.
Here’s what we’ve found, halfway into the trek. We cleared out of the BVI. Cost? $4. FOUR. Apparently the $20/person departure tax does not apply for private vessels. WIN!
Flying the quarantine flag on approach to the BVI after our passage
Clearing into the USVI could not have been easier. Like, pinch me it was SO FREAKING SIMPLE. Download the ROAM app onto your phone. Fill in the information ahead of time - boat information, people information. Upload a photo of each passport. Once you enter US waters, report your arrival on the app. They ask the standard questions about purpose, currency limits, food aboard (and yes, we were truthful). You submit the request. We were fully expecting to be contacted via video to have an interview. Instead, within 2 minutes of the application submission, we received a message: “Welcome to the United States! Enjoy your stay!” No cost, no video interview, no need to present ourselves at a port of entry. WIN WIN WIN!
You can bet I saved the message at least 3 different ways, just in case we run into someone down the line who’s never heard of the ROAM app (there’s a history with this paranoia). But WOW was that simple!
Update: clearing back into the BVI, round 2. This cost us $47. $40 of this was the $10 each environmental levy (for which they provide a sweet little ticket stub of sorts, the serial number of which is carefully recorded into a book on their end), and the other $7 some combination of boat and people fees. Friends of ours who live in the BVI have shared that the costs are related to the number of officials (and their rank) who are on duty in the given office on the given day, so costs may well vary. USVI clearance, though? Seems to add up to exactly zero dollars. Right now, we’re definitely ahead on the financial front!
Note: Clearing into the US is done by the ROAM app. Clearing into (and out of) the BVI is done with the help of a website called Sailclear, Though you can, supposedly, fill out the information on your phone, I found it frustrating as the mobile version (it’s not an app, per se) doesn’t seem to save your information. So fire up the computer at least to input the boat and crew details. And unlike the ROAM app, filling out the required SailClear request does not remove the requirement to present yourself at Customs and Immigration. You’ll get an email with a “notification ID” number that allows the officers to look up the details. One oddity about the SailClear is that the hailing port is from a dropdown menu- and your hailing port might not be in there. So far nobody has seemed to care.