Imigration,

[Chrissie]

Advice needed, I crewed across to Porto at the weekend, checked in with imigration when I arrived, but flew home without checking out with them, so now the boat has to explain where their other crewmember is, What is the position, what should I have done, and is it likely to be a problem?
Chrissie, (PS The Bay of Biscay was fantastic, surfing the waves, 100 hours Plymouth to Porto,

 

[Richard10002]

Have they had a problem, or are you just thinking they might have one when they leave.

We arrived in Bayona, (Spain), with 3 people, 1 flew home without checking out, left marina with 2, no big deal.

 

[Chrissie]

I think they had to account for me, once home, I had a message asking if I could send details of the Airline, time and flight number that I left on, back to them.
I havent heard anything since so I guess it has been sorted. I dont know if the authorities are more auspicious in Portugal, its the first time that I have seen the Q flag flown and the crew being escorted to imigration control on arrival.

 

[Richard10002]

In Lexioes, we were met by a chap who looked like a police officer who helped us to moor then accompanied us to the office. We filled in the forms and it all felt quite official.

However, we didnt feel frogmarched, and it was all in good humour.

2 of us arrived, and 2 of us left but, whilst we told them when we were leaving, we didnt feel like we checked out in an official way.

By contrast, at Cascais and Lagos, there was no sign of officialdom, marina staff took care of things, and it was all much more laid back.

 

[Bajansailor]

I would guess that in theory it is a requirement pretty much everywhere to be properly 'signed off' a vessel before leaving it for good.

This is most certainly the case with all of the English speaking islands in the Caribbean. I think the French islands are not so strict, altho no doubt they could insist on making sure that all crew were accounted for if they felt there was any skullduggery involved.
I know of one boat in Trinidad who tried to leave recently - one of their crew had flown out of Trinidad without being properly signed off, and the skipper had endless hassles as a result - I think they had to track down the crew-member (in Antigua) to prove that the crew had left - the onus was on the skipper to prove that the crew had left - not on the Immigration department to look through their records.

Hence always a good idea, especially in the Windies, to ensure that all crew are properly signed off when leaving.

 

[Chrissie]

Hi Martin,
I guess they do have to make sure that who comes in also goes out, It was all quite friendly, though the Ausie guy with us was told that he had to be out of europe before 28th March because of his visa, but even then not too unfriendly.
I believe that our skipper had to prove I had flown home,. but that would be easy to do.

 

[TheBoatman]

[ QUOTE ]
I think they had to account for me, once home, I had a message asking if I could send details of the Airline, time and flight number that I left on

[/ QUOTE ]

That should have solved the problem!

Peter.