Canada New England customs in Bar Harbor or Boston??

[mitchdew]

Hi, will be taking a cruise from Montreal to Boston this coming June. I know that we will be checking inmigration in Bar Harbor but when is when our luggage will be going through customs? Thanks for any info.

[RuthC]

Educated guess is Customs will be Boston as that is where you disembark.

This guess is based on the procedure followed on every other cruise I have taken that ended in the United States---including some where the previous port was US soil.

[peaches from georgia]

You only go through Customs when you are taking your luggage and any purchases off the ship into the U.S. The purpose of Customs is to examine what you are bringing into the country, not whether you have a valid passport or ID, which is what Immigration does.

 

If you went through Customs in Bar Harbor you would have to have packed up, taken all your luggage off, declare your purchases and then maybe pay a duty amount, and then haul everything back on the ship and do it again in Boston. :eek: Since BH is not your final entry into the U.S. and you are not bringing anything in except yourself, you only do Immigration like any other U. S. port you enter from a foreign country (such as St. Thomas from another Caribbean island).

[Joy2Day]

In my 2 Canada/New England cruises, US immigration actually occurs onboard ship the evening of your last Canadian port. The US officials boarded the ship in Saint John, NB. Then immigration processing takes place that evening. As I remember it, US citizens are processed in one of the large show lounges while non-US citizens are in another location.

[mitchdew]

Ok! seems like we will have to go through goverment inspection twice in a separate days. Sounds like fun!!!

Any body knows if in Bar harbor Inmigration comes onboard with the equipment for fingerprinting and taking pictures for non us nationals like they do in ports like Los angeles?

[laminar]

I doubt that Homeland security will bring all the high tech equipment to fingerprint foreigners on board a ship in Bar Harbor. It just does not make sense. Terrorists would not take a cruise from Montreal to Boston !!

I could be wrong. Any non us citizens had taken this itinerary before and how the inmigration experience was??