How long is customs for non- US residents in St Thomas??

[KAWS]

I was on the Crown this summer and we didn't have to go through customs at all in St. Thomas. (I'm Canadian)

 

We did have to go through in San Juan which was a pain in the posterior but not St. Thomas.

[ancldaca]

On my recent Adventure of the Seas cruise, we arrived in St. Thomas on Saturday and were the only ship in town.

 

Americans had to go to one dinning room and foreigners (including resident aliens) had to go to the other.

 

The process started at 7am and from my cruise journal I see that I made an entry at 8:22am that I had just returned after clearing immigration and a breakfast at the buffet. I remember going to my area at around 7:05am.

 

I was in the resident/foreigner line and it moved steadily with 2 officers working us. The american line above us (I could see upwards to the other dinning room) seemed much longer but appeared to move faster. Once it was my turn it took less than 2 minutes, even though I had a brand spanking new passport being used for the first time.

 

The whole ship had to clear before anyone could go onshore. I doubt that because my experience was on RCI, it would be much different on Princess.

[hooked cruiser]

I have just 5 minutes ago received a letter from Carnival UK stating that the Sea Princess will not now call at St Thomas at Christmas and that this is due to the time taken to clear customs and immigration being increased to 5 hours an as this will not allow for passengers to spend as much time ashore (Tours included) they have decided to visit Samana instead.

This is fine with us as we have visited St Thomas several times before but the U.S. citizens are now missing out on the duty free aspect of the cruise.

[MaryPoppinz]

So, if somebody (certainly not me, Homeland Security:p) picks up a few million $$ of diamonds they found in St. Maarten and stores them in their already-lumpy Caribbean Princess mattress for a couple of days, how are they screened before our anonymous smuggler gets off at Port Everglades?

 

Did he steal the diamonds, buy them, or were they just laying around for the taking? ;)

 

In this situation, wouldn't our anonymous smuggler be going through immigration at St. Thomas and declaring customs on his bag-o-booty in Ft. Lauderdale? I really don't remember the answer to this, because I don't "pick up" diamonds in the Caribbean (though, depending on you ranswer to my first question, I may start.)

[CAL7]

Did he steal the diamonds, buy them, or were they just laying around for the taking? ;)

I don't think it matters (unless you are considering a serious career move). Either way, he needs to pay duty at the port of entry.

 

In this situation, wouldn't our anonymous smuggler be going through immigration at St. Thomas and declaring customs on his bag-o-booty in Ft. Lauderdale? I really don't remember the answer to this, because I don't "pick up" diamonds in the Caribbean (though, depending on you ranswer to my first question, I may start.)

This is where I am confused. Is St. Thomas just immigration, with customs handled in Fort Lauderdale?

 

I guess I am trying to figure out what the phrase "The entire ship (all passengers) must be cleared in St. Thomas" means. If I return from Europe on a flight that has JFK as its first port of entry, then the entire plane is truly cleared, and I have to get off, claim my baggage, walk it through customs, and re-check it. The equivalent on a cruise ship would be do this whole process in St. Thomas, which I don't believe is the case. I believe I can stay in my cabin (clutching my contraband diamonds) and never touch US soil in St. Thomas. So, I am still trying to figure out when my diamonds are going to be found-out.

[MaryPoppinz]

If he bought them, I believe the jewelers are reporting the purchases to US customs (how? via the ship?)

 

The customs documents are with the disembarkation packet, aren't they?

 

It doesn't make sense to clear customs before your final destination in the US on a cruiseship -- for the very reason you raise.

[wrp96]

You don't clear customs in St. Thomas, you clear immigration. Immigration is checking to see that your citizenship documents are in order - that is it.

 

You'll clear customs at the very end of your cruise (if it is a US port) but that is the only time.

[Plant]

You don't clear customs in St. Thomas, you clear immigration. Immigration is checking to see that your citizenship documents are in order - that is it.

 

You'll clear customs at the very end of your cruise (if it is a US port) but that is the only time.

 

This is absolutely correct! Immigration is a totally different animal from customs. You must clear immigration in St. Thomas if you've been out of the US, i.e., Ft. Lauderdale to Jamaica (or wherever) to St. Thomas. Even if you are not planning on getting off the ship in St. Thomas you must clear immigration. You don't have to declare your "diamonds" to immigration then, but you do have to declare them to customs when you get back to the US :eek: !

 

Cal7, you must go through immigration in St. Thomas. You can't stay in your cabin clutching your diamonds :D , but you don't have to report them either!

[suntan]

I've only experienced going through immigration in St.Thomas as this was the first US port of call after going to several other islands. As a non-US citizen, all we had to show was our passport to the immigration officers - we did not have to complete customs forms declaring what we purchased. The line moved fairly quickly - we were in and out in about 5 minutes. Then again, we lined up early for this as we didn't want to miss our time shopping before going on the excursion (also the ship was late docking due to a propulsion problem).

[CAL7]

This is absolutely correct! Immigration is a totally different animal from customs. You must clear immigration in St. Thomas if you've been out of the US, i.e., Ft. Lauderdale to Jamaica (or wherever) to St. Thomas. Even if you are not planning on getting off the ship in St. Thomas you must clear immigration. You don't have to declare your "diamonds" to immigration then, but you do have to declare them to customs when you get back to the US :eek: !

 

Cal7, you must go through immigration in St. Thomas. You can't stay in your cabin clutching your diamonds :D , but you don't have to report them either!

OK, not to beat this to death.... I promise I will quit after this. But, if there is no customs in St. Thomas, then could our hypothetical smuggler, being a US citizen in good standing, pass through immigration in St. Thomas with contraband that goes without a customs check? Once in St. Thomas, he could freely send his goods anywhere in the US. Yes?

[1bigsexy]

We've done this a couple times and both were a breeze. As long as the ship and officials are on time, it's fast. I'd guess it took about 30 mins, since it's well organized by the ships crew.

 

knock on wood - we'll be doing this again in a couple weeks :cool:

[Plant]

OK, not to beat this to death.... I promise I will quit after this. But, if there is no customs in St. Thomas, then could our hypothetical smuggler, being a US citizen in good standing, pass through immigration in St. Thomas with contraband that goes without a customs check? Once in St. Thomas, he could freely send his goods anywhere in the US. Yes?

 

Yes, our hypothetical smuggler could send his goods from St. Thomas (or any other port) to the US or anywhere else. Whether the package would be checked when it arrived in the US or not would be another question :eek: !

[Philip217]

CAL7 asks some very good questions.

Here are the answers:

 

1. Most jewelry shops in the Caribbean Islands are very cooperative with US Customs and report to them all sales over a certain dollar amount.

2. All Cruise Ships calling at US Ports report onboard Duty Free sales to US Customs before arrival.

3. If you purchased a large quantity of duty free goods in the Caribbean or onboard a ship in the Caribbean, it would be reported to US Customs. US Customs would have you paged to meet them onboard before disembarking in the last US Port. They would ask you to produce the items. If you couldn't, there would probably be some trouble for you.

4. Yes, you could ship duty free items from St. Thomas to elsewhere in the USA. But if you don't report the contents, you are breaking the law. See #3 above.

[The Big Booper]

CAL7 asks some very good questions.

Here are the answers:

 

1. Most jewelry shops in the Caribbean Islands are very cooperative with US Customs and report to them all sales over a certain dollar amount.

2. All Cruise Ships calling at US Ports report onboard Duty Free sales to US Customs before arrival.

3. If you purchased a large quantity of duty free goods in the Caribbean or onboard a ship in the Caribbean, it would be reported to US Customs. US Customs would have you paged to meet them onboard before disembarking in the last US Port. They would ask you to produce the items. If you couldn't, there would probably be some trouble for you.

4. Yes, you could ship duty free items from St. Thomas to elsewhere in the USA. But if you don't report the contents, you are breaking the law. See #3 above.

 

How interesting. Whenever the merchants in St Thomas or St Martin ask our ship and cabin # I always figured they were doing it for their own internal records and for local purposes (to show the sale was off island). So we have a 1099 situation here !

[raysig]

Hi

 

We are sailing on October 13 on the Sea Pricess sailing from Southampton through to the Azores which should be very interesting, and then on to the Carribbean - anyone elso on this sailing?

 

We received our letter on Monday telling us that we would be going to Tortola instead, that is OK, we are not complaining!!:cool:

 

We'll be on the CP also. My copy of the itinerary, from last March, includes Tortola, St Kitts, Dominica, St Vincent and Barbados. St Thomas wasn't on the schedule.

[West Coast]

So, if somebody (certainly not me, Homeland Security:p) picks up a few million $$ of diamonds they found in St. Maarten and stores them in their already-lumpy Caribbean Princess mattress for a couple of days, how are they screened before our anonymous smuggler gets off at Port Everglades?

 

Un-set diamonds can be imported duty-free. No need to smuggle them.

[West Coast]

CAL7 asks some very good questions.

Here are the answers:

 

2. All Cruise Ships calling at US Ports report onboard Duty Free sales to US Customs before arrival.

 

Purchase details are only reported for US Citizens and Resident Aliens. US Customs does not receive details concerning other foreign nationals from the cruise line.

[edinburgher]

UK CHARTER - ST THOMAS BACK on itinerary

[Philip217]

West Coast,

Not sure which ships you have worked on.

For the past 2 decades, all of the ships I have worked on - and most of the Caribbean Merchants we deal with - have reported all large transactions made by passengers, regardless of nationality.

We don't have time to sort purchases by nationality. It is far easier to just report them all to US Customs. But I have no idea what exactly US Customs does with those reports.

On most debark days in US Ports, US Customs has instructed us to page non-US passengers to meet the Customs Officials to discuss their duty-free purchases, before we were allowed to proceed with clearing the ship for debark.

[cruisinbuddy]

I've been to St. Thomas twice, '05 &'07 and both times once the ship was cleared, @ 1/2 hr to an hr. we just walked off of the ship. We didn't have to go to any lounge to be asked any questions or anything like that.

Now on the Disney cruise, the last am, we had to go to the immigration "meeting" in a lounge to get our passports back, from the guy with the gun. Yeah, he was the only one with coffee. :mad: Plus this was scheduled for 5:00 AM! We got to bed at one.