I’ve flown to foreign countries. You get off the plane, your documents and luggage are checked, and you go on once cleared by customs. What about if I sail in on my boat? Whats the process for going ashore legally?
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do some research about entry in the port you will arrive at before going.
example: [https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-67?language=en_US#:~:text=Entry%20may%20be%20made%20only,the%20CBP%20Officer%20in%20charge](https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-67?language=en_US#:~:text=Entry%20may%20be%20made%20only,the%20CBP%20Officer%20in%20charge).
generally the captain takes everyones passport to the local customs office for processing and returns to the boat with passports stamped meanwhile the crew/guests must remain on the boat until he returns
some times there are problems:
the office might be closed (they are not 24×7 operations) so you wait on the boat!
sometimes you can only enter at very specific ports/marinas
sometimes there are special docks you must initially tie up at.
each place is different and they may come and inspect the boat/crew and impose fees
or they might refuse entry for just 1 person, then you the captain must take them out immediately like it or not!
in the end its like an airplane, you cannot land anywhere only designated airports, and if somebody is denied entry the airline is required to fly them out of country on the next flight out.
the difference (airplane vrs small sailboat) is the number of people it would be impractical for the airplane pilot or cruise ship captain to collect all 100-1000 passports and present so they set it up for each person to go through immigrations then customs at the cruise ship port, or the airport
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