A Tale of Two Immigration Offices

PRELUDE:  shut your eyes for a moment and answer the question:  When you meet a stranger do you lean in the direction of thinking the best or the worst about that person?    Are they more like the innocent child of God or the sinner of a fallen way?  Do appearances lead you to one conclusion or the other and invite you to be more or less helpful?

So, before Admiral Kidney Stone pulled ranks in late December, Marney and I got around to addressing our immigration issues here in the BVI.  We are guests.  We are temporary resident type immigrants.  We arrived in November requesting permission to stay until the end of May.  We had bought our airplane tickets accordingly.  When we first arrived in November, there were too many other startup tasks, so we let this one go. 

Here’s what we subsequently discovered.  In order to have a valid visa, you must have a registered residence.  In our case, that’s the movable feast called Azure Wind.  When any boat first enters the BVI waters, you are given a 30 day permit and 30 day visa.  The permit is for your boat and the visa is for you.  If you stay past 30 days, even if it’s only for one more day, you legally must pay for a one year permit ($200).  You buy this at the Customs office.  And without this, you don’t have a residence upon which to base your immigration request.  In retrospect it seems clear enough but I can assure you that at the time it was anything but.

So, the former boat owner had purchased  a “residence” permit for a one year period  (March 31, 2015 to March 30, 2016).  We technically have a residence until the end of March.  When we first arrived in November, we were given a courtesy 30 day visa because we didn’t have the residency papers with us – they were on the boat!  Then in December, we went to Immigration, not knowing that we needed to go to Customs first to extend the permit for another year.  So, at Immigration in December, we were given a visa extension to the end of March.  OK, a little breathing room.  In January we purchased another year’s permit.  The boat (residence) is now legit until the end of March 2017.  AND, before the end of March, we have to return to Immigration to get our visa extended to the end of May.  Only you can’t go at any time (must be the last week of March) and you can’t go to just any Immigration office (there are only two that can grant this extension).  And, of course, you pay fees every time you do anything around customs and immigration.

Now, we’re US citizens and the US version of the Virgin Islands is right next door to the BVI.  And our sailing plan for this year has included several trips to St. John.  It’s one of the US National Parks and it’s where my “Tahiti” is located.  But every time you want to go there, you have to check out of the BVI, check into the USVI, and while you don’t have to check out of the USVI (thank you for little favors), you do have to re-check into the BVI.   The BVI office is located on the west end of Tortola, about 2 miles from St. Johns.  HOWEVER, the USVI immigration and customs offices are located on the west end of St. John (and not the east end).  Technically, you have to sail to the other end of that island to check in before you can leave your boat and walk on the land.  That means a sail west to visit the officials, and a sail back east to one of the prettier bays.  And, of course, you pay fees every time you check out, check in, and re-check in.

The forms are long and I can’t decide which form is the easier to use.  I think it’s the BVI form, but the BVI officers are sticklers and not quite as relaxed as the USVI officers have been. 

The US is trying to simplify, by the way.  For US citizens traveling overseas and then back into the country, there is now a website available for you to register your boat and yourself.  You apply on line, then have to go for an interview (it was 10 minutes and the only question we were asked is “may I see your passport?”).  Then you get a SVRS number (Small Vessel Reporting System of Homeland Security) which allows you to go back on line and create “float plans” that you can send in.  Once that’s received you get an email with a Float Plan Number  (I’m sure it will be called the FPN, but we haven’t gotten that far).  And finally, you can telephone the correct immigration office with your FPN and that is the substitute for checking in.  This convenience is supposed to work, but so far we are failing miserably at this.  I’ve filled out the on-line form 10 times and could see my proposed float plan, but it didn’t save anything to the USIWS  (US Immigration Web Site). 

When I finally found a phone number for the St. John immigration office and called, they suggested that I have cookies which are blocking my Apple computer from communicating with the government. The irony is that I have cookies but I can’t eat cookies because apparently I’m gluten intolerant, or so that’s Marney’s latest theory about my new dietary normal.  But I digress.  Two days ago, I learned that it’s not the cookies after all.  It’s the online form which doesn’t tell you that to “save a float plan” doesn’t actually save anything until you “finish” your float planning online.  Now I know.

Now this “tale” is not for the purpose of contrast, but similarity.  We’re not in some sleepy little island nation where the immigration and customs officers are the same person and you simply check in, tell them you want to stay a week or so and will leave and they say “OK”.  This tale is about how complicated immigration and customs procedures can be.  How frustrating it is when you are feeling your way through the system and have to double back and start over.  How frightening it can be because you never know when the immigration officer is having a lousy day (totally unrelated to the fact that you forgot to take your shower before you went to town) and THAT can make a difference.  Complicated, Frustrating, Frightening. 

And in spite of all this, I’m confident we’re going to muddle through this successfully.  We’ll keep checking out and checking in because we like both versions of the Virgin Islands!

Fair winds and calm seas

POSTLUDE:  So, this experience draws my attention to and it pales in comparison to the immigration controversy in our country.  Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.   It is a sad and most serious matter and high on both this year’s presidential campaigning and the Supreme Court’s docket.    

We keep putting out two signs at our southern border: “Help Wanted” and “No Trespassing”.  But underlying all of the politics is a fundamental assumption we make about the stranger.  Do we receive strangers as potential friends or enemies?  What’s the “benefit of the doubt” we offer in the name of our God?  That matters, whether we’re meeting the temporary visitor or the one seeking a permanent home and a new life in a new land.

PS.  Just so you know, while the Immigration and Customs procedures can be a headache, the National Parks policies are terrific!  I have received a Senior Citizens card for St. Johns which means the mooring balls are half price.  Instead of $26 a night, they’re $13.  It’s great being retired!