Lamb’s Yacht Center
Our plan is to go to the
Bahamas next spring, so we’ve been doing a lot of research…reading everything
we can online, in books and magazines plus talking to anyone we meet that has
been there on their boat. One thing we knew we wanted to take care of this year
was registering for the SVRS (Small Vessel Reporting System). This program is
offered by the U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency to make immigration
clearance for low risk recreational boaters easier on their arrival from a
foreign port.
It’s a painless process…if
you know a few things that aren’t explained well on the CBP (Customs & Border Protection) website. We tried several times to register online when we
were in Charleston, but ran into the same problem each time. Their site would
lock up when we tried to enter the information on our vessel. We tried calling
the number on the website for information and even sent an email, but we got
no response. Later we talked to a CBP officer on the dock, he told us we could
register without the vessel and add it later. That seems weird…isn’t this
called Small Vessel Reporting System? He also told us everyone on board needs
to register…no where on their website does it tell you that! Maybe it should
be called the Passenger Reporting System. So the secret is to register each person
and schedule a time for an interview and bring your vessel information with
you.
The SVRS is a free program. If
you have a SVRS number all you have to do is call the CBP when you arrive back in
an U.S. port. They will ask you a few questions and clear you, your passengers
and vessel by phone. If you DON’T have a SVRS number you have to report in
person to the nearest CBP office within 24 hours of your arrival. Our interview
wasn’t much of an interview…we had heard they would take our pictures and fingerprint
us, but that didn’t happen. All they did was take our boat information and
issue each of us a SVRS number. The process was simple and painless.
We wanted to get registered
in this program while we had our car, because the interviews are only done at
certain CBP locations. Those locations can be hard to get to when you arrive on
a boat. We found out that one of the easiest places to register if you don’t
have a car would be Fernandina Beach, their office is close to the marina.
Vessels also need to have a DTOPS
(Decal/Transponder Online Procurement System) decal. It’s a yearly decal (cost
$27.50) that is required by the CBP for vessels 30 ft. or more in length that travel
in and out of US waters. The decal will be displayed on our boat and lessen our
chances of being detained or boarded for inspection by CBP. We’ll go online
this fall and apply for the 2015 DTOPS decal, because it can take 4-6 weeks to
arrive and we want everything done before we leave for the Keys after
Christmas.
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