Illegal aliens - the final instalment of our customs & immigration debacle! Fajardo, PR,

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 10 Jan 2013 23:14
You will be able to sort out all your customs and immigration problems in Fajardo - or so we were reliably informed by the chap in Ponce, who was clearly been very keen to pass the buck and get someone else to sort our 'situation' out! On the 9th January we eventually pulled into the marina at Puerto Del Rey, and we were hugely glad to arrive! We had allowed ourselves two extra days to arrive before collecting Alex from the airport, but one day in hand was going to have to be enough to get the boat sorted out. First job - customs! John dealt with this whilst I started on the huge pile of laundry that was beginning to take over the boat! After a lengthy phone call, it was agreed that customs would visit us on the boat, as there was again some confusion about the validity, or otherwise, of our second Cruising Licence. The officers who visited the boat, confirmed that as we already had a valid cruising licence until 25 January, we shouldn't have been given another one. They then removed our new licence. Fortunately, we had kept the old one, despite being advised that we could throw it away. Unfortunately, it will expire whilst we are at home although this, it turns out, is less of a problem than you might think. The licence allows you to travel in US waters for a year without paying any customs fees or having to do any other than record your movements by telephone with Homeland Security. Without the licence, you have to pay $30 to enter and leave each port. When we come back to Puerto Rico, we can travel back to Culebra and Vieques, as they are in the same area as Fajardo, without paying, but once we leave we have to pay the $30 - all fine then, no big deal.
The following day we had hired a car to do the shopping etc. John, having dealt with this the customs all the way through, was having nagging doubts about our clearance, we had no stamp in our passport for example. So on the day Alex arrived we headed out to the customs office at Fajardo - and what a good job we did! Despite us being 'cleared and processed' at Mayaguez on the 5th January, there was no actual record at all of us being in the country - we were illegal aliens! We then spent an hour or more with customs trying to sort it all out. If we had arrived at the airport to fly home, we would have been detained as illegals, and when we asked how long that would generally take to resolve, we were told that it would be long enough to ensure we missed our flight! The officers were very helpful, I think they believed me, largely because what I was telling them about how we had been cleared etc, was so wrong that I couldn't have made it up! We now have all of our papers in order and it was back to work, getting ready for our visitors, arriving later that evening!