FEBRUARY
Will Boaters Stay for the Winter?
Uncertainty continues due to the inconsistent behavior of the Bahamas Department of Immigration.
Regular visitors to the Bahamas know that the length of time they are granted by Bahamas Immigration to remain in the country when they arrive at a port of entry can vary depending on the officer processing their entry. Most visitors are given a visitors permit to meet their needs, but occasionally, those wishing to spend an entire winter required an extension. Many visitors shrugged it off and regarded the requirement as part of the Bahamian experience.
The situation changed when the Bahamas Department of Immigration announced a $200 per person fee to apply for an extension of the visitors permit. Now the requirement was more than an inconvenience and could inflict some financial pain. Obviously, visitors—especially boaters—took note because there was a real risk of an unbudgeted expense.
Due to a misunderstanding, immigration officers at many ports of entry thought only a maximum of 30 days could be issued; however, the directive from Nassau was to issue permits for a minimum of 30 days. For many visitors, the addition of hundreds or even thousands in extra fees was a showstopper, and social media sites, such as the Bahamas Land and Sea group on Facebook, blew up with cries of protest and indignation, causing many regular visitors to re-evaluate their plans.
The error was corrected quickly but as the situation calmed, the Honorable I. Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister of the Bahamas, who is also the minister responsible for tourism, stated during a press conference that the new extension fee only applied to those seeking work permits or stays for commercial reasons, not to tourists. Social media responded with exuberance that the threat of fees had been overblown and that reason had prevailed.
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The very next day in a hastily called news conference, the Deputy Directory of Immigration directly contradicted the Deputy Prime Minister by saying parliament had granted the right to charge the fees, and the original guidance to issue a minimum of 30 days would be observed for visitors permits. The controversy began anew.
To calm the waters, Director of Immigration William Pratt issued a public statement to emphasize that immigration officers were not limited to issuing 30-day stays and that special consideration would be applied to boaters and seasonal residents. Many have taken to heart the statement by the director that “…we also make special provisions for boaters, so people coming to cruise the Bahamas…if they say there are going to be cruising for four months, five months, they get their four months of [sic] five months…” The statement posted on the Bahamas Department of Immigration official Facebook page appears to be an official policy.
The reality is, however, nuanced as there are many reports of boaters receiving a permitted stay of up to six months and others only receiving a portion of the time they were planning on remaining in the Bahamas. Immigration officers in the field are still exercising their right to make an on-the-spot determination for how long a visitor may remain, and they are granting stays on a seemingly arbitrary basis, almost as if to challenge the policymakers in Nassau to step in and force them to change their interpretation of the law.
Nearby countries such as Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic charge far less than $200 per person for a visitor to spend a winter, and time will tell if boaters turn their attention elsewhere.
-by Addison Chan