By Lucy Chabot Reed

As they tried to enter the United States in June, the engineer and stewardess on a foreign-flagged yacht were told they needed C1/D visas to work on their yacht.

Since they had B1/B2s, they were denied entry. The stewardess lost her job; the engineer learned a valuable lesson.

The immigrations officer was wrong – the proper visa for yacht crew is a
B1/B2 – but when the crew members tried to tell him that, he threatened to seize the boat and fine each of them $10,000.

“When I questioned him, he got very defensive, which made me believe he didn’t know the rules,” said the engineer, who asked that his name and the name of the vessel not be printed because of a privacy agreement. “We had a crew list and the proper visa, but it wasn’t enough.”

Several crew have run into similar problems this summer as the United States increases its commitment against illegal immigration. Increased commitment translates into more border patrol officers, not all of whom are familiar with seaports or yachting.

“It’s more of a training issue,” said Florence Chamberlin, an immigration attorney in Miami who has helped more than her usual number of crew members in June and July.

“The officers are using their own discretion and, in their opinion, being more cautious,” she said. “We want them to be cautious. We want our borders safe. But it’s not always convenient and the law is not always applied fairly. … I have seen it misapplied. It happens.”

In the case of this engineer and stewardess, the officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection refused to get his supervisor and told the captain who accompanied them that he either had to fire the stewardess or she would immediately be put on an airplane out of the country.

The captain said he fired her so she could enter the United States on her B2, the tourism portion of the visa. The officer stamped her in for the minimum stay of 30 days.

“He didn’t want to hear one thing,” the captain said of the officer. “The more we challenged him, the worse it got. So we took what we got and started making phone calls.”

The encounter shook the stewardess so much that she left the industry and eventually returned home to Brazil, the captain said.

The engineer, though, didn’t frighten easily. Familiar with international travel, he fell back on his seven years experience working on yachts and traveling to the United States. He was finally admitted on his B1 for 30 days but was told his passport would be flagged so he could not re-enter after that.

The engineer left the office and set to work trying to resolve the issue. He called every agency he could think of, all “useless,” he said.

“It could have meant that I would have lost my job,” he said. “Captains are starting to shy away from the whole thing. They’re saying, ‘if I can have American crew, I can avoid all this.’”

Then a friend suggested he call Jack Garofano, assistant director of field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami. Garofano, who spoke at The Triton’s immigration event in March, gave the engineer the names and numbers of people to call.

It took the engineer about a week of phone calls and another visit to the immigration office to correct the mistake, but he eventually was admitted on his B1/B2 visa and his passport was stamped for a six-month stay.

(By the way, that flag the officer threatened that would remain on his record never appeared, the engineer said. Phone calls to several divisions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection were referred to the agency’s public affairs department in Miami. Messages left there were not returned.)

“You feel intimidated,” the engineer said. “You don’t want to cause an issue. You can’t leave because you run the risk of not sorting it out. The only reason I got it sorted out was because of Jack.”

The crew members did everything they were supposed to do. They had their B1/B2 visas and showed up to clear in with their captain. The engineer was prepared for the litany of questions yacht crew sometimes get asked. What he didn’t have was proof that yacht crew need a B1/B2.

So from now on, he said, he will carry with him a print-out of the policy that yacht crew need a B1/B2. (Several contacts within CBP as well as immigration attorneys could not cite an actual rule pertaining to yacht crew, but two U.S. embassies note the policy on their Web sites. See box.)

“When you come in, make sure you come in on a B1,” the engineer said. “You’ve got to have something to say you work on a yacht, a crew list or a letter from the yacht.”

Chamberlin suggested that yacht crew who run into problems first ask – diplomatically and politely – to speak to the shift supervisor. That should resolve the problem, but if it doesn’t, she said a crew member can request that their inspection be differed to give him or her the chance to review the issues, contact an attorney if necessary, and prepare to plead the case before an officer.

“Politeness, patience and being well presented make as much of an impression with an immigration officer as a prospective employer,” said the well-traveled captain of a foreign-flagged yacht with 16 crew. “The same question can be asked in many ways, resulting in a different response each time. If someone is polite and amicable throughout the event, it will not upset an official to have them check with their supervisor on a visa entry status question.

“At the end of the day, they are doing a job that needs to be respected, whether we like it or not,” he said.

Of all the American ports he has cleared in in his yachting career – Seattle, San Diego, New York – the engineer said Ft. Lauderdale and Miami are by far the worse. This is the second run-in he has had with U.S. immigration in South Florida. The first time, about three years ago, the officer took him to the airport and wanted to put him on a plane, he said.

“That time, I got the supervisor who said I didn’t need to be there [at the airport],” the engineer said. “A lot of the customs officers we met didn’t understand yachting, and they still don’t.”

The engineer acknowledged that yacht crew members often come into the United States on a B1/B2 visa with a job, then lose it or quit, and search for a new one. It is illegal to be stamped in on a B1 and then be unemployed and remain in the country.

“We all do it, but it’s wrong,” he said. “But that’s the nature of the business. Ft. Lauderdale is the place where the yachts come. All the crew agents are here. We don’t want to stay here; we want to find work on yachts that happen to be here. If they really start stepping up on the B1 and not let anyone in, it’s going to kill the industry here.”

Part of the problem is that so few government officials understand how yachting works. When asked at the immigration office how long the yacht is expecting to stay, many crew honestly answer that they don’t know. Could be three months, could be four. That uncertainty raises flags with immigration officials, often prompting them to ask more questions, such as how they are being paid and whether they have an American bank account or driver’s license. The engineer’s advice is for crew members to be truthful in their answers and careful in their lifestyle.

“Don’t have a bank account or a driver’s license,” he said.

When they ask if you have a car and you do, say yes.

“Don’t lie because if they check, it’s worse,” he said.

Do you have a house? If you do, say yes, a vacation home. Immigration officers are looking for evidence that you intend to go home, so you have to have a primary residence somewhere – and be able to prove it, if asked – but it’s not illegal to have a vacation home here.

“They hear all that and they jump to the conclusion that you are living in the United States, but you’re not,” the engineer said. “You are only here to work.”

Despite his experience in yachting and with U.S. immigration, the engineer said he still feels like he’s taking his career in his hands each time they yacht enters America.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence in the system,” he said. “It depends on who you get. If you get the one I got, you’re on a plane.”

Three days after sorting out his problem and being cleared in for six months, the owner decided to take a trip to the Bahamas. He said he was worried when he came back in, but nothing happened, though he fully expects his comings and goings to catch up with him one day.

“That’s the nature of the business.”

Have you learned a lesson that other crew members might benefit from? Share your experience with your colleagues. Contact Editor Lucy Chabot Reed at lucy@the-triton.com.

<<back to main