Many yacht owners planning to cross the Indian Ocean this season are frustrated that they have received no news as to whether they have been successful in getting a permit to visit BIOT/Chagos as a stopover. Here, BIOT Administration explain the delays.

Published 3 days ago

BIOT Permit Application Seriously Impacted

Yacht owners making early plans for Indian Ocean crossings this season have applied for a stopover in BIOT/Chagos (some applying as early as last December 2024). However, many are now worried as some have been waiting for 6 weeks or more and they have not received any response from BIOT regarding their permit applications.

Last season the permit application process seemed to be working well with reported prompt responses reported. Typically, permit applications must be made at least 6 weeks before the intended arrival date in BIOT.

Those that have followed the permit application process to the letter have had no luck trying to contact BIOT directly for updates.

Noonsite reached out to BIOT and received an explanation.

BIOT Official Response

The BIOT Administration does all it can to ensure that yacht mooring permits are processed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, we have suffered from a serious comms outage and some unexpected sick leave within the team in recent months, these issues have conspired to seriously impact our capacity.

With that said, we do appreciate the frustration of those who have been waiting for a response and, with both aforementioned issues now resolved, we are redirecting resources to clear the backlog of outstanding cases as soon as possible.

Since these delays relate to specific and temporary issues affecting the Administration, we are not changing our published guidance at the current time. However, consideration will be given to ways that we can add resilience to our process to try and protect against any similar issues arising in the future.

All outstanding permit applications have now been onboarded onto our system and are being processed. In order to do this in a fair and orderly way, we will be clearing the backlog in the order which applications were received. We would therefore ask that applicants do not chase up individual cases at the current time. The majority of applicants should have by now been contacted by an official.

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BIOT Administration have confirmed the application process and communications that you can expect from them:

• The standard process requires the official who onboards an application onto the queue, to notify the applicant that their submission has been received. While there will be some variation in the exact timing of this response, it should ordinarily happen within a few days of an application being made.
• BIOT Admin. are not able to offer any tracking of outstanding applications.
• Assuming that all correct documentation has been provided with the initial application, the case should be processed in as few as 3 emails from the administration as follows:
  o Acknowledgement of the application within a few days of submission.
  o Decision made in principle – if approved for a permit payment will be requested at this time, if the permit is rejected this is the end of the process.
  o Once payment is received the completed permit will be sent to the successful applicant, at this time BIOT will also notify their patrol vessel to expect the yacht during the specified period.

Read Noonsite’s BIOT pages for more details on how to apply to visit BIOT.

Our thank to BIOT Administration for their prompt reply to our questions.

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