Published 16 years ago, updated 6 years ago

In Australia, Sail-World has received encouraging news about the notification requirements, in which Customs have heralded a “common sense” line until new legislation is enacted.

Sail-World Cruising interviewed Barbara Sweeney from Customs Media, who gave out the good news:

Sail-World Cruising: If someone notifies Customs of arrival but it turns out to be wrong, and they have no means of communicating with you from their yacht (ie. no fax, email or telephone on board) to advise a variation in the arrival date, what is their situation on arrival into Australia?

Barbara Sweeney: It is recognised that this is an anticipated arrival report and that sailing a small vessel in the Pacific is not always an exact science. Provided Customs is satisfied that this was a genuine situation and not an attempt to circumvent the pre-arrival reporting regime, then there would be no adverse impact. However, the vessel is still required to arrive at one of the designated ports, unless under genuine duress.

Sail-World Cruising: The minimum reporting requirement, except in exceptional cases, is 96 hours. Is there a maximum time?

Barbara Sweeney: The current legislation sets a maximum time of ten days. Customs has recognised that this is not always achievable in the case of pleasure craft, and has introduced an amendment into Parliament that will allow for a pre-arrival report to be lodged up to three months before the expected arrival date. In the interim, we have implemented policy advice that put this into effect pending the legislation change. In short, Customs will accept a pre-arrival report as early as three months prior to the intended arrival date.

by Nancy Knudsen 7:06 AM Fri 21 Nov 2008 GMT