Clearing into and out of Mayotte – October 2018

By SV Brick House

CLEARANCE IN

1. Get the paper form from the yacht club to be stamped by Immigration and Customs. Fill it out and then go the airport for 2 stamps (one from Immigration and one from Customs).

2. Take a taxi to the airport (all taxis are shared and are $1.40 euro pp each way).

3. At the airport, go to the Police-office where there is a telephone at the desk – dial ‪4002. This will call someone from immigration. Tell them you are there for ship clearance. They will send someone down to see you while you wait. They will want a crew list, your passports and the paper form. They will disappear behind closed doors, stamp your passport and stamp your paper form, and come back a few minutes later to hand them to you.

4. Go to the DUONE at the airport (which is Customs in French). It is a glassed office front clearly visible across from the restaurant at the airport. Give them your passports, boat paper, and the paper form to stamp. They also disappear, and moments later they had the form back to you stamped and return your passport(s). (This used to be done at the second ferry terminal, which we went to twice to find out we needed to go back to the airport to have it done…that it’s no longer done at their location because they are so rarely there…they are nearly always at the airport).

Nobody comes to search for the boat. In fact, no questions are asked, no words are hardly spoken during this stamping procedure! They don’t want to know where you are. They don’t want to know what you do or don’t have on the boat. They don’t want to see or have your last port clearance.

5. Take a taxi back to the yacht club and hand in your duly stamped paper form, and you are done.

You are no longer required to take the ferry to Mamoudzou to hand your clearance form to the port captain. Either the yacht club hands it into him or there is some cooperation between the two.

Zero cost other than the taxi ride, which is a good introduction to Mayotte.

Note: Another English cruiser with Filipina crew on board left the Filipina crew on board, went with the passports to the airport, ready to ask for just 3 days to rest and get fuel. A Filipina normally needs a Visa ahead of time to enter Mayotte. He left her on board so he would be able to say she did not come ashore in case they were alarmed. They didn’t seem to care and stamped her right in. Mayotte seems to be very relaxed about legal temporary immigration via sailboats.

CLEARANCE OUT

1. Go to the yacht club and get a Clearance out a paper form. Fill it in.

2. Take a taxi to the Airport.

3. Go to Duone/Customs and say “Ship Clearance Out please”. They take your paper, disappear, and come back moments later with it stamped. No other papers asked for. No fees

4. Go to the nearby telephone on the counter and dial 4002. Tell them “Ship Clearance Out please”. They will send someone down to retrieve the paper and your passports. They disappear and come back a few minutes later with your paper and your passports stamped out. If you had written tomorrow’s date earlier on the paper, they will ask you to change it to today since they can only do same day clearances. We changed ours, and she came back a second time with everything stamped. And with a smile, she said to come back again soon! No fees.

5. This time you do have to present your clearing out paper to the Port Captain. Take a taxi back to the Dingy dock/first ferry terminal, and then take the ferry to Mamoudzou. Exit the ferry and walk to the small marina. There are two containers there. The Port captain is in the container closest to the water. Knock and enter slowly.

6. Present your stamped paper and passports to the port captain, saying you would like “Ship Clearance Out”. He will disappear and moments later be back with your stamped form and a port clearance certificate for you…two in fact. He will confirm you are leaving today. He will wish you a fair passage. No fees. Do the rest of your veggies or grocery shopping, get on the ferry, and go back to your boat.

7. Prepare for departure. Everyone seems to wait to the next day to actually depart which seems to cause no problem. The coast guard waved to us without concern on our way out of the lagoon.

We wish all the countries were like this. The only easier clearance than Mayotte is Reunion, where they come to you. But the inexpensive taxi ride to and from the airport and ferry ride was a fine way to see a little bit of the island anyways.

We will return. Due to a perfect weather window to Tanzania, we left earlier than we would have liked to. There are a few nice anchorages around the island, and a few fun things to do…none of which we got to do!

Rebecca Childress

SV Brick House

http://whereisbrickhouse.com/2018/10/24/mayotte-a-different-french-island/