Entering and Departing the Bahamas

What you actually do, in order: clear before anything else, file it, show what is asked for, and get out again. The money is on its own page, linked below.

Clear first, the yellow flag, and nobody but the captain steps off

Go straight to a designated Port of Entry and clear before you do anything else. Fly the yellow quarantine flag as you enter each port and notify Customs of your arrival. Until the vessel has been cleared by both Customs and Immigration, the only person permitted to disembark is the captain. Everybody else stays aboard, however long it takes, and the captain reports directly to Bahamas Customs at a designated Port of Entry.

You will read in a great many places that clearance must be completed within 24 hours of entering Bahamian waters. We cannot find that rule in the Customs clearance pages, in the 2026 changes document or on the Association of Bahamas Marinas page, so this guide does not state it. What Customs does say is clear enough on its own: go to a designated Port of Entry, and nobody but the captain leaves the boat until you are cleared.

The yellow flag itself is standard practice rather than a published regulation. Both the Association of Bahamas Marinas and the Bahamas Out Islands board state it plainly. The document the regulations actually require is the Maritime Declaration of Health.

Where you file it

Customs runs the Click2Clear Cruising Permit Module, digital since February 22, 2021. The question everybody asks first is whether they have to register, and Customs answers it: registration is required only for the two year FDCC. For anything up to twelve months there is no account, no username and no password. You use the yellow Request Cruising Permit button below the login fields on the Customs home page.

From there: select Pleasure Vessel, then Pleasure Craft, then Create Inbound. Work the tabs from Header to Summary, validate and submit, then pay in the Payments tab using the Rotation Number the submission gives you. The government services portal separately mentions GoOutdoorsBahamas.com and the paper Form C2A with cash, so those routes exist, but Click2Clear is the one Customs documents end to end.

Two things about payment. You can pay online by Visa debit or credit, or in cash on arrival arranged by the marina where you intend to dock. And a vessel cannot be approved by a Customs Officer until it is paid in full, so paying at the dock means waiting at the dock. The submission is not editable once paid.

Approval itself is still a person. You visit the designated Customs port and an officer stamps and signs the document to legalise it, and that can only happen after payment.

What you need aboard

• Form C2A, the inward declaration and cruising permit application
• Maritime Declaration of Health form
• Proof of citizenship or identification for everyone aboard, crew and passengers, originals
• Vessel registration or title

On approval you are issued a Temporary Cruising Permit on Form C39.

What it costs

Every figure lives on one page so there is one place to keep it current: Bahamas cruising permit fees 2026 has the permit tiers, the anchorage fees including the FDCC's own, the passenger tax, the fishing permit, what a trip actually comes to, and the two ways to get money back when a crossing is cancelled.

Two points of procedure rather than price. A vessel cannot be approved by a Customs Officer until it is paid in full, so paying cash at the dock means waiting at the dock. And the submission is not editable once paid.

Firearms: you are not licensed, you are exempted

This is the section to read twice, because almost every guide describes it as a declaration and it is not. You have no right to carry a firearm in the Bahamas. What the Firearms Act gives you is a narrow exemption from the whole licensing regime, and it lapses the moment any one of its conditions fails.

Section 43(4) disapplies the Act for a person other than a resident of The Bahamas who is aboard a foreign vessel, on three conditions. All three have to hold, all of the time:

• You declare it in the prescribed form within forty eight hours of the vessel arriving at her first port of call, to a proper officer of customs or a commissioner
• You do not use the firearm while in the territorial waters of The Bahamas
• You do not bring the firearm on shore. Not to the car, not to the hotel, not for cleaning

Revolvers sit under their own parallel provision with the same three conditions and the same forty eight hours. And note who the exemption covers: a non resident aboard a foreign vessel. A Bahamian resident guest on your boat is not exempted by it.

The three month limit nobody writes about

The exemption runs for the period of three months next following the arrival of the vessel at her first port of call on that visit. Three months. Not the length of your cruising permit.

So a boat on a six month or twelve month permit with a firearm aboard is exempt for the first three months and then is simply in possession of an unlicensed firearm in the Bahamas. Most guides that mention firearms talk about the three gun limit and the ammunition count. We have not found one that mentions this, and it is the one that turns a paperwork question into a criminal one.

What Customs adds on top

The statutory exemption is the law. These are the operational limits Customs applies to pleasure vessels, and they are tighter:

• A maximum of three firearms aboard, handguns, rifles and shotguns, none exceeding .308 calibre
• 250 rounds of ammunition per firearm
• Automatic weapons prohibited outright
• Open centre console vessels may not carry firearms at all
• Everything stays aboard, under lock and key at all times
• Declare each one with its serial number, the manufacturer's name and an exact count of ammunition

Firearms aboard a vessel Customs deems unfit are detained at the local police station until you leave the country. And the outbound check is a real check: everything listed on the cruising permit is verified as still aboard before you clear out, so a firearm that has quietly gone ashore is discovered on the way home rather than on the way in.

Flares are fine, and two clocks not to confuse

Worth saying because people worry about it. A signalling apparatus and its ammunition carried as part of the ship's equipment needs no certificate, expressly, under section 12(4) of the Act. Your flare pistol is not a firearms problem.

On timing: the statute gives you forty eight hours from arrival at the first port of call to declare. Do not treat that as a spare two days. Declare the firearms as part of clearing in, on arrival, and the question of which clock was running never comes up.

As to consequences, the Act's sentencing ranges for firearm offences are written in years rather than fines, and Customs states that failure to declare can mean forfeiture, fines and in some circumstances imprisonment. The individual tariffs vary by offence and this page does not quote one, because the point is not which sentence applies. The point is that this is the one area of the trip where the paperwork is not administrative.

Bringing a dog or a cat

An import permit is required for dogs and cats and it must accompany the animal at the time of import. Every condition on the permit has to be satisfied or the animal may be refused entry, or confiscated and disposed of as a disease risk. The permit comes from the Veterinary Services Unit of the Department of Agriculture in Nassau, and a domestic animal for these purposes means a dog, cat, bird, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit or fresh water turtle.

Read the regulations before the brochure. The Rabies and Hydrophobia Prevention Regulations define a "dog" as any member of the canine or feline families. Everything below applies to your cat as well, which is easy to miss when every heading says dog.

What the vet has to do, and when

A vet practising at your place of embarkation must sign a certificate stating both of these:

• That they personally examined the animal within twenty four hours of embarkation and are satisfied it is free from symptoms of infectious or contagious disease
• That the animal was vaccinated against rabies not less than ten days and not more than nine months before that examination

Both windows matter and they catch people in opposite directions. Vaccinate the week you leave and you are inside ten days and the certificate fails. Rely on last year's booster and you are past nine months and it fails again. The certificate is produced to the Government Veterinary Surgeon on arrival and left with them, so carry a copy for yourself.

Note these are two different clocks. The twenty four hours is the vet examination before you leave. The permit application itself is separate and can take up to 48 business hours to process, which over a weekend is most of a week. Apply well ahead.

The rule that would ruin the trip

Any animal under the age of six months entering the Bahamas must be confined at the owner's expense, at the premises of the Bahamas Humane Society or a qualified and registered veterinary surgeon, until the Government Veterinary Surgeon has satisfactory evidence that it is free from rabies.

A puppy or kitten does not come cruising with you. It goes into confinement on arrival and you pay for it. If you are collecting a new dog before a Bahamas season, that is a planning decision, not a paperwork detail.

Separately, where rabies is suspected in any animal, it may be detained for up to six months at the owner's cost or destroyed by written order, and no compensation is payable.

What it costs, and why you will see two answers

The current application form, revised July 2023, sets the processing fee at $40.00 plus 10% VAT, so $44.00 per permit, with each subsequent permit for the same animal at $10.00 plus VAT, so $11.00, to a maximum of ten permits per animal.

The government's own pet information page still says $10.00 plus 12% VAT, a total of $11.20. That figure is stale: VAT in the Bahamas is 10%, and the page itself states that Veterinary Services is currently reviewing and revising all import requirements, fees and conditions. Budget on the form, not the brochure, and expect the number to move.

Two practical notes from the form. Payment is by international money order only, with no personal cheques and no cash in the mail. And alongside the application you send health and vaccination records and a colour photograph of the animal, which surprises everybody. The form also asks for microchip type and number, so have the animal chipped and the number to hand.

Animal and plant permits are being moved onto Click2Clear under a BAHFSA ePermitting programme. The paper route above is what is currently published in full, so it is worth a call to Veterinary Services before a first trip with an animal.

Going home

Pleasure vessels only clear outward if they need clearance documents for the next port of destination outside the Bahamas, on Form C28A, with the temporary cruising permit presented at the time. The fee is $75, and the Certificate of Clearance is issued manually.

In Click2Clear the outbound is a clone of your inbound submission: Create Outbound, enter the Rotation Number and vessel registration, clone, change the departure date, validate and submit. It should calculate no fees, provided the passenger count has not increased and the stores aboard are the same. If a fee appears, something on the declaration has changed and it is worth finding out what before you pay it.

The outbound check is a real check. Everything declared on arrival, firearms, ammunition and accessories listed on the cruising permit, is verified as still aboard, and all seafood aboard is checked against the fishing regulations printed on the back of the fishing licence.

Charter is a different animal: a vessel engaged for charter files Report Inwards of Vessel (Form C2) and must produce a valid charter licence from the Bahamas Port Department. The inward report is $75 and the outward report $75.

You do not need a middleman

Search for a Bahamas cruising permit and you will find commercial services offering to file it for you. They are not government agencies. One of them charges a 20% service fee on top of the government rate, and on a large boat that is real money for filling in a form you can file yourself with no username and no password.

The more useful reason to go direct is accuracy. Checking one of those services against the Customs schedule, its per head tax figure was wrong and its account of the re-entry allowance did not match the permit terms. You would have paid the markup to be told the wrong thing. Click2Clear is free to use, and the refund and waive off routes, which are on the fees page, only exist for vessels that filed there.

Ports of entry: use the Customs list, not the statute

There are two lists and they are not the same. The Ports of Entry Order under section 6(3) of the Customs Management Act is the legal instrument, but it is consolidated to 2008 and still names places that no longer appear anywhere in Customs' own operations. The list that matters to a boat is the one Bahamas Customs publishes and maintains, because it names the actual marinas.

These are the sea entry points from the current Customs list. Airports are left out except where a crew change makes them relevant.

Bimini. Bimini Public Dock, Big Game Marina, Resorts World Marina, Blue Waters, Brown's, Sea Crest, Weech's, Bimini Sands, South Bimini Marina. Cat Cay. Ocean Cay.

Grand Bahama and West End. Old Bahama Bay Marina and Blue Marlin Cove at West End, Grand Cay, Port Lucaya Marina, Lucayan Marina Village, Lucayan Yacht Club, Grand Bahama Yacht Club, Xanadu, Running Mon, Bradford Marine, Freeport Harbour, South Riding Point. West End Airport is restricted.

Berry Islands. Chub Cay Marina, Great Harbour Cay Marina, Bullock's Harbour Public Dock, Coco Cay.

Abaco. Marsh Harbour Public Dock, Conch Inn Marina, Great Abaco Beach Resort Marina, Mangoes, Jib Room, Baker's Bay at Guana Cay, Treasure Cay Marina and Public Dock, Green Turtle Cay Public Dock, Spanish Cay Marina, Cooper's Town Public Dock, Walker's Cay Dock, Grand Cay. Sandy Point is upon request.

New Providence. Nassau Yacht Haven, Nassau Harbour Club, Atlantis Marina, Albany Marina, Lyford Cay Marina, Paradise Harbour Club, Harbour Central, East Bay Yacht Basin, Bayshore, Bluewater Legendary at Fox Hill, One Particular Harbour, Prince George Dock, Kelly's Dock, John Alfred Dock.

Eleuthera and Harbour Island. Harbour Island Public Dock, Harbour Island Marina, Romora Bay, Valentines. Spanish Wells Public Dock and Yacht Haven. Three Island Dock at North Eleuthera. Governor's Harbour Public Dock, French Leave. Rock Sound. Cape Eleuthera is restricted.

Exuma. Exuma Public Dock, Emerald Bay Marina, Exuma Yacht Club Marina, Black Point Public Dock, Norman's Cay Dock.

Andros. Fresh Creek Public Dock, San Andros Public Dock, Congo Town.

Cat Island. Smith's Bay Public Dock, Bennett's Harbour, Arthur's Town Dock, New Bight.

Long Island. Stella Maris Marina and Public Dock, Simms, Salt Pond, Clarence Town.

Further south. Crooked Island public dock, Inagua Public Dock at Matthew Town, San Salvador, Mayaguana.

Walker's Cay is open. It has a staffed Customs office with its own direct line and email, which is worth knowing if you are working from a guide written after Dorian.

The tip that saves the morning. Customs publishes a contact listing, updated September 2026, giving a named officer in charge, a direct telephone number and a dedicated email address for each port. Marsh Harbour, Bimini, Green Turtle Cay, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Exuma, West End and Walker's Cay all have their own address. Email the port you are heading for before you leave, rather than arriving and hoping. Two ports are explicitly on request or restricted, and the difference between a call ahead and a cold arrival is a day.

Frequently asked questions

Who can leave the boat before the Bahamas clears you in?

Only the captain. Until the vessel has been cleared by both Customs and Immigration, nobody else may disembark. The captain reports to Bahamas Customs at a designated Port of Entry.

Do I need a Click2Clear account to get a cruising permit?

Not for a permit of up to twelve months. Use the yellow Request Cruising Permit button below the login fields. Registration is required only for the two year Frequent Digital Cruising Card.

What do I have to have aboard to clear in?

Form C2A, the Maritime Declaration of Health, original proof of citizenship or identification for everyone aboard, and the vessel registration or title. On approval you are issued a Temporary Cruising Permit on Form C39.

How long can I keep a firearm aboard in the Bahamas?

Three months from the vessel's arrival at her first port of call on that visit, not the length of your cruising permit. The exemption under section 43(4) also requires declaration within forty eight hours, no use in Bahamian waters, and that the firearm never goes ashore.

Can I take a puppy to the Bahamas?

Not aboard with you. Any animal under six months old must be confined on arrival at the owner's expense until the Government Veterinary Surgeon has satisfactory evidence it is free from rabies.

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Sources: Bahamas Customs, pleasure vessel clearance; the Government of The Bahamas services portal; the Ports of Entry Order (Customs Management Act, s.6(3), LRO 1/2008); and, for the quarantine flag and the anchorage range only, the Association of Bahamas Marinas. Firearms sections are taken from the Firearms Act itself, and the pet sections from the Rabies and Hydrophobia Prevention Regulations and the current Veterinary Services application form. Checked September 28, 2026 and re-verified on October 1, 2026.