Bürokratie St. Lucia Karibik

St. Lucia - Conditions of Entry

The regulation of the residence permit on St. Lucia is in parts particularly stupid.

Entry by private yacht:

Tourists coming in by private yacht are told (Compass November 2011 page 10, HTS Channel 4 Cable 34) to get a residence permit of 6 months stay. This is NOT guaranteed. We received the following documents (2012) which prove the opposite::

Entry by air 10/31/2011

Residence permit until 12/11/2011

Extension from 12/11/2011 to 01/11/2012

Clearing and departure from St. Lucia 12/25/2011 (with that all existing St. Lucia residence permits and extensions were cancelled)

New entry by private yacht 12/29/2011

New residence permit only to (because of the former extension to 01/11/2012, even if that was cancelled because of the departure 12/25/2011 from St. Lucia) only until 01/11/2012 (14 days instead of published 182 days and instead of minimum 42 days with entry by air)

New residence permit only to 01/11/2012 (14 days instead of published 182 days and instead of the minimum of 42 days with entry by air), because the with departure from 12/25/2011 cancelled extension to 01/11/2012 was allegedly nevertheless still valid.

From the point of entry rules and conditions we are sorry for having to add St. Lucia to the list of unsafe islands and strictly recommend NOT to enter St. Lucia by private yacht without former written immigration guarantees given by St. Lucia immigration headquarters. It is NOT guaranteed that actions of St. Lucia immigration authorities are foreseeable or understandable.

These information can be interesting also for participants of the next ARC and their families, if they will enter St. Lucia partly by airplane and private yacht. Current information might be available from St Lucia Yacht Club.

Entry by air:

Tourists coming by air will get a permission for 42 days. An extension for another 4 weeks is possible. The extension procedure is unbelievably pedantic, bureaucratic and expensive:

The exclusive central place for extensions is by the immigration authority in Castries , the capital of St. Lucia.

The tourist has to go there by taxi from his hotel or holiday place, travel time approx. 1 hour, costs approx. 40 US$ one way.

At the immigration authority in Castries he has to wait approx. 1 - 2 hours until its case is worked on. Then a form is filled out and the tourist is asked for a passport photo. The tourist has naturally no additional passport photo and first has to organize a new passport photo, duration 30 - 45 minutes, to go back to the immigration authority again and to queue up again.

After a further half hour the form with the passport photo is finally finished. The tourist thinks, now finally everything is settled.

Wrong!

Next he has to pay cash 200.00 EC$ (!!! fee for only 1 extension of 4 weeks!!!). Then he receives a receipt for that. With this receipt the tourist expects his re- stamped passport.

Wrong again!

He does not get the passport. The immigration authority in Castries keeps it. Reason: The procedure "extension of the residence permit" is still going on. That will take 1 week. The passport can be fetched not before 7 days later, there in Castries at the office.

That means:

-	1 full day lost at the immigration authority in Castries including return trip by taxi, costs 80 US$
-	200.00 EC$ (!!! for only 1 extension of 4 weeks !!!),
-	1 week on St. Lucia without passport. The immigration authority in Castries has and keeps it.
-	Therefore 1 week long no trips to neighbour islands, no rental car, no hotel change, no duty free purchase, since no passport can be submitted,
-	after one week again 1 full day lost at the immigration authority in Castries including round trip by taxi, again taxi costs 80 US$.

So an extension of the residence permit on St. Lucia costs altogether 240.00 US$ plus loss of 2 full residence days plus no activities at all for 1 week, for which a passport is required. And all this for only one stamp in the passport, for which one needs 5 minutes at the airport.

A stay on St. Lucia of more than 6 weeks can be very time-intensively, therefore particularly annoying and very expensive in addition. To remain more than 6 weeks on St. Lucia one should think about very well. There are lots of other beautiful islands in the Caribbean. Better to leave St. Lucia before 42 days and spend money on more tourist friendly and less bureaucratic islands.

We received many mails on that, e.g.:

"Had been 20 years on my boat in the Caribbean , at the end mostly on St. Lucia . After selling the boat I rented a house ashore on the waterfront. Thereafter I wanted to buy a house and remain longer. Had thought with my many St. Lucia stamps getting always 6 months without any problems. I got only 6 weeks and had to suffer the procedure in Castries. Never again. I decided to leave St. Lucia and switch to a friendlier island. Sorry to all my friends here."