News

Bond Requirements for French Polynesia

February 24, 2010

Immigration officials in French Polynesia have cleared up the confusion regarding the posting of a bond in French Polynesia. There is a change this year.  The bond must be paid at the port of arrival, even if it is in the Marquesas. So, all the non-EU crews must post the bond, except those that use an agent. The 30 days period to reach Tahiti is no longer valid.  All the crews that do not want to post the bond MUST use an agent. The PPJ bond exemption that was made available to our fleet last year is no longer available. The Tahiti Yacht Club has decided not to continue to offer this to visiting fleets.

The bond requirement can be fulfilled in a number of ways:

1. Post a monetary bond per person on board equivalent to a flight to their home country. This bond is paid to the bank and refunded, with a financial impact of bank fees and changes in the exchange rate between the time the bond was posted and refunded.
2. Have an airline ticket in hand for a flight home. Some cruisers have danced around this by presenting a copy of a reservation made on-line but never actually booked and other similar strategies. These all contain a certain level of risk that the officials will not accept them and then you are on the hook for a bond/ticket.
3. Use an agent to write a bond for you. This makes them responsible for your financial bond.  There is a fee for this bond service. Two agents in French Polynesia have provided bond exemption letters for PPJ boats in the past.
1. Polynesia Yacht Services
2. Tahiti Yacht Agents

Their detailed information and price offers are in separate files in the PPJ Files section in the '' directory located here in the PPJ group

There is a significant difference in the rates of these two agents. TYA offers a fixed price per PPJ boat. This is a special offer only for PPJ vessels and is not available to the general cruising community. As such, it is to be kept private and not broadcast to the general cruising population.  Any vessel, however, is quite welcome to join the PPJ group. The TYA cost is 9200 XPF ($110USD) total per vessel. The PYS rate is partly per vessel and partly per person.  For a vessel with 4 people on board the total cost would be 69000XPF ($820) total for vessel and crew. For TYA you need to arrange for the bond ahead of time and pay the fees. For PYS there are agents in the Marquesas where you can arrange the entry requirements and pay then. Both companies have provided services to past PPJ fleets and have both done a good job for us. Both offer a full range of services beyond the bond exemption. See their details for their other services.

Note: If you do use the TYA services do not use the PYS local agents in the Marquesas or you will end up paying both companies.                                  

Look for further details on the Pacific Puddle Jump here, and in the pages of Latitude 38.