Pre Clearing Customs in St. Thomas

[jross]

Unless I am flying to an airport without a Customs office, I try not to pre clear in St. Thomas. We pre cleared down there last month and it took over an hour (everyone is on 'Island time') my passengers were angry about it (we were flying to BOS and could have cleared up there with an overflight permit). If I have a choice, I won't do it again.

My experience with pre-clearing was much different. I used St. Thomas Jet Center to handle our flight and they took care of everything that we needed. Filled out all paperwork, walked our passengers through the customs area and we completed the whole process from beginning to end in 20 minutes. To me it beats flying to a port of entry and unloading all of the bags for an inspection and then load them back on and then head for home.

 

[ProFracPilot]

The last time I pre-cleared at TIST, our destination was SYR. When we landed at SYR and taxied onto the FBO ramp, ground tells us Customs wants to see us and the airplane over at the terminal. Thankfully I hadn't shut down. Back across the runway we go. The CBP person at SYR basically told us we wasted our time by pre-clearing, and that we should have known better.

In the future, I won't waste mine or my pax time pre-clearing in TIST.

 

[Fly91]

The last time I pre-cleared at TIST, our destination was SYR. When we landed at SYR and taxied onto the FBO ramp, ground tells us Customs wants to see us and the airplane over at the terminal. Thankfully I hadn't shut down. Back across the runway we go. The CBP person at SYR basically told us we wasted our time by pre-clearing, and that we should have known better.

In the future, I won't waste mine or my pax time pre-clearing in TIST.

Maybe you skipped the one important thing that you still SHOULD DO, but are not required to do. Still call the Customs office where you are going if there is one on the field to tell them you pre-cleared in TIST. If you do that they will never ask to see you a second time. IF there is no customs office on the field you're going to, call any of them to give them an inbound notification. I've never once had to see them again on arrival at PBI, FLL, MIA or anywhere, and alot of times we went into fields with no customs office on the field, BCT, ORL, LAL. Been doing this for 4+ years. Did it last week and our other crew did it yesterday.

And to be honest, Customs has no clue about the laws or requirements, they all have their heads UP THEIR AZZES. If they called me to come to Customs after I taxxied into my parking area, I'm shutting down, they can come to me. And I will get my poassengers off and gone as normal.

 

[fu69atacafyeah]

And to be honest, Customs has no clue about the laws or requirements, they all have their heads UP THEIR AZZES. If they called me to come to Customs after I taxxied into my parking area, I'm shutting down, they can come to me. And I will get my poassengers off and gone as normal.

YES SIR YOU JUST WON THE JACKPOT!

 

[bama*pilot]

You can pre clear in TIST or TISX. All you have to do is bring your passengers and luggage to customs... they check it out and off you go. You can go to any us aiport after that. Customs or not. That is the point of pre clearence. I have done it 40+ times. Some of the airports we fly to from TIST have been very small county airports.