Samoa - Clearance
Note on International Date Line: Samoa is on the New Zealand side of the International Date Line. If you arrive from the Cook Islands or French Polynesia you will skip a day. None of the cruising guides mention this, but as the Samoan authorities have limited hours for clearance of boats at the weekend, it is worth planning for. American Samoa, however, is still on the French Polynesian side of the Date Line.
PORTS OF ENTRY
Apia is the only official port of entry on Samoa.
PRE-ARRIVAL
- It is necessary to give 48 hours prior notice of arrival. This can be done by emailing portmaster@spasamoa.ws or spa@spasamoa.ws.
Note: Emails may not be acknowledged. - Skippers also need to submit a Master’s Declaration Form declaring all biosecurity risk items on board, at least 24 hours prior to arrival (see Quarantine below).
ARRIVAL FORMALITIES
Advance Notification:
Call “Apia Port Control” on VHF Channel 16 when 1 or 2 hours away and they will give permission to enter the harbor. You must not enter the channel until you have been given verbal permission. There will be no answer prior to 09:00 and you may need to try several times. VHF reception is an issue here.
General Process:
While officials here are very helpful and polite, the procedure here is not particularly efficient or fast. Arriving yachts should be patient.
Do not go alongside the main wharf, or drop anchor, until permission and directions are given by Port Control. If arriving at the weekend, clearance will take place between 15:00 and 17:00 in the afternoon. It is not possible to clear in the evenings.
All arriving boats may come into Apia Marina for official clearance, even if they are anchoring, without paying any additional fees for clearance. However there is a fee for dinghy access to the marina.
Clearance Authorities consist of:
- Health Department
- Customs
- Quarantine
- Immigration (you may be required to go to the immigration office in town, last, with all documents)
Officially you must contact each clearance department (Customs, Immigration, Health, and Quarantine) separately via the Samoan Government website which can be found here: http://www.samoagovt.ws/.
Port Control is responsible for organizing the clearance authorities to come to the marina. Please contact Port Control on VHF Channel 16 regularly, for updates. Be patient, as you may find that they all arrive separately.
Health & Customs: Health and Customs departments prohibit any persons to exit the marina or have visitors onboard their vessel until clearance has been completed.
Vessels at anchor will need to pick up clearance authorities from the marina to undertake clearance formalities on board.
Cruisers report that drug searches are being stepped up in Apia and around the South Pacific. If you arrive in Apia with clearance from a Central or Southern American port, officials will search your boat. Also, if Apia is not the named destination on your clearance they will search you. The searches can last all day and involve more than 10 persons and two drug dogs. There is zero tolerance for drugs on board and offenders will be prosecuted.
Immigration: You may have to go into town to visit the Immigration Office (taxi ride $5 tala – located on the first floor in the large government office building in town). Take your passports and all relevant documents. This office is very crowded. Do not take a number, instead ask at the desk “where do ship captains get clearance?”. You will be shown into a back room to complete the paperwork.
Quarantine: International yachts entering Samoa waters are considered to be of a high biosecurity risk and are closely monitored by Quarantine. It is important to be aware of the clearance procedures for yachts.
The skipper must complete a Master’s Declaration Form declaring all biosecurity risk items on board that are either restricted or prohibited. This form must be submitted at least 24 hours before arrival.
Items to declare include:
- Foods (tinned/packed), including meat, sausages, salami, ham, poultry, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, honey etc;
- Plants or parts of plants (live or dead) including vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, bulbs, flowers (fresh or dry), mushrooms, straw, bamboo or any other articles made of plant materials;
- Animal products including feathers, fur/skin, shells, hatching eggs.
All refuse generated on the vessel must be placed in a suitable leak-proof container, with a lid, and the container is securely fastened at all times and kept aboard the yacht. The refuse can only be removed from the yachts under the directions of the Quarantine Officer and costs $4 Samoan dollars (Tala) per bag to drop off at the Quarantine office.
Domestic Cruising:
Samoa is not just a convenient stopover, it is also a cruising destination in its own right. However, in order to visit other anchorages and islands, you must apply for a cruising permit. It is recommended you do this in advance, as it can be complicated to secure for a decent length of time on arrival. See Documents for more details.
Leaving your boat in Samoa:
If you want to leave the boat at the marina while you fly home, give yourself enough time, as you need to apply in writing for permission and wait until it has been granted.
See Restrictions for controls on anchoring.
CLEARING OUT
Domestic Clearance:
If you plan to cruise around Samoa you must have a Cruising License. More information in Documents.
International Clearance:
Discussions are underway to ease outward clearance so that a return to Apia is not necessary, however, currently, all yachts must clear out of Samoa in Apia.
Customs now require a receipt from the marina before they will issue final clearance papers.
Clearing out can be done on a Friday if you are leaving Samoa over the weekend.
If you plan to visit other anchorages your clearance date can be several weeks or more ahead of the date you actually leave Apia. A letter from Immigration is needed to confirm the date of finally leaving Samoa which will require a visit to the Immigration Office in town (taxi ride $5 tala). Take your passports. This office is very crowded. Do not take a number, instead ask at the desk “where do ship captains get clearance?”. You will be shown into a back room to complete the paperwork.
Then go to the Customs Office to obtain outward clearance. A clearance fee is payable at the Customs Office, so it’s important to arrive no later than two in the afternoon as the cash office closes at four.
Last updated: September 2022
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Lucinda and Al on SV Ten Gauge left NZ in 2018, cruised French Poly from Australs to Marquesas for almost a year before heading to Alaska for the northern fall/winter/summer of 2019/2020. Now on their return trip to NZ they stopped over in Apia, Samoa and gave this report:
1) Western Samoa: Arriving boats are most definitely NOT allowed into the marina until AFTER they’ve cleared all the health, customs and immigration items. Apparently this became a headache for the marina, and had to change at some point. Sounds like this change came from cruisers not doing what they were asked to do.
2) We were first told that all officials would come to the boat at anchor, and we had to stay on the boat until completed. In the end we were told to walk to immigration in town. It’s more than a week and we’re still not sure what’s up with Agriculture/biosecurity.
3) Health came first and did a rapid antigen test for covid on us. They did ask if we had evidence of supervised testing prior to leaving last port. We didn’t. I’m not clear if we’d have been tested on arrival regardless. Everyone we talked to had same as us, and didn’t come with prior supervised testing.
4) In Apia nobody has answered the vhf for cruisers until after 9am. A container ship got an answer at 6am, but he’d been calling for well over an hour. A couple boats this week called for several hours during the day, got no answer, came in and anchored and they say nobody challenged them on it in the end. VHF reception still seems to be an issue.
5) The Port Captain’s email to us prior to arrival clearly instructed us NOT to come into the channel until receiving verbal permission. Everyone calls them ” Apia Port Control” on radio calls.
6) The rest of the arrival protocols seem to more or less align with what’s on Noonsite. The staff here seems to be quite under-resourced. Our clearing in has been dis-combobulated. The different boats here all had slightly different experiences.
7) Everyone from the Port Control, to health, customs, immigration, the marina, the guys on the dock…. All have been uniformly friendly and welcoming. But not all organized individually, not organized between departments, not fast, not easy to get hold of, and not really clear. Everyone has been polite and most of them even apologizing for not having made a smoother process for us.
8) US Samoa – we decided not to go since our best info from shore based people’s research was a no go. We met two policemen from US Samoa visiting here in Apia the other day, doing a few days official exchange of some kind. They told us US Samoa would have been open to us, and encouraged us to visit later if we wanted.
9) I got permission from Tonga to go to Minerva on the way to NZ. I emailed Friday morning, got the response Tuesday morning. I requested ” Up to a week weather depending, around 7 October, weather depending”.
Update: Already checked out of the country and heading West toward Wallis.
Over Channel 16 the port authority hailed and said we needed to Return to pay $100 USD we informed them we didn’t have USD.
That we were already out of the harbor in rough seas.
They said they would send a boat out to collect the $100 USD for anchoring in the only place you are allowed to anchor without a cruising permit.
We waited 30minutes for the boat.
Hailed and said we would pay with a CC.
We were there a week without any signage or visit from them asking to pay a anchor fee.
We finally put sails up and left.
We later found out that a worker came to another vessel.
And demanded $100 USD they weren’t a US boat but had USD and paid it.
They later went into the office and found the man and asked for a receipt for check out.
They said “we have the $ to another coworker, he’s not here to give you a receipt”
They were able to check out without it.
To be clear this is not the marina, it’s the port authority for anchoring not the marina for docking or dinghy docking fee.
SCAM employees of the harbor SCAMMING yachts.
Go to Samoa by plane, a worse cruising destination I am yet to find
I would think twice before coming back to Samoa.
Heres the truth, Apia is on the north side of the east island right in the middle of the island.
Typically the trades are blowing 20+ knots which means if you are coming from the south or west you are beating into the trades.
I had a long discussion with them about needing a check in on Savaii the island to the west for this reason. So yachts can land, pick a weather window and make their way east.
Once you’ve made your way to APIA now you are stuck in sailboat jail in the middle of the city which is the ONLY place in the country you can be anchored unless you apply for the 5 day cruising permit for $100
Once you’ve gotten your cruising permit it is active immediately.
So let’s say you want to see Savaii? you head west a day. spend 4 days and then beat right back into the trades to return to sailboat jail.
Every cruiser here is saying the same thing and every cruiser had a rough ride reaching APIA.
Once just came in that said it took 12 hours just to get across the 10 mile stretch between the islands.
Samoa needs more check in, check out places.
And NO you can not check out of anywhere other then APIA despite what has been written prior.
It’s been written that you check out and let customs know you will be departing from Savai’i.
This is not true.
You must check out from Apia.
Which means you likely will have to beat into the trades.
Also you must get a cruising permit for 5 days which is $100 ($30usd) it is active when they give it to you.
If you want to go to Savai’i you will take a day to get there. Stay 4 days. And immediately come back to Apia again… beating into the trades.
Not the best set up for cruising.
Please note that, since 2011, Samoa has been on the New Zealand side of the International Date Line. If you arrive from the Cook Islands or French Polynesia you will skip a day.
None of the cruising guides mention this but as the Samoan authorities do not clear boats at the weekend, it is worth planning for. American Samoa, however, is still on the French Polynesian side of the Date Line.
S/Y Yindee Plus