TITLE 46 - US CODE - CHAPTER 3 - CLEARANCE AND ENTRY

46 USC Appendix 91 - Clearance; vessels

(a) When required; vessels of United States
Except as otherwise provided by law, any vessel of the United States shall obtain clearance from the Customs Service before proceeding from a port or place in the United States

(1) for a foreign port or place;

(2) for another port or place in the United States if the vessel has on board foreign merchandise for which entry has not been made; or

(3) outside the territorial sea to visit a hovering vessel or to receive merchandise while outside the territorial sea.

(b) When required; other vessels
Except as otherwise provided by law, any vessel that is not a vessel of the United States shall obtain clearance from the Customs Service before proceeding from a port or place in the United States

(1) for a foreign port or place;

(2) for another port or place in the United States; or

(3) outside the territorial sea to visit a hovering vessel or to receive or deliver merchandise while outside the territorial sea.

(1) prescribe the manner in which clearance under this section is to be obtained, including the documents, data or information which shall be submitted or transmitted, pursuant to an authorized data interchange system, to obtain the clearance;

(2) permit the Customs Service to grant clearance for a vessel under this section before all requirements for clearance are complied with, but only if the owner or operator of the vessel files a bond in an amount set by the Secretary of the Treasury conditioned upon the compliance by the owner or operator with all specified requirements for clearance within a time period (not exceeding 4 business days) established by the Secretary of the Treasury; and

(3) authorize the Customs Service to permit clearance of any vessel to be obtained at a place other than a designated port of entry, under such conditions as he may prescribe.

46 USC Appendix 97 - State inspection laws

The collectors and other officers of the customs shall pay due regard to the inspection laws of the States in which they may respectively act, in such manner that no vessel having on board goods liable to inspection shall be cleared until the master, or other proper person, shall have produced such certificate that all such goods have been duly inspected, as the laws of the respective States may require to be produced to collectors or other officers of the customs.

46 USC Appendix 98 - Conveyance of bullion, coin, notes, or bonds for United States

All vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and bound from any port in the United States to any other port therein, or to any foreign port, or from any foreign port to any port in the United States, shall, before clearance, receive on board all such bullion, coin, United States notes and bonds and other securities, as the Government of the United States or any department thereof, or any minister, consul, vice consul, or other agent of the United States abroad, shall offer, and shall securely convey and promptly deliver the same to the proper authorities or consignees, on arriving at the port of destination; and shall receive for such service such reasonable compensation as may be allowed to other carriers in the ordinary transactions of business.

46 USC Appendix 100 - Payment of fees on vessels outward bound

Previous to a clearance being granted to any vessel, outward bound, the legal fees which shall have accrued on such vessel shall be paid at the offices where such fees are respectively payable; and receipts for the same shall be produced to the collector or other officer whose duty it may be to grant clearances, before a clearance is granted.

46 USC Appendix 104 - Reciprocal exemption of foreign yachts from charges and tonnage taxes; licenses

Whenever it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the President of the United States that yachts used and employed exclusively as pleasure vessels and belonging to any resident of the United States are allowed to arrive at and depart from any foreign port and to cruise in the waters of such port without entering or clearing at the customhouse thereof and without the payment of any charges for entering or clearing, dues, duty per ton, tonnage taxes or charges for cruising licenses, the Commissioner of Customs may authorize and direct the customs authorities at the various ports of entry of the United States to allow yachts from such foreign port used and employed exclusively as pleasure vessels to arrive at and depart from any port of the United States and to cruise in waters of the United States without the payment of any charges for entering or clearing, dues, duty per ton, or tonnage taxes, but the Commissioner of Customs may, in his discretion, direct that such foreign yachts shall be required to obtain licenses to cruise, in a form prescribed by him, before they shall be allowed under the provisions of this section to cruise in waters of the United States. Such licenses shall be issued without cost to such yachts and shall prescribe such limitations as to length of time, direction, and place of cruising and action, and such other particulars as the Commissioner of Customs may deem proper.

46 USC Appendix 111 - Documented vessels with registry endorsement in trade with Canada

Documented vessels with a registry endorsement, engaged in foreign trade on the Great Lakes or their tributary or connecting waters in trade with Canada, shall not thereby become liable to the payment of entry and clearance fees.