Informalities: Leaving the Canary Islands Without Visas

Leaving the Canary Islands without visas. The departure procedure from Spain’s island territories deserves a story of its own. Over the past week, we left the Canary Islands and made it to Morocco . Our port of departure was Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote. The captain of Lady Mary went to the Border Police with the crew list and our passports. The official carefully examined the document and stamped it to confirm his approval. Then he prepared to stamp our passports as well. “No need to stamp the passports,” Andrey said. “What do you mean, no need?!” “Well, there’s no entry stamp in them, so there’s no need for a departure stamp either.” A thorough examination of the crew’s passports revealed that when Lady Mary had arrived in the Canary Islands three of the four crew members had not had Schengen visas. “But how did you enter? Three of the people on board are here illegally!” “How are they here illegally? Their entry was officially authorised by the Gran Canaria immigration service, as evidenced by the stamp on the crew list,” Andrey replied. While the guardian of law and order’s face stretched first one way and then the other, his colleague hurried over to help: “I worked at the airport for ten years. I know for a fact that you need a visa and a stamp in your passport.” “But that’s at the airport! Here, maritime law applies, and it sets different requirements for people arriving aboard a yacht,” Andrey enlightened the immigration officers. The official returned the passports, while continuing a fascinating ten-minute discussion about what would happen if every crew of every ocean-going vessel came ashore without visas, countered by: “And how am I supposed not to go ashore when I have children aboard and we’ve run out of food?” At the end of the conversation, the official instructed us to make absolutely sure we arrived with visas next time. The captain assured him that this was exactly what we would do. P.S.: Should sailors travel without visas? Will leaving the Canary Islands without visas cause problems? You can give it a try, bearing in mind that the success of the venture depends largely on the crew’s personal charm and the official’s knowledge of maritime law. P.P.S.: In Morocco no one showed the slightest interest in the crew list with its Canary Islands stamp. Here you can read how we entered the Canary Islands without visas and once again here>>> If you found this article useful and would like to thank the authors but don’t know how, click the button below 🙂