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American officials said their procedures for processing Bahamians into the United States had not changed. Unlike with other cruise ship operators and airlines that have ushered hundreds from the Bahamas to safety in the United States since Hurricane Dorian hit, the officials said, the ferryboat’s operators had not contacted the American embassy ahead of time to confirm that passengers without visas did, in fact, meet the requirements for entry, which include a valid passport and a police record obtained within the last six months.
A spokeswoman said the agency had not denied the passengers entry into the United States, but instead had advised that they disembark and coordinate with the American embassy, because without such pre-clearance it would have taken hours to process them after arrival in Florida.
“C.B.P. continues to process the arrivals of passengers evacuating from the Bahamas according to established policy and procedures — as demonstrated by the nearly 1,500 Hurricane Dorian survivors who arrived at the Port of Palm Beach, Fla., aboard a cruise ship on Saturday and were processed without incident,” an agency spokeswoman said in a statement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/bahamas-hurricane-immigration-visas-ship.html
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