Greek Customs De-mystified

Since Greece was a big part of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire,  it makes sense that their customs procedures are Byzantine as well.

You basically have two, though sometimes three, different groups to deal with at any given time: Port Police and Customs – the two typical players, and then occasionally the regular police depending on the port of entry.

The Greeks seem to be worried about both the boat and its passengers, but different departments worry about them differently. Not quite sure why, basically they treat yachts much the same as they would a freighter. When you enter a country you need to clear customs … except when you are on a boat in Greece … then you need to take your passports to Port Police and fill out a crew list that the Port Police stamp. Now you are ready to go to customs.

Customs do two things, they admit the people into the country, and then they give you a Transit Log – a kind of official document that shows that the boat is legally in the country and allows people to use the boat on behalf of the owners request. Though I am regularly asked for my boat papers (registration and insurance) at marinas, I have only been asked to show my transit log at Port Police. Once you have a Transit Log (30 Euros) you can then go back to Port Police to get it stamped – oh boy!

Then you get it stamped by Port Police and away you go. You are supposed to check in with Port Police every month or so, or when you leave an area. The Chania Port Police seemed interested in my Transit log as was the guy in Pilos. Other towns they just wave you off and send you on your way.

When you lay the boat up in the boat yard it is important to hand your Transit Log in otherwise you end up paying a hefty tax because you’ve been in the water in Greece for a long time. This cost me about 750Euros one year … oops.

Before you lay the boat up you must go to Port Police and tell them that you’re going out of the water at the boat yard. They then stamp the transit log with a couple of stamps and signatures. Sometimes this has a nominal fee of 10Euros or so. Then you’re off to Customs and you physically hand over your document to them. They keep it in their file for another season.

Every 18 months you need to leave Greek waters … and venture into either International Waters or to another country. In each of the past years we have taken the boat to Albania … we have 18 months to do this and if we are out of the water can likely receive an extension, so we will see what happens in 2016.