June 16, 2025 • 57 mins
The complex world of maritime immigration can be challenging for even the most experienced captains and crew. In this illuminating conversation, Kristina Hebert sits down with Debora Radtke, President and Owner of American Yacht Agents, to demystify the often misunderstood B-1/B2 visa process for yacht crew entering U.S. waters.
Drawing from over 25 years of maritime experience, Radtke offers crystal-clear guidance on proper documentation, common pitfalls, and practical strategies for seamless entry. She emphasizes that while regulations haven't substantially changed in years, enforcement has become more stringent, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) more carefully tracking cumulative time spent in the United States.
The discussion ventures beyond basic visa requirements to explore the broader maritime ecosystem, including vessel documentation requirements for different tonnage categories, the critical role of yacht agents in facilitating smooth arrivals, and the significant shortage of U.S.-certified mariners affecting the industry. Particularly eye-opening is Radtke's insight into how CBP evaluates crew histories and the importance of maintaining appropriate status documentation.
For captains, what stands out is practical advice on crew responsibility and vessel compliance. For crew members, the conversation offers invaluable strategies for successful visa applications and maintaining legal status. Perhaps most refreshingly, Radtke dispels the notion that CBP is adversarial to the industry, noting that most officers recognize the economic importance of yachting to South Florida and are willing to work with well-prepared, respectful visitors.
Whether you're a captain planning your vessel's U.S. arrival, a crew member navigating the visa application process, or a boat owner concerned about compliance, this episode delivers essential knowledge for anyone involved in international yachting. Subscribe to the Ward's Way podcast for more expert insights on navigating the maritime industry's most pressing challenges.
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https://www.wardsmarine.com/
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https://www.youtube.com/@WardsWay75
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hebert (00:00):
Welcome to the Season 3 Wards Way podcast,
where we're covering the hotlegislative topics of 2025.
From tariffs to tunnels andbridges, from foreign trade
zones to workers' compensation,to the Fort Lauderdale
International Boat Show, to theMarine Research Hub, industry
(00:22):
experts and clarification on theB-1, bb2 visas.
Join us as we celebrate 75years in business and we're just
getting started.
So welcome today to Season 3Wardsway Podcast.
And today I have with me myfriend, debra Radke, who's
president and owner of AmericanYacht Agents.
(00:42):
So welcome today and we we aregoing to be talking about B1, b2
visas.
Ah, a favorite topic.
A favorite topic and actuallyit's interesting.
I went to your website, whichis AmericanYachtAgentscom, and
you have a.
Is it a blog post From 2018.
So talk to me about the B1, b2visas and what's happened since
(01:05):
2018.
But maybe give everybody anexample of what does American
Yacht Agents do?
Debora Radtke (01:13):
Well, thanks, Christy.
Of course, american YachtAgents is a full-time, a
full-service yacht agency thatprovides shore support to
visiting yachts Okay.
Yacht agency that providesshore support to visiting yachts
Okay.
And probably the bestexplanation is because people
get confused between agency andmanagement Okay.
Management covers is the globalumbrella for a yacht, okay,
(01:36):
okay.
Whereas an agency handles thelocal port state needs Okay.
Kristina Hebert (01:49):
Of the boat?
Debora Radtke (01:49):
yes, and you handle it inside the united
states, outside the unitedstates inside the united states.
Um, okay, we have uh partners inin puerto rico that we work
with, okay, and um, we areprimarily based in south florida
, from fort pierce to miami.
Do work in in key west okay.
Uh, also, um had a presence inwith a couple of our vessels
(02:11):
that were in new orleans for thesuper bowl and have vessels
that uh do cruise up the eastcoast and and um also into the
great lakes, okay, and that'sone of your specialties going
from here all the way up to thegreat lakes, yeah, yeah, which
is a lot of maneuvering througha lot of different waterways and
(02:31):
water areas, so I'm sure thatthey need your assistance on
that.
Kristina Hebert (02:33):
but talk to me about the visas.
So when does a boat reach outto to your company and say not
early enough.
Debora Radtke (02:39):
Okay, yeah, um.
So we end up providing guidanceon applying for visas to a lot
of crew.
We end up with a lot ofcaptains that call us,
unfortunately, once they have aproblem.
(02:59):
Right, and currently there's a.
There seems to be a lot ofconfusion, although, as you
mentioned the blog from 2018,things really haven't changed.
It's still the same visa.
It's still the samerequirements.
The only thing that has changed, and probably what's causing
(03:25):
some of the confusion now, isthat we had we had some leeway
during covid.
Okay, what?
Kristina Hebert (03:30):
kind of leeway.
What was being?
Debora Radtke (03:31):
allowed that.
Well, there was anunderstanding of um the fact
that consulates were closed umand people were having a hard
time getting visas.
We we used to be able to get awhen needed.
There's a waiver that if youarrive in the US without the
proper documentation, you canapply for this waiver.
(03:55):
It's 500 and some dollars.
You know they would still vetyou to make sure that you had,
you know, to make sure that theyweren't giving the waiver to
someone who was going to have abad apple a bad character, right
Right.
And you know, and a lot of times, those waivers were based on
(04:16):
the fact that the CBP officersknew us and you know, knew that
we were vouching for this crewmember on this yacht, that you
know the boat wasn't supposed tocome here in the first place.
Suddenly it's here and you knowthe crew member wasn't able to
get a visa in time.
Kristina Hebert (04:34):
Well, and didn't that happen a lot when
COVID first came, they prettymuch when I say they, the
Caribbean said thank you verymuch, you've extended your, you
know you've, uh, you've stayedyour stay, but we'd like for you
to leave and basically kickedout in the middle of a charter
season.
A lot of the yachts, and theyall came here.
We were their first port ofentry.
Debora Radtke (04:54):
Well, one of the things that happened during
COVID, um, and ironically, Ihappened to be in the hospital
at the time when the world shutdown and I'm getting phone calls
from captains asking me what todo and I said get to St Thomas.
Okay, get to St Thomas.
Once you're in St Thomas orPuerto Rico, you're in the US,
and then we can bring you to themainland.
(05:15):
Okay, good advice.
And their concern was that theyfelt.
At that point they felt the USwas the safest place for them to
go.
Kristina Hebert (05:24):
They knew that there was medical you know the
medical care and everything, andno one knew what was happening,
right, I know, for us as acompany Wards Marine Electric we
were considered an essentialservice here.
So when those boats came intothe United States and this crew
was displaced and they thoughtthey were having a charter
(05:44):
season, and now their consulateis closed in their home country
and they're staying on boardthese boats.
They've become liveaboards nowand all of these marinas are
packed.
I know that the US Coast Guardwanted us to make sure that the
waterways stayed navigable, andso you have to maintain these
vessels, and so it was a veryinteresting time to have all of
(06:05):
these crews in on visas andmaybe expired visas and maybe
needing to get these extensions.
And how did it all play outafter that?
So over time, everybody got toeventually go to their consulate
well.
Debora Radtke (06:19):
The Marine Industry Association of South
Florida was really instrumentalin a number of things, one of
which was getting the marineindustry named as an essential
service.
Absolutely, we worked, misfworked closely with lobbyists
and the government agencies toalso allow crew on B-1 visas to
(06:46):
be able to travel Right.
So a lot of our boats thatended up basing here during the
height of COVID, which is thatyou know, the first kind of
March to June, sure, we wereable to do rotations, we were
able to get them onto planesGood good and that's important
(07:07):
for the industry.
Kristina Hebert (07:08):
but explain to people, why does that matter?
You know, if I'm from Nebraskaand I'm listening to this and
I'm saying okay, so the crewmember got stuck here and it was
a hard time to get them back.
Why does it matter whether thecrew was here with the boat or
then they had to rotate out?
How important is it to have thecrew with the boat and and and
(07:28):
keep that boat going?
Debora Radtke (07:30):
well, I mean, these are multi-million dollar
assets that are floating, youknow, in a hostile environment.
Basically, you know water.
Yeah sure, a boat lives in ahostile environment that
constantly wants it todeteriorate, particularly when
it's saltwater and our SouthFlorida environment, and so they
(07:52):
need to be continuallymaintained.
If they're not maintained, youknow, the first thing is they
lose value, and then they loseintegrity, and that's when they
sink and that sort of thingBecome a navigable problem yes,
yes yeah, okay, um, so you wantto have a crew that maintains it
.
Um, you know, one of the and andcrew is the biggest issue from
(08:17):
the standpoint that if you don'thave enough crew, how do you
maintain all these boats?
Right, and the issue, one ofthe issues we have right now is
that there is a shortage of uscitizen mariners.
Kristina Hebert (08:30):
Okay, um, you know is that the result of covid
, do you think?
Debora Radtke (08:35):
no, no, this has been, this has been fast forward
.
Kristina Hebert (08:38):
We're out of covid.
Debora Radtke (08:40):
This is a situation yeah, and this has
been ongoing.
Okay, I was talking to Lisafrom MPT not too long ago.
Kristina Hebert (08:52):
Maritime professional training.
Who does coursework forcaptains?
Debora Radtke (08:55):
Okay, and just the US merchant mariner fleet is
short licensed mariners isshort licensed mariners.
The number is going to varybetween depending upon who you
ask.
Currently, the shortage issomewhere between 14,000 and
(09:20):
25,000 licensed mariners just tomeet the needs of the US
Merchant Marine Fleet.
Wow.
Kristina Hebert (09:24):
Wow, and what is the plan to correct that?
Debora Radtke (09:30):
I don't know.
I mean it's.
You know there's a.
There's a fair amount of talkin Washington right now about
getting the US back into seriousshipbuilding Sure.
Kristina Hebert (09:39):
Yeah, and.
Debora Radtke (09:39):
I've heard that as well.
You know we've got, we've gotsix state um state-run maritime
academies.
Okay, um, you know which youwould think and hopefully they
would be out recruiting, sure,um, I think the part of it is is
, I think that there's a lack ofpeople's awareness that there's
(10:02):
a big job opportunity out thereright that that's a career path
.
Kristina Hebert (10:05):
We talk about the marine industry is
oftentimes a big, a big mysteryto some, and sometimes we as an
industry like it that way thatwe we tend to keep the general
public.
Yeah, exactly, but then, whenit comes down to workforce, we
really need to let everybodyknow it's a fantastic,
tremendous industry to be a partof.
Debora Radtke (10:23):
Yeah, I grew up on Lake Superior, okay, you know
, and, and I remember in highschool, yeah, so how did you get
into the marine industry tellus.
Well, I grew up sailing on LakeSuperior.
Okay, loved being on the water,loved boats.
And two of my brothers went offand went to Chapman's and came
back, and one ran a marina andthen one became the manager of
(10:46):
the local ferry line.
Okay, and you know, basicallythrough through my twenties I
floundered, like many do, and Iwas, went into video and film
first and got burned out withthat and moved back home to
Northern Wisconsin.
And my brother that was runninga marina said you know, we need
captains.
(11:07):
You've got the time, you've gotthe ability, go, get your
captain's license so that Icould teach sailing and captain
sailboat charters.
Okay, did that.
And then very wise friends ofmine who had worked on yachts
when they were younger said whyare you wasting nine months out
of the year up here?
Go to florida, get a job on ayacht.
(11:29):
Um, so I did in uh 95 I camedown and and how was that?
Kristina Hebert (11:35):
was it everything you thought it was?
Was it like?
This is insane?
Was it, um, a match made inheaven right away?
This is completely off thetopic of the b1, b2, b2.
It was just curious I meanbecause I think we all get into
the industry with this and and Ican only imagine it for the
next generation that's cominginto it.
(11:56):
Now people have thisexpectation of what this
industry is.
Yeah, was it everything youthought it was?
I found found.
For me it was so much more thanI ever thought it was, and I
grew up my family business etcetera.
But you really get into it andthere's just so much more out
there than I ever knew.
Debora Radtke (12:13):
Yes, yeah, definitely.
Kristina Hebert (12:15):
There's a depth to the industry.
There's a tremendous uh spiritin the industry.
There's a ton of camaraderie.
We're a very small planet inthis industry and I and I like
that?
Debora Radtke (12:30):
Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was your experience
too.
Um, yeah, it was.
It was, you know, and it wasvery um, you know the people
that I worked for.
I worked for my first boss for10 years.
Um, wow, we had three differentboats in that time.
Kristina Hebert (12:42):
Um and uh, it was a very different industry
than it is now, and to be fair,we talked about this just you
and I chatting before this thatDepartment of Homeland Security
did not exist during your career.
So what we're talking about now, and CBP didn't exist at the
start of my career, at the startof your career, right, yeah, so
it's interesting.
So now fast forward.
At the start of your career,right, yeah, so it's interesting
(13:03):
.
So now fast forward.
Well, cbp did exist.
Debora Radtke (13:07):
It existed.
Kristina Hebert (13:07):
Customs and Border Protection existed, did
exist, just the Department ofHomeland Security did not exist,
correct?
Debora Radtke (13:11):
Okay, and we can get that fact checked, because I
might be wrong.
Okay, but the Department ofHomeland Security became the
umbrella for Customs and BorderProtection.
They may have been using adifferent name, but I don't
think so, okay.
Well, we're gonna fact checkhere.
Kristina Hebert (13:31):
jordan, because we've always had immigration
officers we have always hadimmigration officers, but maybe
they were.
Let's find out.
Debora Radtke (13:38):
According to cdpgov on march 1st 2003, us
customs and border protectionwas established okay, as the
nation nation's firstcomprehensive border travel and
trade agency okay, so cbp wasestablished in 2003
comprehensive, correct.
Kristina Hebert (13:55):
So there was probably, uh, like you said,
another name for it back then,of course, we didn't just all of
a sudden come up with that.
You know post 9-11, you knowjust 20 years ago.
But this.
Debora Radtke (14:07):
This Because you still needed to have visas.
Foreigners still needed to havevisas to arrive in the US.
Kristina Hebert (14:10):
Incorrect, but this umbrella, this agency and
now this umbrella and the worldthat you live in now and that
you help these vessels navigatethrough is has only really been
around for the last 20 years.
So talk to me about that.
So fast forward, we're here,2025.
What are the biggest B1, B2challenges for crew
(14:33):
Misinformation yes.
Lack of preparedness bymisinformation see rule one yeah
, Okay.
Debora Radtke (14:42):
And it's.
Kristina Hebert (14:47):
What type of information is that?
Debora Radtke (14:49):
I think I think part of it is people thinking
they're special.
Okay, you know, I mean it'slearn what the rules are Right
and follow the rules.
Um, and they, you know, and soI guess, yeah, you know, that is
where they're gettingmisinformation, because whoever
they're getting theirinformation from is saying, well
(15:10):
, you can do this or you can dothat, and and you can't, it's
the the visa.
The B-1 visa has beendetermined to be the proper visa
for yacht crew.
Kristina Hebert (15:21):
Okay good, that's established Checkbox.
Yes, b-1, for yacht crew Okay,good, that's established
Checkbox.
Debora Radtke (15:28):
Yes, b1, b2.
Is it B1, b2, or do you ask fora B1?
The B1 is so.
The B visa has two sides to it.
It has the business side, whichis the B1, and it's got the
tourism side, which is the B2.
If you're here on a B2, thepurpose of your visit is
strictly for tourism, which isnot a crew member.
It means you're going to Disneyor whatever, visiting friends,
(15:48):
sure, the B1 means you're herefor business purposes, okay, and
they have massaged that.
Or, however you want to say it,that they've decided that yacht
crew can fit underneath that.
Okay, that they've decided thatyacht crew can fit underneath
that.
And that's all pretty muchspelled out in the Foreign
Affairs Manual, which is themanual that consular officers
(16:10):
use when they're trying todetermine what visa status you
should be applying for.
Kristina Hebert (16:16):
Okay, okay, and there's a multitude of
different.
It's an alphabet soup ofdifferent visas that people can
apply for, but the crew need toapply for a B1.
Yes, and they apply at theirhome country consulate.
Debora Radtke (16:30):
They should be, applying at their home country,
at the US consulate in theirhome country, and what do they
need?
Kristina Hebert (16:37):
to bring, what do they need to prove?
What do they need to have withthem?
Debora Radtke (16:40):
They need to go online and fill out the DS-160.
Online at cbpgov, stategov,stategov, okay, and so it's the
DS-160, and then they'll be ableto set up an appointment at the
consulate.
Okay, and then at thatappointment, important things to
(17:03):
take with them are things thatprove that they have close ties
to their home country, that theyhave a domicile in their home
country, because every consularofficer, the directive that
they're given is that they needto assume that the person
requesting the visa intends toimmigrate and the B visa is a
(17:27):
non-immigrant visitor visa, okay.
Which is why, when you go tostategov and it shows it, it
says NIV next to it.
That stands for non-immigrantvisitor visa.
Okay, and the key is you'revisiting.
You're coming to the US tovisit.
You're not coming to the US tolive.
You're not coming to the US tovisit.
You're not coming to the US tolive.
(17:48):
You're not coming to the US tohave a boyfriend or girlfriend
and adopt a puppy, right, okay.
Kristina Hebert (17:52):
Your puppy needs to live in your home
country.
Yes, okay.
Debora Radtke (17:55):
Yes, we're joking recently that you know where
does the puppy live.
Kristina Hebert (17:58):
Okay, so prove that your puppy's food, the
puppy's residence and the puppylives in your home country,
exactly, and that you're notcoming here to this country to
immigrate, but you are coming asa visitor.
And to prove that you're avisitor, you have to show that
you reside in your currentcountry.
Yes, so they need to show bills, something that is a permanent
(18:22):
tie to their country.
Right, they need to show thatthey're working on a boat.
Debora Radtke (18:26):
Yes, that they have a job, yes, okay.
And some crew will applywithout having a job Okay, in
which case they should have thedocumentation that shows that
they've got a seat, that they'vedone training and stuff and
that, and that they're actuallythey're qualified to be a crew
(18:47):
person that I just.
Kristina Hebert (18:48):
I didn't all of a sudden fill this out and I'm
I'm suddenly a crew tomorrow.
There needs to be documentationthat this is your profession,
which all seems pretty standard.
I live in this country, I'mgoing to go visit that one and
I'm a real crew member.
This is, these are my certs,and that's pretty much.
It Seems like an easy process.
Where is the challenge?
(19:09):
Not in the issuance.
The issuance of the visa isgood.
Debora Radtke (19:16):
Yes, okay, yeah, I mean, some crew get turned
down for it because they can'tprove that they have a strong
enough time tied to a countryother than the United States.
You know, Okay, and it doesn'thave to be their.
You know, their residencedoesn't have to be their home
country, Although for most youngcrew it's going to be Sure.
You know, we deal with a lot ofsenior crew now who may be they
(19:43):
may be UK nationals and carry aUK passport, but, you know,
perhaps they've got a residencein Spain or something like that.
So we have a lot of crew thatare dual nationals or, you know,
have a residence outside oftheir country of nationality.
So the biggest problem thatwe're having now is the
(20:05):
regulations have always been thesame.
They're tightening up.
Why is that, you think?
I think it's the newadministration has tightened
some things up.
What's been tightened?
What triggers and I'm assumingthis from my observation of
(20:26):
escorting crew to immigrationand conversations that I've had
with CBP officers is that whenyou're presenting yourself and
the CBP officer has the computerscreen in front of him and he
or she does the facialrecognition, scans your passport
, that that input goes out to awhole bunch of different
(20:52):
agencies.
Okay, the primary one thatthey're getting their
information from is the uhpassenger admissibility office
in washington dc okay and yourface or passport may trigger an
(21:13):
alert from them.
Okay, okay, if everything's doneperfectly and you have, you
know, been abiding by your visa,your visitor visa, and you're
here for two months during thefall when the boat's
reprovisioning, here for twomonths during the fall when the
boat's reprovisioning and thenthe boat goes to the Caribbean
and now you've come back in, uh,april, for another, you know
(21:37):
month period to get the boatready to go someplace else.
Um, and you've never, you know,stayed, never stayed more than
six months, but you know, have.
Kristina Hebert (21:48):
Stayed within the guidelines.
You haven't really everoverstayed or had any extensions
or had any challenges.
Debora Radtke (21:55):
Okay, you're going to fly through, we're
going to fly through If, in thecase that I ran into not too
long ago, out of the last 36months, you've spent 32 months
in the US and only leaving forshort periods of time, and out
of that 32 months you know only16 were with you officially as a
(22:21):
crew member You're going to getflagged Because it's showing
it's a violation of Rule 1 andRule 2.
Kristina Hebert (22:26):
Because it's showing it's a violation of Rule
1 and Rule 2.
One that you're not showing apermanent residence in your
native country if you'respending 32 out of the 36 months
in the visiting country.
Right, right and two.
You didn't have a job as a crewmember for 18 of those months
For a big portion of that, yeah,so it seems like those Rule 1
and Rule 2 are very important inthe very beginning and
consistent throughout your stay.
Debora Radtke (22:47):
Yeah, okay, yeah are very important in the very
beginning and consistentthroughout your stay.
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So they look at.
They look at cumulative timebecause that's the one thing
that we run into a lot of iswell, you know, I was here for
five and a half months and Ileft for a week, and now they
won't give me another six months, right?
Well, first of all, they don'thave to.
It is a visiting it is avisitor's visa.
(23:08):
And it is all up to theadmitting officer, and if they
feel that your intent is toreally basically live in the US
and only leave every five and ahalf months for two weeks or
whatever, they're not going togive you a pass.
Kristina Hebert (23:30):
Have we seen this become a problem for the
industry?
Is there a real challenge withcrew and CBP and having the visa
?
Is that causing a problem withthe industry.
Debora Radtke (23:40):
I'm going to say it's causing a problem for
individuals.
I'm not sure that it's causinga problem for the industry as a
whole.
Kristina Hebert (23:46):
The industry as a whole is successfully
navigating through it Bo comingand going, crew are getting
these visas, they're able to dotheir refit periods, they're
able to go, come and go, yeah,yeah, yeah, I see that too,
because I'm obviously in on theon the refit period on the work
side and it's it's a constantflow of boats either coming up
from the caribbean, coming toget their work they're getting
(24:08):
ready to go up north or goacross.
Right, we see it all the time.
Debora Radtke (24:15):
And I think that you know where we're probably
seeing.
The biggest issue ispotentially with crew that have
just done a big refit.
Okay, and I had one crew thatthat was the case.
They had just spent six monthsin Savannah doing a very large
refit and then they came toSouth Florida and now the owner
(24:40):
wants to cruise the US EastCoast for the summer, so that's
going to have put them in thecountry.
They did go to the Bahamas for14 days or something like that,
a couple of weeks, and nowthey're back and when they, when
they came back, the admittingofficer, you know, kind of went
well, you know, you've alreadybeen here for six months he did
(25:02):
give them all another six monthsbecause he was obviously
comfortable with the explanationand the fact that, yeah, they
are all contracted crew memberson a yacht.
There was no previous flags forany of them, because that's the
(25:22):
other thing that they're whatwe're running into right now and
you hear all these storiesabout, oh, my deckhand was
deported and this, and that youknow, and we went in through one
of the South Florida ports andyou know they put him on a plane
right away.
They made me go buy a planeticket for him right away.
What's happening is thatthey're looking at the history.
(25:43):
Okay, okay, and you know thatcrew member which is not
uncommon is may have arrived inSouth Florida in October just
before the Fort Lauderdale BoatShow being, you know, told that
go to go to Florida look for ajob, look for a job.
Take a class, you know it'sgoing to be the boat show, great
(26:07):
time to find a job.
Um, they didn't find a jobright away and they were here
until january before they founda job.
Um, and the officer sees thatyou know, they may have just
come back in on a boat in april,okay, but you know, then they
think they're golden becausethey arrived on the boat.
The problem is, the officer islooking back at their last stay
(26:31):
in the US, which was for fourmonths, and says how did you
support yourself when you werehere the last time for four
months?
What's the bad answer to give?
I'm going to be honest.
In one case we had a crewmember who looked him in the eye
and honestly said I was dayworking.
(26:53):
And the officer said okay,you're going to go home.
We're going to cancel your visa.
You'll be able to apply for anew one in five months.
We're not gonna.
Kristina Hebert (27:07):
So they didn't they didn't penalize, but they
just said you need to go homefor a period of time.
Debora Radtke (27:12):
Yeah done and he was going to have to apply for a
new visa.
Okay, you know, but they didn't.
He wasn't deported.
He wasn't because that's wherethere's also deportation is a
whole big legal process correctand that's not at all.
Kristina Hebert (27:26):
just to be clear, we're going to say it
here not at all.
The number one task of CBP,their job, is not to deport
people, no.
Debora Radtke (27:33):
Okay, they can refuse entry.
Which is basically what'shappening is that these crew
members are being presented andthey're being told nope, we're
not going to allow you entry,turn around and go back, right.
And that's where it becomes anissue for the boat, because the
captain is responsible.
In the same way that if I hopon an airplane and the country
(27:58):
that I'm going to says, no,sorry, we're not going to let
you in, the airline isresponsible for repatriating
that person.
That's why you have a passportand visa check at the ticket
counter before you board thatplane, and so captains need to
be aware of this and be fairlyconfident that all of their crew
(28:21):
is going to be allowed to comeback into the country or they're
going to be responsible forflying that crew member out.
Kristina Hebert (28:28):
So what can a crew but what can a crew member
do?
Because this happens all thetime that let's say there is a
yard period, the owner gets theboat and then the owner really
wants to use the boat here, andall of that takes longer than
the six months.
Isn't there an extension thatcan be filed, or paperwork or
communication?
Debora Radtke (28:45):
And actually, yes , there are extensions that can
be filed.
Um, I've got a boat up and upin palm beach that we're running
into that with right now.
Okay, um, and the uh, you alsoactually can ask for up to a
year, okay, um.
And in cases where, know you,know that the boat's going to be
(29:09):
coming in for a refit that'sgoing to last multiple months
and crew is not rotational crew,right, you know, because that's
the other option, is you just?
shift to crew, sure, you know,to being on rotation, which a
lot of owners I think.
The boat's over 60 meters, it'sstandard.
(29:31):
But when you get under 60meters, and particularly under
50 meters, the crew, the owners,like the crew combination that
they have.
Kristina Hebert (29:38):
It's part of their family, yeah, and they
want that group.
Right, but you can ask for that.
So then you can ask for yourB-1 visa to be a longer term up
front you can ask for your stay.
Debora Radtke (29:48):
If you know that ahead of time, you can ask for
your stay to be longer, okay, sothe stay to be longer.
Kristina Hebert (29:52):
And if they do that and that stay is longer and
it's showing on record whenthey come back the following
season, that's not going to bean alarm.
That's not going to be an alertbecause they asked for that
extension, whereas instead ofoverstaying.
Debora Radtke (30:06):
They asked for it and they also have to see.
So when you arrive in the US,you've got your visa Yep, and
that's the ticket that lets youcome into the US Yep, and then
you're stamped in.
Okay, and that's your I-94.
Okay, and what the I-94 is is?
It indicates your visa status.
(30:30):
It indicates whether you wereentered as a B-1, a B-2.
Some crew have multiple visasbecause they may flip back and
forth between private andcommercial, so they may have
C-1Ds.
So your I-94 record is going toshow you your status, that you
were entered in and how long youwere entered for what your due
(30:54):
out date is.
Okay, to take a look at all ofthe crew's I-94 records to check
their status and to check whattheir due out date is because
they don't stamp the passportsanymore Okay, and all you have
(31:19):
to do is Google I-94, travelhistory or whatever, and it will
pop up and you can look foryour I-94 status.
Kristina Hebert (31:27):
So I think the message is very clear, because I
would imagine that the visitingobstacles, challenges, task
lists, et cetera for othercountries are just as long, if
not more, onerous than probablythe United States.
But CPP is welcoming.
The B-1 visa is the right visa.
(31:47):
We want crew to be able to comehere.
We want crew to be able to comehere.
We want crew to be able to behere, stay with the refit,
cruise the waters up and down.
It's all about communicationand making sure you follow along
, you pay attention to thedeadlines, you pay attention to
when you're supposed to leave,rotate out when you need to just
basically follow the rules and,if you know ahead of time,
(32:08):
communicate.
Yes, and you won't haveproblems.
Yes, and I feel that in ourmeetings that I know you've sat
in them.
But let me ask you the question, instead of saying what I feel
Do you feel that CBP is wantingto work with the industry, is
supportive of the industry, ordo you feel that there's merely
just a compliance that you knowwe're compliant.
Debora Radtke (32:29):
No, they definitely want to work with the
industry, and part of that is,I feel, that way too.
That you know part of theirdirective is also to protect US
commerce.
Right, and they realize inSouth Florida, yes, they realize
what a big industry it is andthat you know we have to have
(32:49):
crew to run the boats.
Yes, and you know, I'm in andout of, I'm in and out of all
three ports.
I deal with immigrationofficers in Miami, immigration
officers in Fort Lauderdale,Palm Beach, Fort Pierce.
I'm going to say that probably90-95% of the officers that I
(33:12):
come in contact with are polite,they're friendly.
Are there a few stinkers?
Yes, there are.
There's stinkers.
Everywhere you go, exactly, youalways have the option of
asking for a supervisor, which Irealize that you know.
(33:34):
If you're dealing with a gruffofficer, yes, it's hard to look
at them and say, can I pleasespeak with your supervisor?
Right, but you know if you'vegot a.
Kristina Hebert (33:43):
It's your career and your future.
You really need to.
Debora Radtke (33:45):
And if you've got a legitimate concern and
complaint, um you need to.
Attitude is also.
It's how you approach thatinteraction is 90 of what's
going to and how should theyapproach the?
Kristina Hebert (34:03):
outcome yes, ma'am.
Debora Radtke (34:06):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (34:07):
Please, thank you Be respectful Absolutely.
You know, my biggestaggravation is.
Debora Radtke (34:12):
You know, there's always been a lot of concern
about, you know, whether or notcrews should have their phones
with them, because there's beenan issue with officers going
through crew members' phoneswhen they get pulled into
secondary, crew members' phoneswhen they get pulled into
secondary.
And my reasoning for notwanting crew members to
(34:38):
physically have their phone withthem when they're arriving on
the vessel and they're goinginto the port office to present
themselves is and it's agenerational thing they're more
focused on their phone andmaking their plans for the
evening, because they've justarrived from the caribbean for
three months than they arepaying attention to the officer.
Kristina Hebert (35:00):
So they're feeding the economic engine and
we appreciate that.
However, yes, you're right,they need to have their
attention focused on theirfuture yeah, and whether or not
they can stay in the country todo the plans that they want to
have for that night.
Debora Radtke (35:13):
So you know, leave your phone with the
captain.
Leave your phone, you know,don't take it.
Don't.
Don't walk up to the, don'twalk up to the window with the
immigration officer and befocused on your phone instead of
what they're asking.
Common sense.
Kristina Hebert (35:35):
Isn't that the case even in the airport?
Common sense here, Common senseOkay.
So you have to.
So far, the big challenges tocrew are you need to show up and
say please and thank you andsmile and be kind.
If the person you're speakingwith isn't kind, in return, ask
for a supervisor.
You need to have your I-94information readily available in
case you're going to expiresoon, and understand what that
is.
I mean you should be aware.
(35:55):
I mean I understand that thecaptain or a company such as
yourself should have that, butwouldn't you yourself?
If this is your status, youshould know your status.
You're responsible for yourself.
You're an adult.
Debora Radtke (36:05):
You're responsible for yourself.
And the interesting thing aboutthe B visa I run into this with
a lot of captains because theywant to go.
Well, don't I have to sign thisperson off, because when
they're in europe they have tosign the crew member on and off
the boat.
Okay, europe is much morerestrictive than the us, which
is why I laugh when I've gotpeople complaining about about
the us.
If you've got to have aSchengen visa in Europe, it's
(36:29):
much more restrictive, and so,as a B visa holder, essentially
you are your own person andresponsible for yourself.
Okay, exactly, you're notactually assigned, you're not
signed on and off the vessel.
As far as CBP is concerned, youknow you're responsible for
(36:52):
yourself.
Now, further to that, though,is that if you come in on a
vessel, the captain isresponsible for your arrival in
the US.
Kristina Hebert (37:08):
Okay, fair.
Debora Radtke (37:09):
And basically, is responsible for your admission.
Okay, so if you show up, if acrew member shows up, and
they're denied entry or there'ssome other issue, or you know,
heaven forbid you're presentinga crew member and suddenly it's
(37:30):
flagged and it's like you know.
Well, didn't you know?
This guy was a mass murderer inXYZ country.
The captain's responsible forknowing who they're bringing
into the country, right?
Okay, and they're presentingthem all saying we know this
person can be here Vouching forthem.
(37:51):
Yes, we're vouching for them.
Kristina Hebert (37:52):
Yes, but isn't there a vetting process for that
crew member to join the boatanyway?
Debora Radtke (37:56):
There should be.
I'm sure that that's happening.
Kristina Hebert (37:59):
Yeah, so these are all, I guess, where I'm
coming from and kind of makingthese points so far.
The captain has to have avoucher, it needs to vouch for
the character and know who'scoming in on their boat when
they're traveling with them.
And I think that every captain,including yourself, would want
to know who's on the boat withthem, yes, and is aware of that
(38:19):
crew member and their abilitieslong before they get to the
shores of the United States orthe port of entry.
The crew then have to beresponsible for themselves, they
need to be polite and they needto stay off their phone.
These do not seem like majortask lists in order for a crew
to be able to enter the US, butbeyond that it seems pretty
(38:41):
straightforward and hasn'tchanged in years.
So when should the boat reachout and become a client of
American Yacht Agents?
Debora Radtke (38:48):
Well, you're making it sound like if, if they
follow those rules, they don'tneed me no but they do need you
because apparently they need tounderstand.
Kristina Hebert (38:56):
No, but I think that they do need you.
Talk to me about um, thedocuments for the vessel.
We were talking about thisprior to having the um, having
the actual podcast that you weretalking about.
Many boats, for example, undera certain size, could have a new
.
Let's say, an owner just boughta brand new 130.
(39:17):
And this is a case where youknow they may or may not have a
company like yourself may or maynot have a yacht management
company.
So, in that case, what are someof those challenges of a boat
that size versus a size boatwith a management company?
Debora Radtke (39:33):
um.
So, as you know, boats are alot of.
The regulation is based ontonnage.
Okay, um, and so when you getinto boats under 50 meters,
particularly if they've changedhands recently or gone through a
series of captains a lot oftimes, the paperwork's not in
(39:55):
order.
Kristina Hebert (39:55):
What kind of paperwork do they need?
What do you mean by paperwork?
Debora Radtke (39:58):
If they're here in the United States, they
either need to have proof thatthey either need to have a
cruising license or they shouldhave been cleared in through
customs and their registry hasto have been presented to
customs.
(40:18):
Generally, in South Florida,customs no longer holds the
registry they used to forvessels that didn't have
cruising licenses.
Now they just take a copy of itand make sure that they have a
copy on file and then when theboat goes to leave, if they
don't have a cruising license,they need to be cleared out.
Now what happens is that you'llget boats that have sat in the
(40:44):
US for over a year and thecruising license expires, us for
over a year, um, and thecruising license expires and now
we've got a new captain thatcomes on board and he's like I
can't find any paperwork.
Okay, I can't figure out whenthis boat arrived in Florida
last.
I can't figure out, I can'tfind a cruising license, um, and
(41:05):
it's happened on more than oneoccasion where we then have to
kind of go.
Well, if you can find a logentry that maybe says when they
came in, then I can go back toyou know customs and find out.
And we've had to do this whereyou know I send in the paperwork
(41:25):
, I send in the registry and anentry.
We had this happen with a boatlast year where the captain had
come down from Savannah, hadentered Florida, had entered I
think it was in Miami in August,and their management reached
(41:49):
out to me in november and saidwe just discovered that this
captain never cleared intoflorida.
So I went to customs in miamiand said, you know, sent him an
email and said this is thesituation.
Um, and the vessel wasfortunately only issued a
(42:10):
warning.
Okay, um, which goes againstthe captain.
So I also made sure that we hadthe details on that previous
captain, um sure, because it'sultimately the captain's
responsibility, um, and you know, then we're able to start back
from the beginning, you know,for the boat.
Kristina Hebert (42:32):
So it's almost like you do a status survey on
the boat.
You go out and say, okay,what's the lay of the land here,
of the crew, who's good, who'snot?
Is the boat good?
The boat's good and you knowwhat's cleared, what's not.
No, no, I mean Not that theboat's good or not.
Debora Radtke (42:53):
I mean, we tell the captains what they should be
looking for.
Okay, and, um, and and, and,and the captains know what to be
looking for they know what theyneed to have.
Kristina Hebert (43:01):
Some of them do , some of them don't.
Maybe the newer ones, yeah.
Debora Radtke (43:04):
Yeah, you know and, and, and.
So that's I advising newercaptains on what they need to
come in and out of the US.
A lot of them get very hung upon whether or not they have
cruising licenses, and you don'thave to have a cruising license
(43:25):
in order to be in US waters.
Kristina Hebert (43:28):
Let's repeat that you do not have to have a
cruising license to be in USwaters.
Debora Radtke (43:33):
What do you have to have?
You have to have enteredproperly with customs, okay, and
then when you go to leave, youhave to clear out with customs.
Kristina Hebert (43:44):
Okay, which is telling them you're leaving.
Debora Radtke (43:47):
Right, okay, and that's a.
I'm going to defer to mycustoms broker on that for the
proper term, but I think that'sjust a tourist entry, okay.
Okay, you also get boats thatmay come in on a may be on a
(44:08):
boat show bond or a temporaryimport bond, because then you
get into whether duty's paid,all this and that when you're
dealing with foreign-flagged,foreign-built vessels, and
that's a whole topic for one ofthe customs brokers?
Kristina Hebert (44:21):
Okay.
Debora Radtke (44:23):
Not for this session.
Kristina Hebert (44:24):
No.
Debora Radtke (44:24):
I work with experts.
I believe in making sure thatyou surround yourself with
people that are smarter than you.
I agree, and I work with anumber of people that help me
provide the guidance I provide.
Gotcha.
Kristina Hebert (44:42):
So many times you get onto the boat.
We now know what the crewbasically and let me go back, I
know I'm kind of jumping allover so we kind of went over
what the crew member needs tohave.
We understand theresponsibilities of the captain
Right over what.
Debora Radtke (44:56):
What the crew member needs to have, we
understand the responsibilitiesof of the captain right, um, and
and then what does?
Kristina Hebert (44:59):
the crew number .
What does the boat need?
Debora Radtke (45:00):
yes, okay.
So vessels, so foreign flaggedvessels, um under 300 tons okay,
when they arrive in the us,they should be using the roam
app, okay, which is a cbp appthat they can get on their phone
(45:22):
and they're going to uploadpassports and everything in it.
Okay, and that actually isbasically a function with um
through the immigration side ofof c, okay, and then, and with
that role map, they can applyfor a cruising license.
(45:42):
Okay, may or may not get it.
Okay, then the.
So for vessels arriving in theUS that are over 300 tons,
they're going to need to haveaCOFR, which is a Certificate of
Financial Responsibility forWater Pollution.
(46:04):
Okay, then vessels over 400tons will need a non-tank vessel
response plan.
Kristina Hebert (46:15):
Okay.
Debora Radtke (46:16):
The COFR and the non-tank vessel response plan.
Both fall under Coast Guarddifferent divisions and can take
up to 21 days to get.
Once you apply for them, um,you'll be denied entry without
(46:38):
them.
Without them, okay.
And vessels over 300 foreignflagged vessels over 300 tons
that file their notice ofarrival before coming to the us
um, if you don't have thosethings, it will be flagged, okay
.
And what will happen is you'llend up getting a uh, a captain
of the port order denying youentry, okay so the boat normally
(47:01):
has to file the 96 hour 96notice of arrival but if you're
saying they haven't applied forthe Kofor or the?
non tank vessel response plan,also known as.
Kristina Hebert (47:11):
We need an anti-vrp and TV RP okay.
So if they haven't applied foreither one of those, the notice
of the noa is not going to beapproved anyway, or it will be
flagged.
It'll be flagged, okay so don'tshow up.
And and where?
Where do the crew?
Get all of this information inadvance, so they need to be
(47:32):
planning this three weeks inadvance, four weeks in advance.
Debora Radtke (47:35):
Yeah, at least I mean, and most of the boats, the
management company, because themanagement company is the
global you know overseer.
Kristina Hebert (47:42):
They're aware of the travel log and they'll
send the reminders.
Debora Radtke (47:45):
And they should be aware of what the boat needs
to enter the US.
But you get into, you knowthere's an awful lot of boats
that are under 400 tons thatdon't have management.
Kristina Hebert (47:57):
Right, they fall under the, and what do they
do when they get there?
What does CBP offer as help?
Debora Radtke (48:04):
Well, cbp doesn't CBP.
Kristina Hebert (48:08):
But if that's where they're going to get
clearance and CBP is going tocheck and say I don't see a
cofer, I see your notice ofarrivals flagged, even though
they're not the governing body,do they not see those things?
Debora Radtke (48:21):
I'm just trying to walk people through.
Yeah, they see differentportions of it.
So the biggest thing is aforeign flagged vessel over 300
tons is they have to file theirnotice of arrival Right, and
that goes to the captain of theport of whatever zone they're
arriving in If they don't getflagged.
(48:46):
I mean because we've had boatsthat have shown up, that have
gotten in without doing anything, you know, and and then they
call me because of they needsomething and I started asking
questions and I'm like, oh, okay.
Kristina Hebert (49:04):
Huh, you're here illegally, which isn't good
either.
So just because you get awaywith it doesn't mean it's the
right thing to do.
No, Um because it's going to,and again progress elsewhere.
Debora Radtke (49:15):
Yeah, and again, in my experience with working
with I've had my company for 10years now most of the government
agencies that we work with whenit's a mea culpa and we call
and say a culpa, and and youknow, we call and say someone
(49:42):
totally messed up on this oneI'm not too sure who it is um,
you know, and I did, I had a.
I had a boat that arrived, um,they had not filed their notice
of arrival and it was.
You know, I'm standing on thedock and I'm talking to the
captain and I'm like you know,okay, you filed your noa.
And he's like I didn't file.
To the captain and I'm like youknow, okay, you filed your NOA.
And he's like I didn't file myNOA.
And I'm like oh, you didn't askus to file it.
(50:03):
And you know, I called CoastGuard and said this is the
situation.
Sure, what do we do?
And you know I'm not sayingthat this is going to happen
every time, but I saying in thisinstance they said get it filed
.
And they looked at it and theysaid this boat has never had an
(50:23):
issue.
Um, they've been in before.
Kristina Hebert (50:26):
Um, we'll just issue a warning and well, it's
probably the same as if you getpulled over in your car.
If you, if you have a veryclean driving record, you get
pulled over.
If you happen to have a policeofficer that looks at your plate
, looks at your license and saysyou know what?
You've been a law-abidingcitizen for all of these years,
you're having a bad day.
I'm going to give you a warning.
I I would imagine it's the sametype with the boat, but a boat
(50:49):
that that is not compliant orthat has multiple alerts right
or or comes up on some sort ofscreen, is not going to get that
same type of treatment, norshould they right.
So so where is so?
Let's do a recall the rulesfollow the rules, so so and know
the rules.
I know the rules all of thesecaptains should know that, prior
(51:12):
to entering a country, thatthere are rules to enter that
country, and I'm sure that theseagendas and itineraries are
planned in advance.
Debora Radtke (51:21):
But in the end, know where you're going know
before you go, and that's thebest reason to use an agent.
Is is because your agent, nomatter where you're traveling in
the world, your agent should bethe person that's.
Your agent should be the personthat's helping you through the
local regulations.
All of the ports, of statestuff is is what the agent is
(51:42):
going to handle.
You know it's, and that's waymore important.
You know, especially, you comeinto South Florida and there's a
multitude of people that canhandle your provisioning and can
handle your you.
You know any number of things.
Electric.
Electric had to do a littleplug.
Well, you know, and a lot oftimes we're that central point
(52:03):
of contact, particularly when aboat's coming in for a very
short period of time I've gottenthose calls Deb, I know, I
think, as I remember calling you, as I was getting ready to
board a plane and I had a boatthat needed a corrosion survey,
or something, but that's whatwe're all here for.
Kristina Hebert (52:21):
But it's true, though.
You knew that the boat was onlygoing to be here for a very
short period of time.
Owner was joining the boat.
Boat's supposed to be headingup for doing up and down the
East Coast with the owner, andnow they have a problem.
Of course they do so.
Yeah, we're here to help anddown the east coast with the
owner, and now they have aproblem.
Of course they do so.
Debora Radtke (52:36):
yeah, we're here to help um, and it's easier.
Kristina Hebert (52:37):
You can do that as well, because you you'll get
my cell phone and I'm going topick up a call from you at nine
o'clock at night, right, notnecessarily from something that
looks like possible spam risk,not that I wouldn't, but we have
that relationship, yes, yeah,and, and that makes a big
difference.
Debora Radtke (52:51):
It does, it's a huge difference.
And for the boats, if they havethe option of making one phone
call correct, they're going todo that.
Yep, and the other side of itis, you know the vendors, they
know me, I've been, I've beenaround here for over 25 years,
between working on yachts for 16years, having my company for 10
(53:12):
years, um, and the and the boat.
The boat's going to leave andif they don't collect from that
boat before it leaves, theycould be out the money, whereas
they know that if I've calledthem, really if any agent has
called them, um, they're goingto get paid Right and they have
a point of contact and you willbe helpful with that.
Kristina Hebert (53:34):
So the recap is the B-1 is the proper visa for
crew members to have.
Be prepared, have all of yourinformation, make an appointment
with your consulate in yourcountry to make sure you have
all of this taken care of and,applying for your visa.
As the captain, be sure thatyou're paying attention to the
(53:55):
i-94s and everybody's statusbecause, ultimately, while crews
are individual, responsibilityis within themselves.
The, the captain, is stillultimately responsible for the
crew and the safe rightnavigation of this vessel.
And then the vessel needs tomake sure that it has all of its
clearance and and and all ofthis information can be found on
(54:15):
your website.
American Yacht agents.
Debora Radtke (54:18):
hire an agent because if it's on my website or
it should be on my on mywebsite which needs to be
updated, I'm sure it is on yourwebsite.
If not, you're gonna update itand change it.
Kristina Hebert (54:27):
But no matter what they can call you direct.
Yes, and that's gonna make surethat they have a safe
navigation and an enjoyable timein the United States.
Debora Radtke (54:34):
Yeah, and they really should reach out to an
agent prior to coming to the.
Kristina Hebert (54:39):
States Prior to planning to come to the States.
So that they get all of theirplanning in advance.
Debora Radtke (54:44):
I mean we've got boats that'll reach out to us a
year in advance just to makesure that they have everything
in order.
Kristina Hebert (54:51):
Yes, boats usually are pretty good about
making and I would be willing tosay this maybe the bigger the
boat, the better the plan.
Sometimes it seems like on thelarger yachts they tend to have
their plans much further out,and that's my experience as far
as their yard periods, yeah, andalso because dockage is a lot
harder to find for a big boat sowell and you're coordinating
(55:12):
more.
People just takes more to move.
Debora Radtke (55:15):
Yeah, when you've got, when you've got a boat
with 25 to 45 crew rotating, sothen you're working at 40 to 80
crew that you're moving aroundthe world.
It's hard to do that on a whim,although I'm amazed at the
number of boats that I have thatare in that size range that
(55:36):
change their schedules prettyregularly well, but if they were
to call you, you'd be able tohelp them always always well
thank you, deb, for today.
Kristina Hebert (55:46):
We've had a great time.
I've learned a lot about youknow the b1, b2 process, what
the boat needs, what the crewneeds and and in order to have a
successful journey in theUnited States.
Thank you for being here today.
Debora Radtke (55:57):
Thank you for the opportunity, thank you for
joining us.
Kristina Hebert (55:59):
I appreciate it .
Thank you for joining us thisseason on season three of the
World's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
You Thank you for joining usthis season on season three of
(57:08):
the Ward's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
Welcome to the Season 3 Wards Way podcast,
where we're covering the hotlegislative topics of 2025.
From tariffs to tunnels andbridges, from foreign trade
zones to workers' compensation,to the Fort Lauderdale
International Boat Show, to theMarine Research Hub, industry
(00:22):
experts and clarification on theB-1, bb2 visas.
Join us as we celebrate 75years in business and we're just
getting started.
So welcome today to Season 3Wardsway Podcast.
And today I have with me myfriend, debra Radke, who's
president and owner of AmericanYacht Agents.
(00:42):
So welcome today and we we aregoing to be talking about B1, b2
visas.
Ah, a favorite topic.
A favorite topic and actuallyit's interesting.
I went to your website, whichis AmericanYachtAgentscom, and
you have a.
Is it a blog post From 2018.
So talk to me about the B1, b2visas and what's happened since
(01:05):
2018.
But maybe give everybody anexample of what does American
Yacht Agents do?
Debora Radtke (01:13):
Well, thanks, Christy.
Of course, american YachtAgents is a full-time, a
full-service yacht agency thatprovides shore support to
visiting yachts Okay.
Yacht agency that providesshore support to visiting yachts
Okay.
And probably the bestexplanation is because people
get confused between agency andmanagement Okay.
Management covers is the globalumbrella for a yacht, okay,
(01:36):
okay.
Whereas an agency handles thelocal port state needs Okay.
Kristina Hebert (01:49):
Of the boat?
Debora Radtke (01:49):
yes, and you handle it inside the united
states, outside the unitedstates inside the united states.
Um, okay, we have uh partners inin puerto rico that we work
with, okay, and um, we areprimarily based in south florida
, from fort pierce to miami.
Do work in in key west okay.
Uh, also, um had a presence inwith a couple of our vessels
(02:11):
that were in new orleans for thesuper bowl and have vessels
that uh do cruise up the eastcoast and and um also into the
great lakes, okay, and that'sone of your specialties going
from here all the way up to thegreat lakes, yeah, yeah, which
is a lot of maneuvering througha lot of different waterways and
(02:31):
water areas, so I'm sure thatthey need your assistance on
that.
Kristina Hebert (02:33):
but talk to me about the visas.
So when does a boat reach outto to your company and say not
early enough.
Debora Radtke (02:39):
Okay, yeah, um.
So we end up providing guidanceon applying for visas to a lot
of crew.
We end up with a lot ofcaptains that call us,
unfortunately, once they have aproblem.
(02:59):
Right, and currently there's a.
There seems to be a lot ofconfusion, although, as you
mentioned the blog from 2018,things really haven't changed.
It's still the same visa.
It's still the samerequirements.
The only thing that has changed, and probably what's causing
(03:25):
some of the confusion now, isthat we had we had some leeway
during covid.
Okay, what?
Kristina Hebert (03:30):
kind of leeway.
What was being?
Debora Radtke (03:31):
allowed that.
Well, there was anunderstanding of um the fact
that consulates were closed umand people were having a hard
time getting visas.
We we used to be able to get awhen needed.
There's a waiver that if youarrive in the US without the
proper documentation, you canapply for this waiver.
(03:55):
It's 500 and some dollars.
You know they would still vetyou to make sure that you had,
you know, to make sure that theyweren't giving the waiver to
someone who was going to have abad apple a bad character, right
Right.
And you know, and a lot of times, those waivers were based on
(04:16):
the fact that the CBP officersknew us and you know, knew that
we were vouching for this crewmember on this yacht, that you
know the boat wasn't supposed tocome here in the first place.
Suddenly it's here and you knowthe crew member wasn't able to
get a visa in time.
Kristina Hebert (04:34):
Well, and didn't that happen a lot when
COVID first came, they prettymuch when I say they, the
Caribbean said thank you verymuch, you've extended your, you
know you've, uh, you've stayedyour stay, but we'd like for you
to leave and basically kickedout in the middle of a charter
season.
A lot of the yachts, and theyall came here.
We were their first port ofentry.
Debora Radtke (04:54):
Well, one of the things that happened during
COVID, um, and ironically, Ihappened to be in the hospital
at the time when the world shutdown and I'm getting phone calls
from captains asking me what todo and I said get to St Thomas.
Okay, get to St Thomas.
Once you're in St Thomas orPuerto Rico, you're in the US,
and then we can bring you to themainland.
(05:15):
Okay, good advice.
And their concern was that theyfelt.
At that point they felt the USwas the safest place for them to
go.
Kristina Hebert (05:24):
They knew that there was medical you know the
medical care and everything, andno one knew what was happening,
right, I know, for us as acompany Wards Marine Electric we
were considered an essentialservice here.
So when those boats came intothe United States and this crew
was displaced and they thoughtthey were having a charter
(05:44):
season, and now their consulateis closed in their home country
and they're staying on boardthese boats.
They've become liveaboards nowand all of these marinas are
packed.
I know that the US Coast Guardwanted us to make sure that the
waterways stayed navigable, andso you have to maintain these
vessels, and so it was a veryinteresting time to have all of
(06:05):
these crews in on visas andmaybe expired visas and maybe
needing to get these extensions.
And how did it all play outafter that?
So over time, everybody got toeventually go to their consulate
well.
Debora Radtke (06:19):
The Marine Industry Association of South
Florida was really instrumentalin a number of things, one of
which was getting the marineindustry named as an essential
service.
Absolutely, we worked, misfworked closely with lobbyists
and the government agencies toalso allow crew on B-1 visas to
(06:46):
be able to travel Right.
So a lot of our boats thatended up basing here during the
height of COVID, which is thatyou know, the first kind of
March to June, sure, we wereable to do rotations, we were
able to get them onto planesGood good and that's important
(07:07):
for the industry.
Kristina Hebert (07:08):
but explain to people, why does that matter?
You know, if I'm from Nebraskaand I'm listening to this and
I'm saying okay, so the crewmember got stuck here and it was
a hard time to get them back.
Why does it matter whether thecrew was here with the boat or
then they had to rotate out?
How important is it to have thecrew with the boat and and and
(07:28):
keep that boat going?
Debora Radtke (07:30):
well, I mean, these are multi-million dollar
assets that are floating, youknow, in a hostile environment.
Basically, you know water.
Yeah sure, a boat lives in ahostile environment that
constantly wants it todeteriorate, particularly when
it's saltwater and our SouthFlorida environment, and so they
(07:52):
need to be continuallymaintained.
If they're not maintained, youknow, the first thing is they
lose value, and then they loseintegrity, and that's when they
sink and that sort of thingBecome a navigable problem yes,
yes yeah, okay, um, so you wantto have a crew that maintains it
.
Um, you know, one of the and andcrew is the biggest issue from
(08:17):
the standpoint that if you don'thave enough crew, how do you
maintain all these boats?
Right, and the issue, one ofthe issues we have right now is
that there is a shortage of uscitizen mariners.
Kristina Hebert (08:30):
Okay, um, you know is that the result of covid
, do you think?
Debora Radtke (08:35):
no, no, this has been, this has been fast forward
.
Kristina Hebert (08:38):
We're out of covid.
Debora Radtke (08:40):
This is a situation yeah, and this has
been ongoing.
Okay, I was talking to Lisafrom MPT not too long ago.
Kristina Hebert (08:52):
Maritime professional training.
Who does coursework forcaptains?
Debora Radtke (08:55):
Okay, and just the US merchant mariner fleet is
short licensed mariners isshort licensed mariners.
The number is going to varybetween depending upon who you
ask.
Currently, the shortage issomewhere between 14,000 and
(09:20):
25,000 licensed mariners just tomeet the needs of the US
Merchant Marine Fleet.
Wow.
Kristina Hebert (09:24):
Wow, and what is the plan to correct that?
Debora Radtke (09:30):
I don't know.
I mean it's.
You know there's a.
There's a fair amount of talkin Washington right now about
getting the US back into seriousshipbuilding Sure.
Kristina Hebert (09:39):
Yeah, and.
Debora Radtke (09:39):
I've heard that as well.
You know we've got, we've gotsix state um state-run maritime
academies.
Okay, um, you know which youwould think and hopefully they
would be out recruiting, sure,um, I think the part of it is is
, I think that there's a lack ofpeople's awareness that there's
(10:02):
a big job opportunity out thereright that that's a career path
.
Kristina Hebert (10:05):
We talk about the marine industry is
oftentimes a big, a big mysteryto some, and sometimes we as an
industry like it that way thatwe we tend to keep the general
public.
Yeah, exactly, but then, whenit comes down to workforce, we
really need to let everybodyknow it's a fantastic,
tremendous industry to be a partof.
Debora Radtke (10:23):
Yeah, I grew up on Lake Superior, okay, you know
, and, and I remember in highschool, yeah, so how did you get
into the marine industry tellus.
Well, I grew up sailing on LakeSuperior.
Okay, loved being on the water,loved boats.
And two of my brothers went offand went to Chapman's and came
back, and one ran a marina andthen one became the manager of
(10:46):
the local ferry line.
Okay, and you know, basicallythrough through my twenties I
floundered, like many do, and Iwas, went into video and film
first and got burned out withthat and moved back home to
Northern Wisconsin.
And my brother that was runninga marina said you know, we need
captains.
(11:07):
You've got the time, you've gotthe ability, go, get your
captain's license so that Icould teach sailing and captain
sailboat charters.
Okay, did that.
And then very wise friends ofmine who had worked on yachts
when they were younger said whyare you wasting nine months out
of the year up here?
Go to florida, get a job on ayacht.
(11:29):
Um, so I did in uh 95 I camedown and and how was that?
Kristina Hebert (11:35):
was it everything you thought it was?
Was it like?
This is insane?
Was it, um, a match made inheaven right away?
This is completely off thetopic of the b1, b2, b2.
It was just curious I meanbecause I think we all get into
the industry with this and and Ican only imagine it for the
next generation that's cominginto it.
(11:56):
Now people have thisexpectation of what this
industry is.
Yeah, was it everything youthought it was?
I found found.
For me it was so much more thanI ever thought it was, and I
grew up my family business etcetera.
But you really get into it andthere's just so much more out
there than I ever knew.
Debora Radtke (12:13):
Yes, yeah, definitely.
Kristina Hebert (12:15):
There's a depth to the industry.
There's a tremendous uh spiritin the industry.
There's a ton of camaraderie.
We're a very small planet inthis industry and I and I like
that?
Debora Radtke (12:30):
Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was your experience
too.
Um, yeah, it was.
It was, you know, and it wasvery um, you know the people
that I worked for.
I worked for my first boss for10 years.
Um, wow, we had three differentboats in that time.
Kristina Hebert (12:42):
Um and uh, it was a very different industry
than it is now, and to be fair,we talked about this just you
and I chatting before this thatDepartment of Homeland Security
did not exist during your career.
So what we're talking about now, and CBP didn't exist at the
start of my career, at the startof your career, right, yeah, so
it's interesting.
So now fast forward.
At the start of your career,right, yeah, so it's interesting
(13:03):
.
So now fast forward.
Well, cbp did exist.
Debora Radtke (13:07):
It existed.
Kristina Hebert (13:07):
Customs and Border Protection existed, did
exist, just the Department ofHomeland Security did not exist,
correct?
Debora Radtke (13:11):
Okay, and we can get that fact checked, because I
might be wrong.
Okay, but the Department ofHomeland Security became the
umbrella for Customs and BorderProtection.
They may have been using adifferent name, but I don't
think so, okay.
Well, we're gonna fact checkhere.
Kristina Hebert (13:31):
jordan, because we've always had immigration
officers we have always hadimmigration officers, but maybe
they were.
Let's find out.
Debora Radtke (13:38):
According to cdpgov on march 1st 2003, us
customs and border protectionwas established okay, as the
nation nation's firstcomprehensive border travel and
trade agency okay, so cbp wasestablished in 2003
comprehensive, correct.
Kristina Hebert (13:55):
So there was probably, uh, like you said,
another name for it back then,of course, we didn't just all of
a sudden come up with that.
You know post 9-11, you knowjust 20 years ago.
But this.
Debora Radtke (14:07):
This Because you still needed to have visas.
Foreigners still needed to havevisas to arrive in the US.
Kristina Hebert (14:10):
Incorrect, but this umbrella, this agency and
now this umbrella and the worldthat you live in now and that
you help these vessels navigatethrough is has only really been
around for the last 20 years.
So talk to me about that.
So fast forward, we're here,2025.
What are the biggest B1, B2challenges for crew
(14:33):
Misinformation yes.
Lack of preparedness bymisinformation see rule one yeah
, Okay.
Debora Radtke (14:42):
And it's.
Kristina Hebert (14:47):
What type of information is that?
Debora Radtke (14:49):
I think I think part of it is people thinking
they're special.
Okay, you know, I mean it'slearn what the rules are Right
and follow the rules.
Um, and they, you know, and soI guess, yeah, you know, that is
where they're gettingmisinformation, because whoever
they're getting theirinformation from is saying, well
(15:10):
, you can do this or you can dothat, and and you can't, it's
the the visa.
The B-1 visa has beendetermined to be the proper visa
for yacht crew.
Kristina Hebert (15:21):
Okay good, that's established Checkbox.
Yes, b-1, for yacht crew Okay,good, that's established
Checkbox.
Debora Radtke (15:28):
Yes, b1, b2.
Is it B1, b2, or do you ask fora B1?
The B1 is so.
The B visa has two sides to it.
It has the business side, whichis the B1, and it's got the
tourism side, which is the B2.
If you're here on a B2, thepurpose of your visit is
strictly for tourism, which isnot a crew member.
It means you're going to Disneyor whatever, visiting friends,
(15:48):
sure, the B1 means you're herefor business purposes, okay, and
they have massaged that.
Or, however you want to say it,that they've decided that yacht
crew can fit underneath that.
Okay, that they've decided thatyacht crew can fit underneath
that.
And that's all pretty muchspelled out in the Foreign
Affairs Manual, which is themanual that consular officers
(16:10):
use when they're trying todetermine what visa status you
should be applying for.
Kristina Hebert (16:16):
Okay, okay, and there's a multitude of
different.
It's an alphabet soup ofdifferent visas that people can
apply for, but the crew need toapply for a B1.
Yes, and they apply at theirhome country consulate.
Debora Radtke (16:30):
They should be, applying at their home country,
at the US consulate in theirhome country, and what do they
need?
Kristina Hebert (16:37):
to bring, what do they need to prove?
What do they need to have withthem?
Debora Radtke (16:40):
They need to go online and fill out the DS-160.
Online at cbpgov, stategov,stategov, okay, and so it's the
DS-160, and then they'll be ableto set up an appointment at the
consulate.
Okay, and then at thatappointment, important things to
(17:03):
take with them are things thatprove that they have close ties
to their home country, that theyhave a domicile in their home
country, because every consularofficer, the directive that
they're given is that they needto assume that the person
requesting the visa intends toimmigrate and the B visa is a
(17:27):
non-immigrant visitor visa, okay.
Which is why, when you go tostategov and it shows it, it
says NIV next to it.
That stands for non-immigrantvisitor visa.
Okay, and the key is you'revisiting.
You're coming to the US tovisit.
You're not coming to the US tolive.
You're not coming to the US tovisit.
You're not coming to the US tolive.
(17:48):
You're not coming to the US tohave a boyfriend or girlfriend
and adopt a puppy, right, okay.
Kristina Hebert (17:52):
Your puppy needs to live in your home
country.
Yes, okay.
Debora Radtke (17:55):
Yes, we're joking recently that you know where
does the puppy live.
Kristina Hebert (17:58):
Okay, so prove that your puppy's food, the
puppy's residence and the puppylives in your home country,
exactly, and that you're notcoming here to this country to
immigrate, but you are coming asa visitor.
And to prove that you're avisitor, you have to show that
you reside in your currentcountry.
Yes, so they need to show bills, something that is a permanent
(18:22):
tie to their country.
Right, they need to show thatthey're working on a boat.
Debora Radtke (18:26):
Yes, that they have a job, yes, okay.
And some crew will applywithout having a job Okay, in
which case they should have thedocumentation that shows that
they've got a seat, that they'vedone training and stuff and
that, and that they're actuallythey're qualified to be a crew
(18:47):
person that I just.
Kristina Hebert (18:48):
I didn't all of a sudden fill this out and I'm
I'm suddenly a crew tomorrow.
There needs to be documentationthat this is your profession,
which all seems pretty standard.
I live in this country, I'mgoing to go visit that one and
I'm a real crew member.
This is, these are my certs,and that's pretty much.
It Seems like an easy process.
Where is the challenge?
(19:09):
Not in the issuance.
The issuance of the visa isgood.
Debora Radtke (19:16):
Yes, okay, yeah, I mean, some crew get turned
down for it because they can'tprove that they have a strong
enough time tied to a countryother than the United States.
You know, Okay, and it doesn'thave to be their.
You know, their residencedoesn't have to be their home
country, Although for most youngcrew it's going to be Sure.
You know, we deal with a lot ofsenior crew now who may be they
(19:43):
may be UK nationals and carry aUK passport, but, you know,
perhaps they've got a residencein Spain or something like that.
So we have a lot of crew thatare dual nationals or, you know,
have a residence outside oftheir country of nationality.
So the biggest problem thatwe're having now is the
(20:05):
regulations have always been thesame.
They're tightening up.
Why is that, you think?
I think it's the newadministration has tightened
some things up.
What's been tightened?
What triggers and I'm assumingthis from my observation of
(20:26):
escorting crew to immigrationand conversations that I've had
with CBP officers is that whenyou're presenting yourself and
the CBP officer has the computerscreen in front of him and he
or she does the facialrecognition, scans your passport
, that that input goes out to awhole bunch of different
(20:52):
agencies.
Okay, the primary one thatthey're getting their
information from is the uhpassenger admissibility office
in washington dc okay and yourface or passport may trigger an
(21:13):
alert from them.
Okay, okay, if everything's doneperfectly and you have, you
know, been abiding by your visa,your visitor visa, and you're
here for two months during thefall when the boat's
reprovisioning, here for twomonths during the fall when the
boat's reprovisioning and thenthe boat goes to the Caribbean
and now you've come back in, uh,april, for another, you know
(21:37):
month period to get the boatready to go someplace else.
Um, and you've never, you know,stayed, never stayed more than
six months, but you know, have.
Kristina Hebert (21:48):
Stayed within the guidelines.
You haven't really everoverstayed or had any extensions
or had any challenges.
Debora Radtke (21:55):
Okay, you're going to fly through, we're
going to fly through If, in thecase that I ran into not too
long ago, out of the last 36months, you've spent 32 months
in the US and only leaving forshort periods of time, and out
of that 32 months you know only16 were with you officially as a
(22:21):
crew member You're going to getflagged Because it's showing
it's a violation of Rule 1 andRule 2.
Kristina Hebert (22:26):
Because it's showing it's a violation of Rule
1 and Rule 2.
One that you're not showing apermanent residence in your
native country if you'respending 32 out of the 36 months
in the visiting country.
Right, right and two.
You didn't have a job as a crewmember for 18 of those months
For a big portion of that, yeah,so it seems like those Rule 1
and Rule 2 are very important inthe very beginning and
consistent throughout your stay.
Debora Radtke (22:47):
Yeah, okay, yeah are very important in the very
beginning and consistentthroughout your stay.
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So they look at.
They look at cumulative timebecause that's the one thing
that we run into a lot of iswell, you know, I was here for
five and a half months and Ileft for a week, and now they
won't give me another six months, right?
Well, first of all, they don'thave to.
It is a visiting it is avisitor's visa.
(23:08):
And it is all up to theadmitting officer, and if they
feel that your intent is toreally basically live in the US
and only leave every five and ahalf months for two weeks or
whatever, they're not going togive you a pass.
Kristina Hebert (23:30):
Have we seen this become a problem for the
industry?
Is there a real challenge withcrew and CBP and having the visa
?
Is that causing a problem withthe industry.
Debora Radtke (23:40):
I'm going to say it's causing a problem for
individuals.
I'm not sure that it's causinga problem for the industry as a
whole.
Kristina Hebert (23:46):
The industry as a whole is successfully
navigating through it Bo comingand going, crew are getting
these visas, they're able to dotheir refit periods, they're
able to go, come and go, yeah,yeah, yeah, I see that too,
because I'm obviously in on theon the refit period on the work
side and it's it's a constantflow of boats either coming up
from the caribbean, coming toget their work they're getting
(24:08):
ready to go up north or goacross.
Right, we see it all the time.
Debora Radtke (24:15):
And I think that you know where we're probably
seeing.
The biggest issue ispotentially with crew that have
just done a big refit.
Okay, and I had one crew thatthat was the case.
They had just spent six monthsin Savannah doing a very large
refit and then they came toSouth Florida and now the owner
(24:40):
wants to cruise the US EastCoast for the summer, so that's
going to have put them in thecountry.
They did go to the Bahamas for14 days or something like that,
a couple of weeks, and nowthey're back and when they, when
they came back, the admittingofficer, you know, kind of went
well, you know, you've alreadybeen here for six months he did
(25:02):
give them all another six monthsbecause he was obviously
comfortable with the explanationand the fact that, yeah, they
are all contracted crew memberson a yacht.
There was no previous flags forany of them, because that's the
(25:22):
other thing that they're whatwe're running into right now and
you hear all these storiesabout, oh, my deckhand was
deported and this, and that youknow, and we went in through one
of the South Florida ports andyou know they put him on a plane
right away.
They made me go buy a planeticket for him right away.
What's happening is thatthey're looking at the history.
(25:43):
Okay, okay, and you know thatcrew member which is not
uncommon is may have arrived inSouth Florida in October just
before the Fort Lauderdale BoatShow being, you know, told that
go to go to Florida look for ajob, look for a job.
Take a class, you know it'sgoing to be the boat show, great
(26:07):
time to find a job.
Um, they didn't find a jobright away and they were here
until january before they founda job.
Um, and the officer sees thatyou know, they may have just
come back in on a boat in april,okay, but you know, then they
think they're golden becausethey arrived on the boat.
The problem is, the officer islooking back at their last stay
(26:31):
in the US, which was for fourmonths, and says how did you
support yourself when you werehere the last time for four
months?
What's the bad answer to give?
I'm going to be honest.
In one case we had a crewmember who looked him in the eye
and honestly said I was dayworking.
(26:53):
And the officer said okay,you're going to go home.
We're going to cancel your visa.
You'll be able to apply for anew one in five months.
We're not gonna.
Kristina Hebert (27:07):
So they didn't they didn't penalize, but they
just said you need to go homefor a period of time.
Debora Radtke (27:12):
Yeah done and he was going to have to apply for a
new visa.
Okay, you know, but they didn't.
He wasn't deported.
He wasn't because that's wherethere's also deportation is a
whole big legal process correctand that's not at all.
Kristina Hebert (27:26):
just to be clear, we're going to say it
here not at all.
The number one task of CBP,their job, is not to deport
people, no.
Debora Radtke (27:33):
Okay, they can refuse entry.
Which is basically what'shappening is that these crew
members are being presented andthey're being told nope, we're
not going to allow you entry,turn around and go back, right.
And that's where it becomes anissue for the boat, because the
captain is responsible.
In the same way that if I hopon an airplane and the country
(27:58):
that I'm going to says, no,sorry, we're not going to let
you in, the airline isresponsible for repatriating
that person.
That's why you have a passportand visa check at the ticket
counter before you board thatplane, and so captains need to
be aware of this and be fairlyconfident that all of their crew
(28:21):
is going to be allowed to comeback into the country or they're
going to be responsible forflying that crew member out.
Kristina Hebert (28:28):
So what can a crew but what can a crew member
do?
Because this happens all thetime that let's say there is a
yard period, the owner gets theboat and then the owner really
wants to use the boat here, andall of that takes longer than
the six months.
Isn't there an extension thatcan be filed, or paperwork or
communication?
Debora Radtke (28:45):
And actually, yes , there are extensions that can
be filed.
Um, I've got a boat up and upin palm beach that we're running
into that with right now.
Okay, um, and the uh, you alsoactually can ask for up to a
year, okay, um.
And in cases where, know you,know that the boat's going to be
(29:09):
coming in for a refit that'sgoing to last multiple months
and crew is not rotational crew,right, you know, because that's
the other option, is you just?
shift to crew, sure, you know,to being on rotation, which a
lot of owners I think.
The boat's over 60 meters, it'sstandard.
(29:31):
But when you get under 60meters, and particularly under
50 meters, the crew, the owners,like the crew combination that
they have.
Kristina Hebert (29:38):
It's part of their family, yeah, and they
want that group.
Right, but you can ask for that.
So then you can ask for yourB-1 visa to be a longer term up
front you can ask for your stay.
Debora Radtke (29:48):
If you know that ahead of time, you can ask for
your stay to be longer, okay, sothe stay to be longer.
Kristina Hebert (29:52):
And if they do that and that stay is longer and
it's showing on record whenthey come back the following
season, that's not going to bean alarm.
That's not going to be an alertbecause they asked for that
extension, whereas instead ofoverstaying.
Debora Radtke (30:06):
They asked for it and they also have to see.
So when you arrive in the US,you've got your visa Yep, and
that's the ticket that lets youcome into the US Yep, and then
you're stamped in.
Okay, and that's your I-94.
Okay, and what the I-94 is is?
It indicates your visa status.
(30:30):
It indicates whether you wereentered as a B-1, a B-2.
Some crew have multiple visasbecause they may flip back and
forth between private andcommercial, so they may have
C-1Ds.
So your I-94 record is going toshow you your status, that you
were entered in and how long youwere entered for what your due
(30:54):
out date is.
Okay, to take a look at all ofthe crew's I-94 records to check
their status and to check whattheir due out date is because
they don't stamp the passportsanymore Okay, and all you have
(31:19):
to do is Google I-94, travelhistory or whatever, and it will
pop up and you can look foryour I-94 status.
Kristina Hebert (31:27):
So I think the message is very clear, because I
would imagine that the visitingobstacles, challenges, task
lists, et cetera for othercountries are just as long, if
not more, onerous than probablythe United States.
But CPP is welcoming.
The B-1 visa is the right visa.
(31:47):
We want crew to be able to comehere.
We want crew to be able to comehere.
We want crew to be able to behere, stay with the refit,
cruise the waters up and down.
It's all about communicationand making sure you follow along
, you pay attention to thedeadlines, you pay attention to
when you're supposed to leave,rotate out when you need to just
basically follow the rules and,if you know ahead of time,
(32:08):
communicate.
Yes, and you won't haveproblems.
Yes, and I feel that in ourmeetings that I know you've sat
in them.
But let me ask you the question, instead of saying what I feel
Do you feel that CBP is wantingto work with the industry, is
supportive of the industry, ordo you feel that there's merely
just a compliance that you knowwe're compliant.
Debora Radtke (32:29):
No, they definitely want to work with the
industry, and part of that is,I feel, that way too.
That you know part of theirdirective is also to protect US
commerce.
Right, and they realize inSouth Florida, yes, they realize
what a big industry it is andthat you know we have to have
(32:49):
crew to run the boats.
Yes, and you know, I'm in andout of, I'm in and out of all
three ports.
I deal with immigrationofficers in Miami, immigration
officers in Fort Lauderdale,Palm Beach, Fort Pierce.
I'm going to say that probably90-95% of the officers that I
(33:12):
come in contact with are polite,they're friendly.
Are there a few stinkers?
Yes, there are.
There's stinkers.
Everywhere you go, exactly, youalways have the option of
asking for a supervisor, which Irealize that you know.
(33:34):
If you're dealing with a gruffofficer, yes, it's hard to look
at them and say, can I pleasespeak with your supervisor?
Right, but you know if you'vegot a.
Kristina Hebert (33:43):
It's your career and your future.
You really need to.
Debora Radtke (33:45):
And if you've got a legitimate concern and
complaint, um you need to.
Attitude is also.
It's how you approach thatinteraction is 90 of what's
going to and how should theyapproach the?
Kristina Hebert (34:03):
outcome yes, ma'am.
Debora Radtke (34:06):
Yeah.
Kristina Hebert (34:07):
Please, thank you Be respectful Absolutely.
You know, my biggestaggravation is.
Debora Radtke (34:12):
You know, there's always been a lot of concern
about, you know, whether or notcrews should have their phones
with them, because there's beenan issue with officers going
through crew members' phoneswhen they get pulled into
secondary, crew members' phoneswhen they get pulled into
secondary.
And my reasoning for notwanting crew members to
(34:38):
physically have their phone withthem when they're arriving on
the vessel and they're goinginto the port office to present
themselves is and it's agenerational thing they're more
focused on their phone andmaking their plans for the
evening, because they've justarrived from the caribbean for
three months than they arepaying attention to the officer.
Kristina Hebert (35:00):
So they're feeding the economic engine and
we appreciate that.
However, yes, you're right,they need to have their
attention focused on theirfuture yeah, and whether or not
they can stay in the country todo the plans that they want to
have for that night.
Debora Radtke (35:13):
So you know, leave your phone with the
captain.
Leave your phone, you know,don't take it.
Don't.
Don't walk up to the, don'twalk up to the window with the
immigration officer and befocused on your phone instead of
what they're asking.
Common sense.
Kristina Hebert (35:35):
Isn't that the case even in the airport?
Common sense here, Common senseOkay.
So you have to.
So far, the big challenges tocrew are you need to show up and
say please and thank you andsmile and be kind.
If the person you're speakingwith isn't kind, in return, ask
for a supervisor.
You need to have your I-94information readily available in
case you're going to expiresoon, and understand what that
is.
I mean you should be aware.
(35:55):
I mean I understand that thecaptain or a company such as
yourself should have that, butwouldn't you yourself?
If this is your status, youshould know your status.
You're responsible for yourself.
You're an adult.
Debora Radtke (36:05):
You're responsible for yourself.
And the interesting thing aboutthe B visa I run into this with
a lot of captains because theywant to go.
Well, don't I have to sign thisperson off, because when
they're in europe they have tosign the crew member on and off
the boat.
Okay, europe is much morerestrictive than the us, which
is why I laugh when I've gotpeople complaining about about
the us.
If you've got to have aSchengen visa in Europe, it's
(36:29):
much more restrictive, and so,as a B visa holder, essentially
you are your own person andresponsible for yourself.
Okay, exactly, you're notactually assigned, you're not
signed on and off the vessel.
As far as CBP is concerned, youknow you're responsible for
(36:52):
yourself.
Now, further to that, though,is that if you come in on a
vessel, the captain isresponsible for your arrival in
the US.
Kristina Hebert (37:08):
Okay, fair.
Debora Radtke (37:09):
And basically, is responsible for your admission.
Okay, so if you show up, if acrew member shows up, and
they're denied entry or there'ssome other issue, or you know,
heaven forbid you're presentinga crew member and suddenly it's
(37:30):
flagged and it's like you know.
Well, didn't you know?
This guy was a mass murderer inXYZ country.
The captain's responsible forknowing who they're bringing
into the country, right?
Okay, and they're presentingthem all saying we know this
person can be here Vouching forthem.
(37:51):
Yes, we're vouching for them.
Kristina Hebert (37:52):
Yes, but isn't there a vetting process for that
crew member to join the boatanyway?
Debora Radtke (37:56):
There should be.
I'm sure that that's happening.
Kristina Hebert (37:59):
Yeah, so these are all, I guess, where I'm
coming from and kind of makingthese points so far.
The captain has to have avoucher, it needs to vouch for
the character and know who'scoming in on their boat when
they're traveling with them.
And I think that every captain,including yourself, would want
to know who's on the boat withthem, yes, and is aware of that
(38:19):
crew member and their abilitieslong before they get to the
shores of the United States orthe port of entry.
The crew then have to beresponsible for themselves, they
need to be polite and they needto stay off their phone.
These do not seem like majortask lists in order for a crew
to be able to enter the US, butbeyond that it seems pretty
(38:41):
straightforward and hasn'tchanged in years.
So when should the boat reachout and become a client of
American Yacht Agents?
Debora Radtke (38:48):
Well, you're making it sound like if, if they
follow those rules, they don'tneed me no but they do need you
because apparently they need tounderstand.
Kristina Hebert (38:56):
No, but I think that they do need you.
Talk to me about um, thedocuments for the vessel.
We were talking about thisprior to having the um, having
the actual podcast that you weretalking about.
Many boats, for example, undera certain size, could have a new
.
Let's say, an owner just boughta brand new 130.
(39:17):
And this is a case where youknow they may or may not have a
company like yourself may or maynot have a yacht management
company.
So, in that case, what are someof those challenges of a boat
that size versus a size boatwith a management company?
Debora Radtke (39:33):
um.
So, as you know, boats are alot of.
The regulation is based ontonnage.
Okay, um, and so when you getinto boats under 50 meters,
particularly if they've changedhands recently or gone through a
series of captains a lot oftimes, the paperwork's not in
(39:55):
order.
Kristina Hebert (39:55):
What kind of paperwork do they need?
What do you mean by paperwork?
Debora Radtke (39:58):
If they're here in the United States, they
either need to have proof thatthey either need to have a
cruising license or they shouldhave been cleared in through
customs and their registry hasto have been presented to
customs.
(40:18):
Generally, in South Florida,customs no longer holds the
registry they used to forvessels that didn't have
cruising licenses.
Now they just take a copy of itand make sure that they have a
copy on file and then when theboat goes to leave, if they
don't have a cruising license,they need to be cleared out.
Now what happens is that you'llget boats that have sat in the
(40:44):
US for over a year and thecruising license expires, us for
over a year, um, and thecruising license expires and now
we've got a new captain thatcomes on board and he's like I
can't find any paperwork.
Okay, I can't figure out whenthis boat arrived in Florida
last.
I can't figure out, I can'tfind a cruising license, um, and
(41:05):
it's happened on more than oneoccasion where we then have to
kind of go.
Well, if you can find a logentry that maybe says when they
came in, then I can go back toyou know customs and find out.
And we've had to do this whereyou know I send in the paperwork
(41:25):
, I send in the registry and anentry.
We had this happen with a boatlast year where the captain had
come down from Savannah, hadentered Florida, had entered I
think it was in Miami in August,and their management reached
(41:49):
out to me in november and saidwe just discovered that this
captain never cleared intoflorida.
So I went to customs in miamiand said, you know, sent him an
email and said this is thesituation.
Um, and the vessel wasfortunately only issued a
(42:10):
warning.
Okay, um, which goes againstthe captain.
So I also made sure that we hadthe details on that previous
captain, um sure, because it'sultimately the captain's
responsibility, um, and you know, then we're able to start back
from the beginning, you know,for the boat.
Kristina Hebert (42:32):
So it's almost like you do a status survey on
the boat.
You go out and say, okay,what's the lay of the land here,
of the crew, who's good, who'snot?
Is the boat good?
The boat's good and you knowwhat's cleared, what's not.
No, no, I mean Not that theboat's good or not.
Debora Radtke (42:53):
I mean, we tell the captains what they should be
looking for.
Okay, and, um, and and, and,and the captains know what to be
looking for they know what theyneed to have.
Kristina Hebert (43:01):
Some of them do , some of them don't.
Maybe the newer ones, yeah.
Debora Radtke (43:04):
Yeah, you know and, and, and.
So that's I advising newercaptains on what they need to
come in and out of the US.
A lot of them get very hung upon whether or not they have
cruising licenses, and you don'thave to have a cruising license
(43:25):
in order to be in US waters.
Kristina Hebert (43:28):
Let's repeat that you do not have to have a
cruising license to be in USwaters.
Debora Radtke (43:33):
What do you have to have?
You have to have enteredproperly with customs, okay, and
then when you go to leave, youhave to clear out with customs.
Kristina Hebert (43:44):
Okay, which is telling them you're leaving.
Debora Radtke (43:47):
Right, okay, and that's a.
I'm going to defer to mycustoms broker on that for the
proper term, but I think that'sjust a tourist entry, okay.
Okay, you also get boats thatmay come in on a may be on a
(44:08):
boat show bond or a temporaryimport bond, because then you
get into whether duty's paid,all this and that when you're
dealing with foreign-flagged,foreign-built vessels, and
that's a whole topic for one ofthe customs brokers?
Kristina Hebert (44:21):
Okay.
Debora Radtke (44:23):
Not for this session.
Kristina Hebert (44:24):
No.
Debora Radtke (44:24):
I work with experts.
I believe in making sure thatyou surround yourself with
people that are smarter than you.
I agree, and I work with anumber of people that help me
provide the guidance I provide.
Gotcha.
Kristina Hebert (44:42):
So many times you get onto the boat.
We now know what the crewbasically and let me go back, I
know I'm kind of jumping allover so we kind of went over
what the crew member needs tohave.
We understand theresponsibilities of the captain
Right over what.
Debora Radtke (44:56):
What the crew member needs to have, we
understand the responsibilitiesof of the captain right, um, and
and then what does?
Kristina Hebert (44:59):
the crew number .
What does the boat need?
Debora Radtke (45:00):
yes, okay.
So vessels, so foreign flaggedvessels, um under 300 tons okay,
when they arrive in the us,they should be using the roam
app, okay, which is a cbp appthat they can get on their phone
(45:22):
and they're going to uploadpassports and everything in it.
Okay, and that actually isbasically a function with um
through the immigration side ofof c, okay, and then, and with
that role map, they can applyfor a cruising license.
(45:42):
Okay, may or may not get it.
Okay, then the.
So for vessels arriving in theUS that are over 300 tons,
they're going to need to haveaCOFR, which is a Certificate of
Financial Responsibility forWater Pollution.
(46:04):
Okay, then vessels over 400tons will need a non-tank vessel
response plan.
Kristina Hebert (46:15):
Okay.
Debora Radtke (46:16):
The COFR and the non-tank vessel response plan.
Both fall under Coast Guarddifferent divisions and can take
up to 21 days to get.
Once you apply for them, um,you'll be denied entry without
(46:38):
them.
Without them, okay.
And vessels over 300 foreignflagged vessels over 300 tons
that file their notice ofarrival before coming to the us
um, if you don't have thosethings, it will be flagged, okay
.
And what will happen is you'llend up getting a uh, a captain
of the port order denying youentry, okay so the boat normally
(47:01):
has to file the 96 hour 96notice of arrival but if you're
saying they haven't applied forthe Kofor or the?
non tank vessel response plan,also known as.
Kristina Hebert (47:11):
We need an anti-vrp and TV RP okay.
So if they haven't applied foreither one of those, the notice
of the noa is not going to beapproved anyway, or it will be
flagged.
It'll be flagged, okay so don'tshow up.
And and where?
Where do the crew?
Get all of this information inadvance, so they need to be
(47:32):
planning this three weeks inadvance, four weeks in advance.
Debora Radtke (47:35):
Yeah, at least I mean, and most of the boats, the
management company, because themanagement company is the
global you know overseer.
Kristina Hebert (47:42):
They're aware of the travel log and they'll
send the reminders.
Debora Radtke (47:45):
And they should be aware of what the boat needs
to enter the US.
But you get into, you knowthere's an awful lot of boats
that are under 400 tons thatdon't have management.
Kristina Hebert (47:57):
Right, they fall under the, and what do they
do when they get there?
What does CBP offer as help?
Debora Radtke (48:04):
Well, cbp doesn't CBP.
Kristina Hebert (48:08):
But if that's where they're going to get
clearance and CBP is going tocheck and say I don't see a
cofer, I see your notice ofarrivals flagged, even though
they're not the governing body,do they not see those things?
Debora Radtke (48:21):
I'm just trying to walk people through.
Yeah, they see differentportions of it.
So the biggest thing is aforeign flagged vessel over 300
tons is they have to file theirnotice of arrival Right, and
that goes to the captain of theport of whatever zone they're
arriving in If they don't getflagged.
(48:46):
I mean because we've had boatsthat have shown up, that have
gotten in without doing anything, you know, and and then they
call me because of they needsomething and I started asking
questions and I'm like, oh, okay.
Kristina Hebert (49:04):
Huh, you're here illegally, which isn't good
either.
So just because you get awaywith it doesn't mean it's the
right thing to do.
No, Um because it's going to,and again progress elsewhere.
Debora Radtke (49:15):
Yeah, and again, in my experience with working
with I've had my company for 10years now most of the government
agencies that we work with whenit's a mea culpa and we call
and say a culpa, and and youknow, we call and say someone
(49:42):
totally messed up on this oneI'm not too sure who it is um,
you know, and I did, I had a.
I had a boat that arrived, um,they had not filed their notice
of arrival and it was.
You know, I'm standing on thedock and I'm talking to the
captain and I'm like you know,okay, you filed your noa.
And he's like I didn't file.
To the captain and I'm like youknow, okay, you filed your NOA.
And he's like I didn't file myNOA.
And I'm like oh, you didn't askus to file it.
(50:03):
And you know, I called CoastGuard and said this is the
situation.
Sure, what do we do?
And you know I'm not sayingthat this is going to happen
every time, but I saying in thisinstance they said get it filed
.
And they looked at it and theysaid this boat has never had an
(50:23):
issue.
Um, they've been in before.
Kristina Hebert (50:26):
Um, we'll just issue a warning and well, it's
probably the same as if you getpulled over in your car.
If you, if you have a veryclean driving record, you get
pulled over.
If you happen to have a policeofficer that looks at your plate
, looks at your license and saysyou know what?
You've been a law-abidingcitizen for all of these years,
you're having a bad day.
I'm going to give you a warning.
I I would imagine it's the sametype with the boat, but a boat
(50:49):
that that is not compliant orthat has multiple alerts right
or or comes up on some sort ofscreen, is not going to get that
same type of treatment, norshould they right.
So so where is so?
Let's do a recall the rulesfollow the rules, so so and know
the rules.
I know the rules all of thesecaptains should know that, prior
(51:12):
to entering a country, thatthere are rules to enter that
country, and I'm sure that theseagendas and itineraries are
planned in advance.
Debora Radtke (51:21):
But in the end, know where you're going know
before you go, and that's thebest reason to use an agent.
Is is because your agent, nomatter where you're traveling in
the world, your agent should bethe person that's.
Your agent should be the personthat's helping you through the
local regulations.
All of the ports, of statestuff is is what the agent is
(51:42):
going to handle.
You know it's, and that's waymore important.
You know, especially, you comeinto South Florida and there's a
multitude of people that canhandle your provisioning and can
handle your you.
You know any number of things.
Electric.
Electric had to do a littleplug.
Well, you know, and a lot oftimes we're that central point
(52:03):
of contact, particularly when aboat's coming in for a very
short period of time I've gottenthose calls Deb, I know, I
think, as I remember calling you, as I was getting ready to
board a plane and I had a boatthat needed a corrosion survey,
or something, but that's whatwe're all here for.
Kristina Hebert (52:21):
But it's true, though.
You knew that the boat was onlygoing to be here for a very
short period of time.
Owner was joining the boat.
Boat's supposed to be headingup for doing up and down the
East Coast with the owner, andnow they have a problem.
Of course they do so.
Yeah, we're here to help anddown the east coast with the
owner, and now they have aproblem.
Of course they do so.
Debora Radtke (52:36):
yeah, we're here to help um, and it's easier.
Kristina Hebert (52:37):
You can do that as well, because you you'll get
my cell phone and I'm going topick up a call from you at nine
o'clock at night, right, notnecessarily from something that
looks like possible spam risk,not that I wouldn't, but we have
that relationship, yes, yeah,and, and that makes a big
difference.
Debora Radtke (52:51):
It does, it's a huge difference.
And for the boats, if they havethe option of making one phone
call correct, they're going todo that.
Yep, and the other side of itis, you know the vendors, they
know me, I've been, I've beenaround here for over 25 years,
between working on yachts for 16years, having my company for 10
(53:12):
years, um, and the and the boat.
The boat's going to leave andif they don't collect from that
boat before it leaves, theycould be out the money, whereas
they know that if I've calledthem, really if any agent has
called them, um, they're goingto get paid Right and they have
a point of contact and you willbe helpful with that.
Kristina Hebert (53:34):
So the recap is the B-1 is the proper visa for
crew members to have.
Be prepared, have all of yourinformation, make an appointment
with your consulate in yourcountry to make sure you have
all of this taken care of and,applying for your visa.
As the captain, be sure thatyou're paying attention to the
(53:55):
i-94s and everybody's statusbecause, ultimately, while crews
are individual, responsibilityis within themselves.
The, the captain, is stillultimately responsible for the
crew and the safe rightnavigation of this vessel.
And then the vessel needs tomake sure that it has all of its
clearance and and and all ofthis information can be found on
(54:15):
your website.
American Yacht agents.
Debora Radtke (54:18):
hire an agent because if it's on my website or
it should be on my on mywebsite which needs to be
updated, I'm sure it is on yourwebsite.
If not, you're gonna update itand change it.
Kristina Hebert (54:27):
But no matter what they can call you direct.
Yes, and that's gonna make surethat they have a safe
navigation and an enjoyable timein the United States.
Debora Radtke (54:34):
Yeah, and they really should reach out to an
agent prior to coming to the.
Kristina Hebert (54:39):
States Prior to planning to come to the States.
So that they get all of theirplanning in advance.
Debora Radtke (54:44):
I mean we've got boats that'll reach out to us a
year in advance just to makesure that they have everything
in order.
Kristina Hebert (54:51):
Yes, boats usually are pretty good about
making and I would be willing tosay this maybe the bigger the
boat, the better the plan.
Sometimes it seems like on thelarger yachts they tend to have
their plans much further out,and that's my experience as far
as their yard periods, yeah, andalso because dockage is a lot
harder to find for a big boat sowell and you're coordinating
(55:12):
more.
People just takes more to move.
Debora Radtke (55:15):
Yeah, when you've got, when you've got a boat
with 25 to 45 crew rotating, sothen you're working at 40 to 80
crew that you're moving aroundthe world.
It's hard to do that on a whim,although I'm amazed at the
number of boats that I have thatare in that size range that
(55:36):
change their schedules prettyregularly well, but if they were
to call you, you'd be able tohelp them always always well
thank you, deb, for today.
Kristina Hebert (55:46):
We've had a great time.
I've learned a lot about youknow the b1, b2 process, what
the boat needs, what the crewneeds and and in order to have a
successful journey in theUnited States.
Thank you for being here today.
Debora Radtke (55:57):
Thank you for the opportunity, thank you for
joining us.
Kristina Hebert (55:59):
I appreciate it .
Thank you for joining us thisseason on season three of the
World's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
You Thank you for joining usthis season on season three of
(57:08):
the Ward's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
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