Update: Virgin Islands Customs requirements

[CaptJimFrei]

Get several of these proctored tests:

https://www.emed.com/products/covid-...xoCLMgQAvD_BwE

They are accepted everywhere.

You have to have an internet connection though.

Do the test 39 to 12 hours before entry into BVI. Also you'll need to do a test 48 hrs or less before re-entry into USVI or any USA port.

[CaptJimFrei]

Originally Posted by Timethief

Because when they inspect the documents, they only look at the dates - no one does the math to determine how many hours it has been since the test was taken. The question has been asked of the BVI authorities, and they have confirmed this. Why they insist on the saying 48 hours is anyone's guess.

But feel free to worry about the hour of your test - and to sweat the time zone differentials. I can only tell you my and my crew's experiences, and the reports of people who have also made the trip and messaged the people responsible in the BVI.

Enjoy your trip!

You're right - they barely look at the documents, which are an image on your phone anyway. A few weeks ago I and 3 friends traveled to BVI via USVI and used "novelty" test results I created using editing software. Yes, some of you will give me grief for this, but so what. I'm vaxxed & boosted and all these tests prove nothing...just more banana republic BS. I'm done with the BVI.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by jim King

Correct as for the last two. If you have a test and 50 hours later you arrive. You will need to re-test. Make it under the wire in 47 hours and you needn't be re-tested. In regard to travel to the US Virgin Islands, I think the same applies. So be ready to test before sailing into US customs on St John comming from the BVI and test again going back into the BVI.
Take a six pack of the Abbott labs eMed test kits ($150 for a six pack) which you can use on line (if you have wifi on board). Last month traveling to Grenada and on to the Grenadines and then back we needed to test four times.
I strongly advise all cruisers to invest in an Abbott lab six pack. You'll be glad you did.

Agree, and keep one in reserve as long as the US still requires a test to board a plane home.

Note that as of 27 May, (Vaccinated people) there are no test requirements for Antigua, Guadalupe, French St Martin, Martinique. Trinidad announced (soon) similar relaxing of rules although their paperwork and crazy carbon paper forms live on. Dominica is now much easier. Fellow cruisers entered there without an agent and no tests. Protocols are getting easier as the islands face the reality, tourists are necessary.

Several cruisers were treated shabbily by the BVI officialdom during Covid including even late this season. Many of us who cruise here seven months of every season will never go back there. With the PM and several others in jail or indicted on money laundering and drug trafficking, the U.K. has taken over. I don’t know what that means to boaters. The thing that is clear to us refuseniks is that the officials at all levels were following the example set from the top. The are not friendly to visiting yachts. They routinely charge whatever they think can be extracted at entry. Several cruisers have been arrested and their boats impounded, charged $20,000 US to get out. All managed to ‘handle the spurious charges’ but required a lawyer and lots of time. You couldn’t pay us to go there. Sad. It’s one of the best cruising zones with short hops to nice places with nice citizens.

[walkabout08]

The 48 hour test window is not uncommon for foreign entry. An RT-PCR test around here will get results in 2 hours or less. As for the the app, we’ve used it twice in the past without problems. Remember US entry from abroad still requires a negative Covidtest I believe within a 24 hour window of arrival.

[Cwens]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

I don’t know but it sounds clear to me but then I’m not an English teacher

Help out this American who's struggling to understand British usage here.


I'm not trying to be argumentative; I'm trying to learn about what must be some difference in language between American and British usage, because about half the people on this thread think the text of the rule means one thing, and the other half think it means the exact opposite, and everybody involved seems to be an intelligent native speaker of English.


Putting aside for a second the obvious common sense that they want a fresh test and not a stale one, and looking specifically at the language they use, about half the people on this thread seem to think that "Not later than 48 hours before arrival" means that you must take the test within 48 hours of arrival, and the other half think it means that you must take the test earlier than that.

I'm scratching my head wondering if "Later" means something different in British English than it does in US English, or something equally odd.

Where does the following conflict with anybody's interpretation of the language:

• If you arrive at noon on Wednesday, then 48 hours before arrival is noon on Monday,
• Noon on Tuesday is later than noon on Monday,
• A test taken at noon on Tuesday is taken later than 48 hours before arrival
• Noon on Sunday isearlier than Noon on Monday, so it is not later than noon on Monday.
• A test taken at noon on Sunday is taken not later than 48 hours before arrival.
• The older test, taken at noon on Sunday, meets the rule's requirement that the test be taken not later than 48 hours before arrival.
• The newer test, taken at noon on Tuesday, fails to meet the rule's requirement.

[goboatingnow]

“Travellers that present a RT-PCR or approved rapid antigen SARS CoV-2 negative test result taken no later than 48 hours before arrival “

“No later then”. …“ before “ is simply counting time time backwards from the point of arrival, the wording is uncommon but not difficult to interpret

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by ChrisOwens

Help out this American who's struggling to understand British usage here.


I'm not trying to be argumentative; I'm trying to learn about what must be some difference in language between American and British usage, because about half the people on this thread think the text of the rule means one thing, and the other half think it means the exact opposite, and everybody involved seems to be an intelligent native speaker of English.


Putting aside for a second the obvious common sense that they want a fresh test and not a stale one, and looking specifically at the language they use, about half the people on this thread seem to think that "Not later than 48 hours before arrival" means that you must take the test within 48 hours of arrival, and the other half think it means that you must take the test earlier than that.

I'm scratching my head wondering if "Later" means something different in British English than it does in US English, or something equally odd.

Where does the following conflict with anybody's interpretation of the language:

• If you arrive at noon on Wednesday, then 48 hours before arrival is noon on Monday,
• Noon on Tuesday is later than noon on Monday,
• A test taken at noon on Tuesday is taken later than 48 hours before arrival
• Noon on Sunday isearlier than Noon on Monday, so it is not later than noon on Monday.
• A test taken at noon on Sunday is taken not later than 48 hours before arrival.
• The older test, taken at noon on Sunday, meets the rule's requirement that the test be taken not later than 48 hours before arrival.
• The newer test, taken at noon on Tuesday, fails to meet the rule's requirement.

Count time backwards from the point of arrival

[Cwens]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

“Travellers that present a RT-PCR or approved rapid antigen SARS CoV-2 negative test result taken no later than 48 hours before arrival “

“No later then”. …“ before “ is simply counting time time backwards from the point of arrival, the wording is uncommon but not difficult to interpret

This is interesting; I (and I think most speakers of American English) would not interpret it that way.

How would you interpret "Changes to your order made later than 48 hours before the scheduled start of production will incur a 10% service charge?"

Or "If you cancel later than 48 hours before the time of your reservation, we will retain 50% of your deposit?"

[DIJ]

Originally Posted by ChrisOwens

The US and the UK being "two great nations divided by a common language" is variously attributed to George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, and a bunch of other famous people who maybe did or didn't say it. All of us, as English-speaking nations, have our quirky expressions, One that is strikingly different is the word "billion", which in the USA means 1,000,000,000 and in the UK historically meant 1,000,000,000,000, although the UK is now standardizing to it meaning the same thing that it does in the USA.

One that means opposite things in two places is to 'table' some matter at a meeting -- which in the UK means to start discussing it, i.e. to lay it out on the table and start looking it over and talking about it, while in the US it means to stop discussing it, i.e. to lay it down on the table and move on to other business.

But I've never encountered "no later than" to mean anything other than the obvious "not after." and I'm surprised to hear that there is an English-speaking place where "no later than 48 hours before arrival" means anything other than "at least 48 hours before arrival."

Well, here’s a ‘Brit’, an English one, and it’s nothing to do with a different understanding of English. There is no way a Brit (and doubt an Aussie either ) would interpret ‘ no later than ‘ as meaning ‘not after’. The BVI website has a typo regarding the validity of the test.

Dave Jones

[Cwens]

Originally Posted by DIJ

There is no way a Brit (and doubt an Aussie either ) would interpret ‘ no later than ‘ as meaning ‘not after’. The BVI website has a typo regarding the validity of the test.

Dave Jones

Wait, what? Seriously?

How would a Brit interpret "No later than Monday noon" and "Not after Monday noon?"

[DIJ]

Originally Posted by ChrisOwens

Wait, what? Seriously?

How would a Brit interpret "No later than Monday noon" and "Not after Monday noon?"

Yes seriously sunshine, did you not read what I said which was that THERE IS NO WAY THAT’ ´ NO LATER THAN ´ MEANS ´NOT AFTER’
So the examples you gave would be interpreted by me ( and any other sane English speaker) as two mutually exclusive examples of ´before or at Monday noon’ and ´after Monday noon’. Got it now?

[Cwens]

Originally Posted by DIJ

Yes seriously sunshine, did you not read what I said which was that THERE IS NO WAY THAT’ ´ NO LATER THAN ´ MEANS ´NOT AFTER’
So the examples you gave would be interpreted by me ( and any other sane English speaker) as two mutually exclusive examples of ´before or at Monday noon’ and ´after Monday noon’. Got it now?

Absolutely fascinating to learn that "Not after Monday noon" means "after Monday noon."

Thank you for taking the time to explain.

[GypsyOwner]

It’s a typo / carelessly worded document, not a difference in UK/US English.

Not everyon who rites documents takes times to prooof-read them to check they makes sense

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by GypsyOwner

It’s a typo / carelessly worded document, not a difference in UK/US English.



Not everyon who rites documents takes times to prooof-read them to check they makes sense

I would agree with that

[goboatingnow]

Just this if an airline says

“ please arrive at the airport no later then 3 hours before departure. “ I think every one understands that