French Polynesia Customs & Yacht Clearance: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

We cleared in at the gendarmerie in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, on 30 April 2026. We haven’t cleared in at Tahiti, Moorea, or any other outer-island gendarmerie. Tahiti, for us, was the vet visit and the anchorage south of Marina Taina. The steps below still cover those places. We haven’t cleared out of French Polynesia yet.

French Polynesia was the most complicated country we’ve cleared into, especially with the pugs. Here’s the thing to know up front: it all runs through online forms now, and you can’t really skip them. The main customs and immigration declaration has been online-only since March 2023, and it replaced the old paper forms. The only non-online route on any official page is walking into the customs office at Papeete port. That’s no help if you make landfall in the Marquesas like most of us do. Honestly, I found the online system clunky and hard to use. It’s the French government’s general-purpose form builder, not something made for boats. Some cruisers say it’s quick. Either way, give yourself time and do it before you get there.

Good news: it wasn’t as bad as we feared. And nobody charged us a pet bond.

Best efforts, not legal advice. Your experience may be different. Check the official links.

Heads up

This is best efforts, not a guarantee. Rules change, officials change, and two boats clearing into the same harbor the same week can have pretty different experiences. We do our best by combining three things: research (reading the official sites so you don’t have to), automation (a tool that fills in the forms for you), and personal experience (what actually happened to us, with dates). It’s all in one guide and one forms tool. It won’t make clearing in effortless, but it should make it a whole lot easier. If something’s different when you get there, tell us and we’ll fix it for the next boat.

Fees at a glance

Official amounts, checked 3 October 2026.

What	Cost
Customs and immigration declaration (DUP)	Check the current fee. We didn’t find a published one.
Biosecurity boarding	1,000 XPF, plus agent travel 4,000 XPF in office hours (8,000 XPF outside them)
Pet import file	5,500 XPF per animal
Pet inspection, official vet, Tahiti	6,000 XPF in office hours (12,000 XPF outside them)
Pet laissez-passer	500 XPF per owner
Pet bond	None charged to us. No pet bond in practice.
ESCALES anchorage booking	No fee yet. One is planned once a rate is published.
Maritime health declaration	None found. Check the current fee.

1. Entry requirements: passports and visas

What: Make sure everyone aboard can stay as long as you plan to.
When: Before you leave home waters. A long-stay visa has to come from a French consulate before you arrive.
Official: DPAM: arriving by sea
Have ready: Passports valid at least 6 months past your planned departure from French Polynesia. Non-EU crew get 90 days in any 180. Staying longer needs a long-stay visa. Be ready to show an onward ticket or pay a repatriation bond. Check current practice with the gendarmerie.
Cost: Free for a visa-exempt short stay. Consulate fees vary for long-stay visas.
What happened to us: We haven’t recorded whether anyone asked us for a ticket or a repatriation bond.

2. Bringing dogs and other pets

What: The online pet import application. It’s required even if your pets will never leave the boat. The online application replaced the 2021 paper Form 211A. The tool can still fill 211A if you turn that on, labeled legacy, for reference only.
When: Biosecurity says about 1 month before you leave your last country. Start 2 months ahead to be safe. It must be filed no later than when you enter French Polynesian waters.
Official: Online application · Bringing in dogs
Have ready: Microchip. Every rabies vaccination certificate, not just the latest. A positive rabies titer from an approved lab, drawn at least 3 and no more than 12 months before landing, at least 0.5 IU/ml. A negative leishmaniasis test for dogs. Two vet-given parasite treatments at least 14 days apart, the second within 4 days before departure or landing. A photo of each pet. The chip has to be in before the rabies shot that counts. A primary vaccine is valid only from 6 months plus 21 days.
Cost: 5,500 XPF per animal for the file, paid within 5 days of filing. Later, the vet inspection: 6,000 XPF in office hours (12,000 XPF outside them), plus a 500 XPF laissez-passer.
What happened to us: We filed ours after we arrived in Nuku Hiva, on 1 May 2026. Don’t do that. File before you go. The auto-reply confirmed the pugs were confined aboard until the vet saw them. No pet bond was charged.
If you skip it: The animals are confined aboard with no landing, not even for a vet visit. The fine is up to 450,000 XPF. Two months of silence counts as a refusal.

3. File the customs and immigration declaration online

What: The Déclaration Unique Plaisance, a single entry and exit declaration for Customs and the Border Police. It’s mandatory.
When: There’s no fixed deadline, but do it a few days before landfall so it’s ready when you arrive. It takes about 30 minutes, longer if the site fights you.
Official: Arriving on or after 1 September 2026: the new declaration. Arrived before 1 September 2026: the original declaration. Customs page linking both.
Have ready: An account on the portal, the vessel’s certificate of nationality or registration, the captain’s passport, every crew member’s passport, your ETA and your first port.
Cost: Check the current fee. We didn’t find a published one.
What happened to us: We filed the pre-September version two days before landfall and got an emailed attestation de dépôt. Keep it. The gendarmes want to see it. The system was clunky. Budget time, and do it while you still have decent internet.
Tip: The forms tool gives you an answer sheet in the portal’s order, numbered so you can copy one line at a time.

4. Request the biosecurity boarding online

What: The biosecurity boarding request. Every vessel arriving in French Polynesia has to declare in advance.
When: At least 48 hours before you arrive.
Official: Online request · Pleasure boats
Have ready: Your last-port clearance, a list of ports of call, and a list of provisions aboard.
Cost: 1,000 XPF, plus agent travel of 4,000 XPF in office hours (8,000 XPF outside them).
Watch out: If you’ve called at a port with rhinoceros beetle in the last 9 months, you can only berth between 06:30 and 16:30, and you have to stay 400 m off the shore outside those hours.
What happened to us: We filed after we arrived, at 09:01 on 1 May 2026. It was accepted in under an hour, and the certificate was issued that morning. We’d arrived with an empty fridge, which kept things simple. It worked out, but don’t count on it. File it before you leave, or by sat messenger on passage.

5. Email the Maritime Health Declaration

What: The Maritime Health Declaration. It’s still an emailed form, not a portal.
When: At least 48 hours before arrival.
Official: veille.sanitaire.arass@administration.gov.pf · DPAM: maritime arrivals
Cost: None found. Check the current fee.
What happened to us: We haven’t recorded whether we sent it. Other cruisers say it’s often skipped. We’d send it anyway.

6. Check in on arrival: Taiohae on Nuku Hiva, or Customs if you land at Tahiti

What: Update your online declaration with your actual arrival date, print it, and report in person.
Where: Landfall at an authorised outer island, like Nuku Hiva: that island’s gendarmerie. Arriving at Tahiti or Moorea: Customs, and the Border Police at Faa’a airport. We cleared at Taiohae only.
Have ready: Printed declaration or attestation de dépôt, passports, boat papers, your biosecurity certificate.
What happened to us: We cleared in at the gendarmerie in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva. We haven’t recorded the hours or what they stamped. Sign the undertaking by the first working day.

7. Pets: the vet inspection on Tahiti

What: The official biosecurity vet inspects your pets aboard your boat, on Tahiti only. Then they either give you a laissez-passer or keep the animals confined aboard.
When: On your first working day in Tahiti, or as close to it as you can. Until then, the pets stay aboard. Tell the vet every time you change anchorage. That isn’t obvious from the website.
Official: Bringing in dogs
Cost: 6,000 XPF in office hours (12,000 XPF outside them), plus a 500 XPF laissez-passer. No pet bond.
What happened to us: It was 60-plus days between landfall in Nuku Hiva and reaching Tahiti, and that was fine. The vet had to see the pugs in person, aboard. I picked her up by dinghy at Marina Taina and brought her out to the boat in the anchorage. We signed the undertaking on 24 June 2026. We haven’t recorded whether the outcome was a laissez-passer or confinement for the rest of the stay.

8. Moving around: ESCALES, and keeping the declaration current

What: ESCALES is the online booking for regulated anchorage zones. In the pilot areas you need it for overnight stays. Also update your online declaration if your crew changes or you move between island groups.
When: Before anchoring overnight (16:00–09:00) in a regulated zone in the pilot areas: Tahiti–Taiarapu Ouest, Raiatea, Taha’a, Huahine and Fakarava. Boats under 20 m can use the zones freely from 09:00 to 16:00.
Official: ESCALES · DPAM: about ESCALES
Cost: No fee yet. One is planned once the rates are published.
What happened to us: We haven’t recorded whether we used ESCALES.

9. Papeete harbor, if you’re going to Tahiti

What: Email the port your nautical operation notice (Form F09.01) to trafficmaritime@portppt.pf, and call Papeete Port Control on VHF 12 before you enter the pass.
What happened to us: On 19 June 2026 we called Port Control on VHF 12 for clearance to go past the airport to the anchorage south of Marina Taina. They asked us to call again 5 minutes before crossing the airport’s west end. The anchorage was full, so expect to hunt for a spot. That was a port call, not a second inward clearance.

10. Clearing out

What: Add your final departure date in the online declaration, then clear out. From an outer island: the gendarmerie, plus the online update. From Tahiti: the Customs exit declaration, the Border Police, and a port clearance. Request the port clearance at trafficmaritime@portppt.pf 72 hours before you leave for anywhere more than 50 nm away. The port clearance lets you buy duty-free diesel.
How long the boat can stay: Boats under 24 m that arrive from 1 September 2026 get 12 months of temporary admission. Boats that arrived before then get 24 months.
What happened to us: We haven’t cleared out yet, so we haven’t recorded where, or whether we got duty-free fuel.

Questions

How do yachts clear French Polynesia customs?

The customs and immigration step is the online Déclaration Unique Plaisance. Arrivals from 1 September 2026 use the new declaration. File it before landfall, then check in in person. We did that at the gendarmerie in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, on 30 April 2026. We haven’t cleared in at Tahiti, Moorea, or any other outer-island gendarmerie.

Can I bring a dog to French Polynesia on a yacht?

File the online pet import even if the dog never leaves the boat, before you enter French Polynesian waters. The official vet inspects the animals aboard, on Tahiti only. We weren’t charged a pet bond.

Is Papeete where yachts clear in?

Not for us. We cleared in at Taiohae, Nuku Hiva. On 19 June 2026 we called Papeete Port Control on VHF 12 to go past the airport to the anchorage south of Marina Taina. That was a port call, not a second inward clearance.

Want the anchorages, not the paperwork? The Marquesas · The Tuamotus

Want these filled in for you?

French Polynesia’s main steps are online portals, so there’s no paper form to fill. Here’s how we make it easy anyway:

A ready answer sheet in each portal’s exact field order, so you can copy and paste and get through the clunky portals fast: customs entry and exit, the biosecurity boarding request, and, if pets are aboard, the maritime pet import.
The four official pet attestations, filled in for each animal: rabies vaccination, two antiparasitic treatments, and identification. Your vet still signs and stamps them.
The numbered step-by-step walkthrough, with a direct link to each official site.
The Arrival Kit PDF.

French Polynesia Arrival Kit, US$19. Free for paid Captain’s Log subscribers and Tier 2 Patreon supporters.

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The honest fine print

Some Tuesday, LLC sells information and a do-it-yourself forms tool. We never file, submit, sign or send paperwork for anyone. We’re not a customs agent, yacht agent or lawyer, and nothing here is legal advice.

Everything here is best efforts. We combine research from the official sources, automation that fills in the forms for you, and our own experience. Rules change, officials change, and every boat’s experience in each country will be a little different, including from ours. Before you rely on anything here, check it against the official links and with the officials themselves. You’re responsible for checking, signing and submitting your own forms.

French Polynesia customs and clearance for yachts, step by step