Instructions for leisure craft

  • Finland's territorial waters include its internal territorial waters and territorial sea, the outer border of which is – with a couple of exceptions – at a distance of 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) of the outer border of the internal territorial waters.
  • The customs territory extends two nautical miles beyond the outer border of the territorial sea.
  • A foreign leisure craft has the right to transit the territorial sea.

Entry into Finland and exit from Finland

  • Instructions for persons arriving in Finland or leaving Finland by leisure craft can be found on the Finnish Border Guard’s website: Border checks on leisure craft.
  • The master of the vessel clears the craft through customs when it departs from Finland to a customs territory outside the EU, or when it arrives in Finland from a customs territory outside the EU. You can complete your customs clearance at a Coast Guard Station as long as you do not have any goods on board the craft that have to be cleared for import or export.
  • A Customs declaration has to be submitted if a vessel arrives directly from outside the EU with passenger imports to a value exceeding 300 euros per person, or with goods to be cleared or sold.  More information.
  • A declaration must also be submitted if the vessel carries goods subject to import restrictions, such as weapons or pets, e.g. dogs or cats.
  • The goods are to be transported along a customs route and via a general traffic junction. Customs routes in sea traffic are official waterways for international traffic to general harbours.
  • In other cases, the master of the ship must report the craft to the closest customs office in plenty of time, so that Customs can inform the place of taxation of the waterway used.
  • African swine fever spreads with travellers. African swine fever is a lethal disease that affects swine and wild boar, but which does not pass on to humans. It poses a significant financial threat to pig farming and the meat industry in Finland.

Traffic between Schengen countries

  • In traffic between Schengen countries, the customer does not have to use specific waterways or be subject to Customs control or a border control. See Schengen countries.
  • If you arrive directly from a Schengen territory, which is not a part of EUs customs or fiscal territory (e.g. Norway), you must go to the nearest border control station to be cleared through customs. More detailed information and office locations can be found on the Border Guard’s website.

Åland Islands

When crossing the tax border of the Åland Islands you have free passage and you do not have to use general waterways or Customs routes.

Note:

  • Regardless of the leisure craft’s actual place of dispatch or place of destination, the leisure craft traffic is always monitored as third country traffic.
  • If importing the goods requires a licence from an authority, but the appropriate licence has not yet been granted when the goods are brought into the Finnish customs territory, then the goods also have to be declared to the customs authorities, when the goods are imported directly from another member state of the European Union

Customs controls

Customs supervise pleasure craft traffic in order to prevent the importation of prohibited or restricted goods.  The purpose of the controls is to ensure that the leisure craft adhere to the regulations of the temporary import procedure with relief from import duties.

As regards customs controls, the leisure craft traffic is always considered EU external traffic, although all of the Baltic Sea, except for Russia and Kaliningrad, is part of the EU and the Schengen area. Customs also supervises the use of fuels in the vessels.

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