Upon entering the atoll, we hailed Tarawa Radio on VHF channel 16. We were arriving on the weekend, so I made it clear that we were happy to remain on board until Monday morning for clearing in. (If you clear in during off hours you usually have to pay overtime fees.) She told us that would be fine, but if the clearance officers were at the wharf clearing in any other boats, then she would call us. We didn’t hear from her until Monday morning, when she called us to arrange for us to pick up the boarding party at the wharf. Three officials came on board: Customs, Bio-Security, and The Police. They said Immigration would come later and that we could not leave the boat until immigration came. However, hours later we received a radio call from Tarawa radio with instructions to proceed to the immigration office in Bairiki to complete clearance.
Bairiki is about a 30-minute bus ride from Betio (you can see it on the satellite image in this post). We were a big group, five boats in all, so someone in our group organized for us to ride in the back of a big pick-up truck. At the immigration office we completed our clearing in paperwork and also submitted our letters to request permission to visit outer islands. You get a one month visa free of charge, and we were told you can extend for a fee, but we did not do this.
Gresham Family Exodus 