India eVisa: The $25 Form Scam Sites Charge $89 For
Bermuda Arrival Card: The Free Form Scammers Charge $50 For
Bermuda is the East Coast summer escape that makes almost too much sense — 2 hours from New York, direct flights from Boston and Miami, no long-haul involved, and the kind of pink sand and blue water that usually requires a transatlantic commitment. Peak summer bookings are up, and the searches reflect it. So does something else: scam sites charging $30–$50 per person to complete the Bermuda Arrival Card, a form the Bermuda government provides at absolutely no cost.
No fee. No processing charge. No approval wait. Under 2 minutes, done.
The official portal is bermudaarrivalcard.com — managed by the Government of Bermuda’s Department of Immigration. It’s free. The problem is that third-party sites have built convincing replicas and are showing up in search results before the official one, collecting $30–$50 per person from travelers who reasonably assume a mandatory government form would have a fee attached to it.
It doesn’t. And Bermuda’s official tourism account said so explicitly.
Quick Facts — Bermuda Arrival Card 2026
Detail Info Required for All air arrivals + private yacht arrivals Cruise passengers Complete the form on the ship — skip this portal Cost Free Official portal bermudaarrivalcard.com Time to complete Under 2 minutes Confirmation Email arrives instantly; show to customs on arrival Scam sites charging $30–$50 per person for the same form US passport required Yes — Real ID not accepted, must be a valid US passport In one sentence: Bermuda’s arrival card is a free, 2-minute form at bermudaarrivalcard.com — mandatory for air arrivals, and scam sites have been charging $30–$50 per person to do something you can do yourself for nothing.
What Is the Bermuda Arrival Card?
The Bermuda Arrival Card is a mandatory pre-arrival registration form required by Bermuda’s Department of Immigration. Every traveler arriving by air must complete it before reaching customs. Private yacht arrivals are also required to complete it. The form collects basic entry information — your name, passport details, flight number, and where you’ll be staying — and generates an instant confirmation by email. That confirmation is what customs officers will ask to see when you arrive.
No approval process. No waiting period. No fee. The confirmation is automatic and immediate.
Cruise passengers work differently: if you’re arriving into Hamilton or the Royal Naval Dockyard on a cruise ship, the ship handles the arrival card process. You don’t use the online portal at all.
The form replaced what used to be a paper disembarkation card handed out on the plane — same information, now collected digitally before you board rather than in the seat pocket at 30,000 feet.
Why Scam Sites Are Thriving Right Now
The conditions are ideal for scammers. Bermuda searches spike in summer, the arrival card is a mandatory entry requirement, and most travelers assume that mandatory government forms cost something. That assumption is the product being sold.
A scam portal builds a site with official-looking Bermuda branding — sometimes with words like “official,” “government,” or “immigration” in the domain or design — buys search ads for “Bermuda arrival card” and “Bermuda entry form,” and collects $30–$50 per traveler. Some of these sites do technically submit the form after charging you (the arrival card is publicly available on the government portal, so submitting it on someone’s behalf isn’t technically difficult). Others just harvest payment details and never deliver a valid confirmation.
The tell is always the fee. The legitimate portal charges nothing. Any site charging anything is either skimming a markup for work you can do yourself in 90 seconds, or running a straight-up credential grab.
The same pattern runs around Mexico’s VISITAX, where scam sites charge $35 to process a $15.80 government fee. It showed up around the Maldives’ IMUGA form — free, now surrounded by fee-charging third parties. Same story with the Aruba ED Card. The infrastructure appears fast, targets high-search travel destinations, and counts on travelers being unfamiliar with whether a fee is supposed to exist.
For Bermuda, the dynamic is particularly aggressive because the form is 100% free — meaning the entire $30–$50 charge is pure extraction.
The Official Warning From Bermuda Tourism
Bermuda’s @Bermuda account on X issued a direct public warning: “Do not pay any third-party website claiming to offer this service.”
That’s not ambiguous guidance. Don’t pay them. Third-party sites aren’t affiliated with the Bermuda government, don’t process through any official channel, and have no authority to charge for the form.
The Bermuda Tourism Authority confirms it: the arrival card is free, the only legitimate portal is bermudaarrivalcard.com, and no government processing fee exists for this form.
If you’ve already paid a third-party site: check whether you received a valid confirmation email with your actual arrival card details. If yes, the site may have submitted the form on your behalf after charging extra. Either way, dispute the charge with your credit card — you paid for a free service.
How to Complete the Bermuda Arrival Card
How Do You Fill Out the Bermuda Arrival Card?
- Go to bermudaarrivalcard.com. Only this URL is the official government portal.
- Enter your personal details: full name exactly as it appears on your passport, date of birth, nationality, and passport number.
- Enter your flight information: airline, flight number, and scheduled arrival date.
- Enter your accommodation details: hotel name and city is sufficient.
- Submit. No fee charged at any point.
- Check your email. Confirmation arrives immediately.
- Save the confirmation — screenshot it or download it so you have it accessible without cell service or airport Wi-Fi when customs asks.
Single traveler: under 2 minutes. Family of four: maybe 6 minutes if you’re typing passport numbers from scratch. Complete it the evening before your flight with your passport in hand — it’s genuinely faster than filling out a paper form on the plane used to be.
There’s no submission window as narrow as India’s 72-hour rule for their e-Arrival Card. Bermuda doesn’t require you to wait until you’re within a specific time window — completing it a few days before your departure works fine.
What Bermuda Customs Actually Checks
Customs officers in Bermuda will ask for your arrival card confirmation alongside your US passport. Having it on your phone (or a printed copy) is the fastest path through. Travelers who arrive without it may be redirected to complete it on a phone in the immigration hall — possible, but not the way you want to start a vacation.
The requirement applies uniformly. US citizens have visa-free entry to Bermuda, but “visa-free” doesn’t mean “paperwork-free.” The arrival card is the pre-entry paperwork layer. Arrival without it creates friction that you could have eliminated in two minutes the night before.
Bermuda Entry Requirements for Americans in 2026
The arrival card is one piece of the picture. Full entry checklist for US citizens:
What you need:
- Valid US passport (Real ID is not accepted — needs to be a passport)
- Completed Bermuda Arrival Card (free, bermudaarrivalcard.com)
- Onward or return ticket
- Confirmed accommodation
What you don’t need:
- A Bermuda visa — US citizens enter visa-free
- Any payment for the arrival card itself
- A separate travel authorization (Bermuda doesn’t have an equivalent of the UK’s ETA or the upcoming EU ETIAS)
There is a small Bermuda departure tax for air travelers, but it’s embedded directly in airline ticket pricing — you’ve already paid it. The arrival card portal is not connected to any tax collection. Nothing is owed at the portal, and anything a third-party site tells you about “processing fees” or “government charges” for the arrival card is fabricated.
How to Spot a Scam Bermuda Arrival Card Site
The flags are consistent with the broader travel scam pattern:
It’s a scam if:
- Any fee is requested at any point — the real portal has no fee, full stop
- The URL is not exactly bermudaarrivalcard.com (common variations: added words like “official” or “apply,” slight misspellings, extra hyphens or dashes)
- The site promises “expedited processing” or “priority approval” — there’s no queue to jump, since the official portal generates confirmation instantly
- Confirmation emails come from a non-bermuda.gov or non-official domain
It’s legitimate if:
- URL is exactly bermudaarrivalcard.com
- No payment requested at any point in the process
- Confirmation email arrives immediately after you submit
The Government of Bermuda’s scam reporting page accepts reports of fraudulent Bermuda-related websites. Worth bookmarking if you encounter one.
Bermuda Is Still Worth Every Bit of the Planning
None of this changes what makes Bermuda worth booking. The pink sand at Horseshoe Bay is genuinely that color — not a photography trick. The water off the south shore is that shade of blue. And the Swizzle Inn has been pouring rum swizzles since 1932. For East Coast Americans, the combination of short flight time and Caribbean-quality beaches doesn’t have many equals.
The arrival card is two minutes of admin. The scam sites are a nuisance, not a barrier — as long as you know where to go. The official URL, once you have it, makes the whole thing a non-event.
The Bottom Line
The Bermuda Arrival Card is free. The portal is bermudaarrivalcard.com. The form takes under 2 minutes, confirmation arrives in your inbox instantly, and you show it to customs when you land. No government fee, no processing charge, no legitimate reason to pay anyone anything.
The @Bermuda tourism account explicitly warned travelers not to pay third-party websites for this service. The Bermuda Tourism Authority confirms the form is free. If a site is charging for it, it’s not affiliated with the Bermuda government in any capacity.
Complete it the night before. Save the confirmation to your photos. That’s the whole prep.
Bermuda Arrival Card official portal: bermudaarrivalcard.com. Bermuda Tourism Authority confirmation: gotobermuda.com/plan/bermuda-arrival-card. Government scam reporting: gov.bm/how-avoid-and-report-scams. Entry requirements verified June 2026 — confirm current rules with the Government of Bermuda before travel.
