No. I’m not aware of the time it currently takes to get reconsideration. It had been taking a while in the past, but it was improving and I don’t know the current status. While my office does do appeals of NMC decisions, and would see how long it took to make its way to our office, my role is usually limited to advising on the policy and regulation issues in the appeal and I rarely see the chronology of the appeal.
I think I speak for a lot of the mariners here who appreciate your help in interpreting/providing the much needed understanding of the regs.
Thank you once again.
If only there were more mariners (and I mean mariners who have sailed and know commercial boats from the UIPV) working at the NMC and MARAD, including those heading the agencies, for US shipping, economically, the results would be far reaching - a greater share of world commercial shipping instead of a decline and limited to Jones Act.
If it’s been more than 6 weeks involve your Congressman. Call them, you’ll get an aide and a couple days later they should call you back. That’s what they’re there for. Call them.
When I was running a maritime school sending in packages in 2023, the best I saw was 5 weeks from submittal to in-hand. Personally, my last personal upgrade was sent in Jan 2024 and took 6 months. They’re all over the place. It really seems to depend on what evaluator you get and how much they want to kick things back that are irrelevant.
It looks like there is another layer to the NMC evaluation process. R
ecently, I have note the following from NMC.
“Currently, your application is undergoing a compliance review, which is a routine audit of your records to see if they comply with all regulatory and legal requirements. Unfortunately, we do not have a specific time frame for this review. A notification will be sent to you about the review along with a Point of contact to call directly should you have any questions.”
AB-limited to AB-unlimited upgrade. Already have current medical.
Feb 14 - Submitted
Feb 21 - Cleared safety & suitability
Mar 20 - Assigned to PQEB/approved/printed/mailed
I submitted a straight renewal for my 200 GRT/NC on 01/16. Had it in my hand on 02/18. I submitted about 8 months early anticipating long delays, so I was a little surprised at the fast turnaround.
I did an unlimited tonnage renewal.
Renewed 1.5 years early to take advantage of BST and FF classes that were soon to be over 5 years old. 27 days from emailing the application to document in my hand. The automated emails from USCG were one every 7-10 day as it moved through the stages. Accuracy of document received was 100%. Good luck.
2/14— NMC Received Email
2/21— REC Seattle Received Application
2/21— 5 hours later “Your application has cleared the safety and suitability vetting and is currently awaiting a professional qualification evaluation”
3/19— “Your application is being evaluated for professional qualifications.”
3/20— Approved to print and mailed
3/23— MMC in hand
I really think it’s luck of the draw on which evaluator you get. I’ve had renewals/upgrades kicked back because they wanted to argue the validity of 90 days of sea time from when I did commercial fishing in Alaska. Nevermind that I had thousands of days over the required sea time from other sources. I had to go to a supervisor and tell them to just throw it away. I explained we are wasting my time and theirs to debate irrelevant sea time.