At the risk of being repetitive I tried this one in the search function and didn’t come up with anything. I do not recall this being discussed in the last two years either. I tried google and got a whole bunch of USCG pages, but no actual businesses.
Who’s got some experience working with professional license advocates? Would anyone like to throw out some names? How many people actually use a license advocate instead of filing an application themselves? How often do people use them to help argue appeals? Are they effective? What kind of rates do they charge? I’ve never actually run into one myself and I’m trying to gather as much information as I can. Knowledge is power!
Thanks very much for any information anyone can provide. Stay classy, gents.
$200 for application review, submission and any appeals. I believe the price is all inclusive. She is a little crazy (a lot). But she knows her stuff and has many connections @ NMC and elsewhere.
if you search for USCG “license consultants” on here, or google, you should find several.
If you have anything that is not completely routine, documented exactly the way they want to see it and well understood by the newest evaluator at NMC, you probably ought to hire a license consultant. The good license consultants are former staffers from the RECs or NMC. They know the rules and speak the language. They also have personal credibility at NMC.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;138591]if you search for USCG “license consultants” on here, or google, you should find several.
If you have anything that is not completely routine, documented exactly the way they want to see it and well understood by the newest evaluator at NMC, you probably ought to hire a license consultant. The good license consultants are former staffers from the RECs or NMC. They know the rules and speak the language. They also have personal credibility at NMC.[/QUOTE]
License [I]consultant[/I], hadn’t thought of that, just thought of advocate. This is why I come to you guys. Thanks!
Andy is good, used him once but I would only do so (and any of them for that matter) if its for a complicated transaction aka medical hoops to jump through or a complex military time original or upgrade or something. Did a renewal and original FCP on my own, wouldn’t hire one for basics.
I use Holly Chetta and I believe she is worth every penny. Even for the simplest transactions, it is in you own best interest to use a license consultant considering all of the problems that people are having with the NMC. Something that we may think is simple and straight forward, might not make any sense to the person sitting behind the desk at NMC. It’s nice to have someone on your side that speaks their language. I think regardless of which consultant you use, you will be very pleased with the results.
I’ve had to argue some pretty stiff points with the NMC before and have been pretty successful through 4 different license applications. I really feel like I’ve learned a lot through the different processes and I would like to help people achieve the same success that I was able to reach. To that end, a mariner friend and an attorney friend and I were thinking of opening a small advocacy/consultancy business on the side. It was a great idea at first but now that I think about the depth of experience that these other license consultants have (working at the REC’s, the NMC, etc…) I think I may be entirely out of my depth…