Mmd

In the renewal process, do the CG issue a new passport or give you a sticker to add to the existing passport? TIA

The CG doesn’t issue Passports and MMD’s aren’t a thing anymore…so assuming you are referring to an MMC (Merchant Mariner Credential, looks like a red passport book). Upon renewal of an MMC you’ll be issued a new book. The stickers are only for endorsements you add between renewal/upgrade periods.

Confused my MMDs and MMCs. I have the red book, so guess I’ll be receiving a new red book. Thanks

The red books are being replaced by a single page that you fold.

Huh?

https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/announcements/2023/mmc_laminate_052223.pdf

That doesn’t say what you said it says.

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Not everyone reads for comprehension…

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Hooligan is correct. The announcement he attached is not about the new MMC coming but just the temp paper they are currently using. That said, around the end of the year, they will be phasing out the Red Book and starting to issue a single sheet of paper that folds up to sort of mimic the book. This is because the machinery that prints the book is going to be heading to the scrap heap as it is well beyond it’s design life span and they can no longer get parts and continue to support it. The new paper version can be printed on an off the shelf printer instead of a multi million dollar custom built machine.
I got to see the new paper version a few months ago while visiting NMC for a conference.

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Yet somehow the State Department can rattle off a million Passports?

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Do you have any more information about this? I tried to find some announcement and I can’t find anything. It would seem to me they would put this out in the open before they go doing it.

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edit: misunderstood.

Tell that to people waiting months for a new passport.

That’s not because their printer is beyond its life capacity.

There has not been any official announcement as far as I know.
To respond the New3M’s comment on the passport agency can print millions… I think the complexity of the CG’s current (and outdated) machine is the issue. It is not the same as a passport machine though I am sure it has some similarity. The CG machine prints on multiple pages of the already bound book. This involves turning the pages which seems like no big deal but if you saw the machine, it clearly is. When we were there, they had a person standing at the machine, stop it, turn the page, reinsert it and restart the machine. Seems simple enough but keep in mind it is printing numerous books at the same time which further complicates the process. Each book may have 4, 5 or more pages printed, and all those pages are printing at different times as the book is moved through the machine and pages are turned. I think the space shuttle had less moving parts than this thing… It is about 30 ft from end to end and maybe 7 ft tall. All stainless steel and aluminum I think.
They joked about letting employees enter a raffle to sledge hammer it to pieces upon its retirement. We suggested they should have a raffle to let mariners do the honors.

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What a silly way to print those.

Imagine if they printed a book like this?

It is relevant to comparing to passports. A passport only prints personal info on one page. An MMD needs printing on multiple pages.

Books print the same info multiple times, not the same as printing a unique document every time.

My point is why can’t the pages be printed, and then bound? Why do they bind them and then have to flip and rotate and flip and rotate?

Miss the old “Officer” licenses.

Wonder if they could put all the relevant data on a card, like the old AB cards…Was that the “Z” card?

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Outsource to Apple and Goldman Sachs for a card:

Biometric USCG Titanium Card with all the data on a microchip, including the passport data, Global Entry, TSA-Precheck, Fast, Twic card , vaccination record, security clearance, and drivers license.

All the same data lives on your phone similar to the Apple Card.

Retire the Gutenberg Press.

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