The 90-day rule is to discourage sending in imcomplete applications, they only slow down the process. The turn around for a complete application is now low enough that you don’t need to send in an incomplete application just to get a place in line.
The 90 days is from submitting the application to being approved to test. Once you get approved to test, you have a year from the date you sent in the application to pass the exams.
Radar certificates were always good for five years, although just today I came across a cschool’s radar certificate that had printed on it that it was only good for one year. That school had some bad information and we are going to ask them to re-issue all certificates for the past five years that had that erroneous statement on them.
J<span>ames D. Cavo
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<span>Chief, Mariner Training & Assessment Division
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<span>USCG National Maritime Center
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[<span><font color="#3354aa]James.D.Cavo</font></span><font color="#3354aa]@uscg.mil</font>](mailto:James.D.Cavo@uscg.mil)