USCG Mariner Credential Verification

Professional Mariner Forum
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What experiences are mariners having withe the USCG Mariner Credential Verification “feature” on the web?

The Credential Verification website is suppose to provide a reliable method for owners, managers, and Port State Control to verify what Credentials a Mariner has, that they are valid, and when they expire.

The USCG website is telling potential employers “This Mariner has no valid credentials.” I tried the website several times and got the same bullshit. Of course NMC is closed. Even if it were open, you’d never get past the know nothing telephone answer people from Lockheed.

I got a call from another potential employer telling me, among other things, that they had verified my credentials on the USCG website. I immediately made several attempts on an iPhone but got the same “no valid credentials” every time. I then tried several times on an iPad with the same result. Next I tried a PC laptop running Windows 7 with the same result. Then I noticed a statement that the website “works best with Internet Explorer 8 or higher.” I switched to the current version of Internet Explorer. I got the same result three times. I then cleared all the browser history, rebooted the computer, and tried again.

This time it says I have a valid MMC and medical card. It showed all the details of my endorsements on the screen. I clicked the button for the “printer friendly version.” It printed 7 pages. The first page gave my name ok, but the status was filled with computer code gibberish. The next 5 pages were blank. The last page contained some readable text, but nothing useful. After several more failed attempts to print the verifications and details of my MMC and medical card, I took photos of the screen with my phone.

This is yet another example of how the bumbling buffoons at the USCG have failed US mariners. This needs to be fixed ASAP. The USCG should not be defaming US mariners by falsely telling employers and others that we have “no valid credentials.” Can’t these fools get anything right?

What happens when foreign port state control (part of the intended audience for this USCG website) is falsely told that a Mariner has “no valid credentials”?

This USCG Credential Verification website needs to be fixed so that anyone, with any type of device, running any type of common software, gets the same reliable and accurate results every time. That credential verification site needs to be taken down until it is fixed and thoroughly tested.

4 Likes
2

I called one day because I got an email saying my license was about to expire, when it wasn’t. So I went on the website to check and it said I didn’t exist or something. So I called, and the woman told me…THAT IT ONLY WORKS WITH WINDOWS EXPLORER. Fucking government.

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Just tried it with Google Chrome. Worked fine for me.

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It doesn’t work too well on certain browsers at this time. That’s what the NMC told me.

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I don’t know how New of a “New3M” you are… but it could be your cadet MMC getting ready to expire, all my classmates got the same e-mail and it sent everyone into a panic.

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Thanks, but I have an Unlimited Masters. So, not that new a 3m anymore.

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Foreign port state usually wants to see the documents in hand…that’s always been my experience. Not defending the less than stellar credential verification site. But I think this function might be farmed out to a contractor. It seems to be the way everything is going. Best to keep your physical documents current and a copy ready to send. The can always call, too, I believe.

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What happens when you hand over your documents to foreign port state control, and they go to verify them on the USCG website, but receive “This Mariner has no valid credentials.” In bright red. They assume you have presented forged credentials. That might result in a trip straight to a third world shithole jail, courtesy of the USCG’s defective website.

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The USCG has become a hazard, and a persistent threat, to the health, wealth, and welfare of US Mariners.

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10

I called the NMC about this several months ago when I checked my own credential status online and got the “this mariner has no valid credential” status. Made me panic for a moment.

The person I spoke with at NMC told me very matter of factory, almost as if it was common knowledge, that the online tool does not always work. I pressed about what might happen if my employer checked and decided I was no longer eligible to sail? The response was that in that case they should call the NMC and credentials will be verified through them…

I only hope the NMC is not using their own tool during these calls.

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Just tried it using Chrome. No problems.

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Quoted in Maasmond Newsclippings today:

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I’ve tried many up to date internet browsers, including Microsoft Edge, on the iPad and iPhone, but I get the same “This Mariner has no valid credentials” from the NMC website every time.

On a PC running Windows with a high speed cable modem, up to date Internet Explorer properly validates credentials about 90 percent of the time on the NMC website. I even manage to get a print out.

I would expect port state control agents coming onboard, or for that matter USCB boarding parties, to be most likely to validate credentials with a mobile device.

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The website is probably not optimized for mobile browsers and that is why you are getting the errors. Try it on a laptop or desktop and it should work fine. I just tried on my phone and it also did not work, but no issue with my laptop on multiple browsers. If anything, it’s good knowledge to have should a situation arise.

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Fwiw, I tried it using both Firefox and Edge on my 2yo HP Win10 laptop. Firefox returned the dreaded Red Line about no credentials, while Edge worked perfectly for both my & my wife’s MMC. I detest using Edge, but it’s good to know how to get this “tool” to work…

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I got the error message with Firefox, and it worked with IE and Edge.