Current Renewal Times

[divezonescuba]

For those of you who might be interested.

I was quoted at the REC in Houston that renewal processing times were running 6 to 8 weeks when I had my paperwork prescreened. Apparently, they now encourage online submission, but I did it in person because of the potential problems.

You can make an appointment online, but you cannot cancel it on line. I had to reschedule mine due to some medical / drug paperwork delays. The system will not allow you to make an appointment less than two or three days in advance. Make sure you bring your TWIC with you or they may not let you keep your appointment. I don't see any advantage to submitting it on line and having it wait in the queue to be printed out and screened, when you can have it screened in real time with an appointment.

The only issue that caused a problem at the prescreening was the presence of a temporary certificate of documentation letter for one of my vessels. Apparently, the person there had only seen regular CODs.

You can check the status of your application on line. It took about 4 days to get to the processing center on the east coast and get logged in. Surprisingly, the medical evaluation was only 4 more days. This was rather surprising as, my situation, however minor, required additional medical evaluation. If you have any complicating situations, make sure that you read the actual medical circular. Information that I gleaned piecemeal from the internet was not complete and would have resulted in delays. It actually took me longer to get all the supporting paperwork that the entire MEB processing time. The PQEB queue waiting time was only 2 days. Hopefully, the rest of the process will be as swift as it has been so far.

I will update this thread when I actually get renewed.

 

[divezonescuba]

I received my medical certificate 12 days after submitting the paperwork to the Houston REC. My MMC has completed evaluation and is now under review. After this, it just needs to be printed. The processing times have been really impressive. Way to go USCG.

If you have orally treated type II diabetes, you need to have the following to get through the process the first time without delays:

At least 2 A1C test reports separated by at least 90 days, with the most recent one being within 90 days with less than 8.0 on all.

A fasting glucose level test report, presumably also recent.

A history of your blood pressure and weight over an extended period of time (one year in my case). I used data from my checkups.

A letter from your primary care physician with the above information in addition to the test reports. The letter also needs to state what medication you are on and that you have no side effects. You are better off writing the letter yourself and then having your physician sign it. If I had them do it themselves, it would have taken several iterations before it was right. The last thing you want to do is submit an incomplete letter that will be screened by the medical evaluation board.

A letter from an ophthalmologist, not optometrist stating that you are negative for retinopathy and any other vision problems along with the test report.

If all that is ok, they issue a medical waiver letter with your certificate that you have to have on board along with the medical certificate.

 

[nolatom]

I submitted my renewal by mail Dec 17, got the approval letter on Jan 15, not bad considering the holidays. Doing the rules booklets now. Medical certif came a few days after approval letter.

So I thought this was pretty efficient.

 

[divezonescuba]

Update:

I am back "awaiting information".

I asked for an upgrade, now they have to get my legacy file to confirm my number of sea days since birth. In the letter they said four to six weeks to get the file. The latest call said they had it in hand which would mean it actually took about a week.

They told me I could forgo the upgrade just to finish the processing, but it would then cost me another $45 plus queue time to do the upgrade whenever the legacy file showed up.

I am suppose to be "being evaluated", but still have "awaiting information" a week later. Huh?

Moral of the story, keep all your sea day forms since the beginning of time and submit them along with your current paperwork if you want an upgrade from whatever to whatever. Just common sense I suppose.

 

[25_Ton_Master]

I did my upgrade to 50 ton past fall. it only took about four weeks. I sent it online.

 

[divezonescuba]

I am now in the approved to print stage at the one month mark.

I don't know if they did the upgrade or just processed it without.

Apparently, the NMC people did not update the website to indicate that my paperwork had been reevaluated and re-reviewed. They said to disregard the status indicating that it was awaiting information.

I think the on line web site is wonderful, but like any system it works only if it is actually used.

---------- Post added March 2nd, 2015 at 04:51 PM ----------

Email notification of the credential issue today. Exactly one month from my submission to the REC. The system still says approved for printing.

 

[divezonescuba]

I now have my upgraded renewal.

Problem is I somehow completely lost my sail and towing endorsements. I am not sure if they are worth trying to fix.

 

[nolatom]

sail is worth fixing, it requires (extra) sail time. Pretty sure they will add it back in if you tell them.

Towing is more easily re-gotten, but why do it if they will acknowledge the error.

 

[NEWreckDiver]

I did mine a couple of years back on-line and have my license in my hands in 13 days and they was even with the omission on my sea time form. I would not do it any other way from now on.