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.
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.