Seafarer certification
COVID-19 response information
New Zealand is now operating under the Covid Protection Framework, which has replaced the Alert Level System.
Seafarers with expired or expiring certificates of medical fitness
Maritime New Zealand approved medical practitioners have confirmed that they are open and can assist with medical assessments and can issue a certificates medical fitness for seafarers with expired or expiring certificates of medical fitness. Please note, many have extra protocols in place to meet COVID-19 restriction guidelines.
We recommend contacting the medical practitioners directly to find one that meets your personal circumstances. The contact details for approved medical practitioners is found here.
Approved medical practitioners
Please note:
Exemptions will no longer be available for expired STCW certificates of medical fitness, unless there are extenuating circumstances and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
If you continue to face difficulties in obtaining your certificate of medical fitness please contact us on seafarers@maritimenz.govt.nz.
What to do
Send the following information to exemptions.officer@maritimenz.govt.nz
- Your personal details
- An explanation as to why you are unable to attend your medical examination (i.e. where you are currently located and associated COVID-19 alert level)
- A statement that you are unable to attend a medical examination, and to the best of your knowledge you are still fit to carry out your duties.
- Copy of your expiring/expired medical certificate of fitness.
Seafarers with expired, or expiring STCW ancillary certificates
If you have a recently expired, or expiring STCW ancillary certificate, and are unable to renew that certificate due to the relevant ancillary course(s) being unavailable, you can apply for a temporary exemption to work with expired certificates in certain circumstances.
Do you also need to renew a Certificate of Competency?
| Yes | No |
|---|---|
| Apply for the renewal of your certificate of competency through the seafarers team seafarers@maritimenz.govt.nz. As part of your renewal application, include the information required in the What to do process below | Follow the What to do process below |
To note:
In order for Maritime New Zealand to consider a temporary exemption, you must hold a New Zealand Certificate of Competency or certificate recognised by Maritime New Zealand as an equivalent to a New Zealand certificate. If you do not hold a New Zealand Certificate of Competency or equivalency, you need to contact the flag state administration that issued your certificate for guidance.
This includes any STCW ancillary certificate from the below list that is affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Employers can submit a bulk request on behalf of their affected employee(s). The same information as below will be required for these requests. There will be no fee for these exemption applications.
Maritime New Zealand is prioritising applications based on the associated expiry date of the ancillary certificate. Do not apply more than 3 months prior to expiry date of your Certificate of Competency or STCW ancillary certificate(s).
What to do
The STCW ancillary certificates that this applies to are:
- basic fire-prevention and fire-fighting
- basic personal survival
- survival craft and rescue boats other than fast rescue boats
- advanced fire-fighting
- fast rescue boats
- crowd management training
- safety training (passengers in passenger spaces)
- crisis management and human behaviour, and
- passenger safety, cargo safety and hull integrity training
Send the following information to exemptions.officer@maritimenz.govt.nz
- Your personal details
- Evidence that you are enrolled in the relevant ancillary course(s) or have not been able to enrol in the relevant course(s). This could include details of:
- A copy of your expired or expiring STCW ancillary certificate(s)
- Record of sea service within the last 5 years (i.e. statement of sea service from employer) including:
Printing of physical certificates to resume
From 2 August 2021, we will resume issuing certificates in a physical format.
We will be issuing physical certificates for those that were issued digitally between March 2020 and 2 August 2021, in the coming months. We appreciate your patience over this period.
Processing your applications
Although our staff are now working from home, we have made changes so we can continue to provide services for you.
Read about the changes
We recommend that you only send your applications and documents to us electronically by email:
- The two forms of ID you send in must be certified by the person completing page 9 (Trusted Referee Confirmation of Identity) of the Fit and Proper Person Form. If you are directly affected by COVID-19 and cannot provide these certified items, please note the reasons on the form and we will consider this as part of our assessment.
- All other documents do not need to be certified or countersigned.
- Please do not send original documents, only electronic copies.
- If you are renewing a certificate, we do not need you to send the original expiring certificate.
When providing us with electronic copies of documents, please make sure the scanned copies are legible and of a good quality.
If you are unable to provide your application documents to us electronically, we recommend you contact us so we can make alternative arrangements for you.
Contact us
Find out how to contact us
The best way of contacting us is by email
We are monitoring our email and will respond to your enquiry as soon as possible.
Please use the following email addresses:
seafarers@maritimenz.govt.nz for all seafarer enquiries
exemptions.officer@maritimenz.govt.nz for all exemptions
enquiries@maritimenz.govt.nz for all other general enquiries
Alternatively you can use our online enquiry form.
Contact us online
If you don't have email
We are still answering the phones but there may be a delay in our response times.
New Zealand (toll free):0508 SEACERT or 0508 732 237
Calling from outside New Zealand: +64 4 473 0111
