Starting November 25, 2026, the U.S. Coast Guard will require Coast Guard-approved Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) endorsement training providers to submit students’ course completion data electronically to the Coast Guard within 5 business days of the course ending. The National Maritime Center (NMC) will use this information to validate mariner course completion as part of an application for a MMC.
This action lessens the probability of issuing MMCs to mariners who have not met the professional requirements for their endorsements and improves the efficiency of the credentialing process.
Providing five business days to submit course completion data also ensures that a mariner’s application will not be delayed due to the NMC waiting for training providers to submit the course completion data. By reducing delays in issuing an MMC, this new final rule is expected to help avoid loss of employment for a mariner, which supports NMC’s mission to issue credentials to fully qualified mariners in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
The Coast Guard understands that immediate compliance with the new process upon publication of the final rule may not be feasible for many training providers. For that reason, providers will have two years from the new rule’s January 17, 2025 effective date until November 25, 2026 to come into compliance with the new requirements.
The Coast Guard issues MMCs to mariners who have met the regulatory requirements for individual endorsement(s). Professional requirements for an MMC endorsement generally include sea service, completion of Coast Guard-approved training, and having a met a standard of competence through practical demonstration and completion of a written examination. The general standards for Coast Guard-approved courses and programs are found in 46 CFR 10.403.
The National Maritime Center must determine that a mariner meets the requirements for an endorsement on their MMC prior to issuance of that endorsement. Currently, the NMC makes this determination by reviewing course completion certificates submitted with an MMC application—a verification process that is cumbersome and time-consuming. Now, when training providers electronically submit their course completion data to the NMC, Coast Guard personnel will match it to the mariner’s Merchant Mariner Licensing and Documentation (MMLD) profile.
Mariners submitting course completion data to the Coast Guard as part of their MMC application, and Coast Guard-approved training providers submitting course completion data electronically to the Coast Guard must attest under criminal penalty that the records are accurate to the best of their knowledge and that no false entries or statements were made.
The NMC will then use this information to confirm that the applicant has completed the training required for the requested MMC endorsement. Requiring all Coast Guard-approved training providers to submit this data electronically is expected to improve the efficiency of the credentialing process and allow for the validation of course completion data by ensuring the mariner meets the requirements for issuance of an endorsement.
Under the old process, when a mariner would submit an application, NMC personnel evaluated what was submitted and input the information into the mariner’s training record within the MMLD database. Under the new process, NMC evaluators can use the data submitted electronically by training providers to verify quickly that the information submitted by the training provider is identical to the information submitted by the mariner with their application.
Although the Coast Guard will electronically receive course completion data under this final rule, Coast Guard-approved training providers should continue to issue course completion certificates to their students, as mariners will still be responsible for including their course completion certificates as supporting documentation with their MMC application package (46 CFR 10.209(d)). This allows Coast Guard evaluators to validate the information submitted by the mariner with their MMC application against information submitted electronically by the training provider.
Additional Information MMC Endorsement Training Providers Should Know
From 2013 to 2022, the NMC reports that the number of Coast Guard-approved training providers ranged from a low of 289 to a high of 343, for an average of 327. The number of Coast Guard-approved courses offered by training providers can vary greatly each year, depending on demand for the course, instructor availability, and other factors. There were 2,515 approved courses offered in 2022.
The Coast Guard is currently in the process of developing a replacement for the MMLD database with a more secure, agile, and user-friendly system that provides better service to the maritime industry. Since the new system has yet to be developed, the best way for training providers to comply with the requirements is to electronically submit course completion data through Homeport.
The Coast Guard realizes that Homeport does not have all the data fields listed that are required for this rule. Until Homeport or other means of electronic submission is updated, training providers will need to input only data currently required in Homeport for submittal of course completion. Some of the data required by this rule to be submitted electronically, including course instructor name and date of birth (if a mariner currently does not have a reference number) cannot currently be inputted into Homeport.
Under this final rule, training providers are required to submit the name of the training provider, the training provider’s Coast Guard-issued provider code, the title of the Coast Guard-approved course or program, the Coast Guard-issued course code, the dates the training provider held the course, and the name of the approved instructor.
This information allows the Coast Guard to validate that the course is one that has been approved by the Coast Guard and conducted by an approved instructor, and to verify the dates the course was held. The electronic submission also requires the student’s full name as it appears on their MMC or other valid Government-issued identification, and their Coast Guard-issued Mariner Reference Number (MRN), or their date of birth and place of birth if they do not have an MRN.
Coast Guard-approved training providers are required to maintain physical or electronic records of all students who took a course for at least 5 years after the completion of the course. Coast Guard-approved training providers will submit their data through Homeport to comply with this requirement until the Coast Guard announces the availability of a new method of compliance.
To be prepared for enforcement, training providers should request accounts for Homeport at least 90 days prior to the enforcement date of this rule. Guidance for requesting accounts to Homeport can be found on the NMC’s website at www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/training/how_to_obtain_a_homeport_account.pdf
To read additional details on this new rule, click HERE.
