Merchant marine officers Licences.

Merchant marine officers are required to have a valid license -Ticket - according to their rank. Deck officers must have it according to their ships tonnage and the Engine watch keeping officers must have it according to the H.P of the ship. Additionally they must have certificates for sailing with tankers or Gas carriers and dangerous cargo vessels.

Failure to have that licence will result in fine and deportation from the vessel.

Marine officers can hold any country's license after but the recent IMO laws are going to require these officers to have a License from the country of his origin at any officer level.

For example if one deck officer from Sri Lanka went to UK and studied at a maritime school and obtained his 2nd officer - second mate - license after passing the DOT examination he must be registered with his country shipping office as a deck officer and must have a Deck officer license from his country's shipping ministry at any rank to work in vessels.

The much respected DOT officer licenses are issued from UK, Australia and India. If you have your local licenses and if they are respected by the International maritime community then you can get other countries equivalent licenses by paying the required payment or some time you are required to sit for an exam.

Now a days Panama, Cyprus, Liberia, Malta like countries require to have their own licenses and seaman book if a seaman want to work in their flagged ship. There is a payment for that license and seaman book to be paired to the consular office.

This payment should be paid by the shipping company and not by the seaman.

All licenses are normally valid for a period of 5 years unless they are stated other wise and are to be renewed after that period. Some time the mates should go for the short courses according to the STCW amendments.

A warning to all seaman, while in the ports of Nigeria and Liberia, many well dressed personals come onboard or may contact you out side saying that they can give you original Liberian officer licenses or Panama officer licenses at a bargained price. But these are bogus licenses. They don't have any worth at all and all the maritime companies and authorities have access in the internet to check the license’s originality.

Some time this trickery people may contact some other people and they may come to your cabin in police uniform and will search for those document and want to take you to the station once they find it. But their aim is not to sue you legally but to get more money from you. Thousands of mariners lost money with these people a lot of money in the name of marine officer licenses.

Beware of Fake Merchant Officer Licenses.