Seafarer certification
COVID-19 response information
New Zealand is at Alert Level 1.
Seafarers with expired or expiring certificates
Changes were made to allow seafarers to continue to work with expired ancillaries until 19 May 2021. After 19 May you may need to apply for an exemption.
Find out if this applies to you
If your STCW ancillary certificate of proficiency that requires a five-yearly renewal has expired, download these guidelines to find out how this will apply to you:
Seafarer certificates expiring during COVID19[PDF: 96kB, 1 page]
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 contact us on seafarers@maritimenz.govt.nz or 0508 732 237.
- 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
