Seafarer certification
Certificate application processing and office closures
Maritime New Zealand/Nō Te Rere Moana Aotearoa experiences high volumes of applications approaching the end of the year. Please be aware of the following key dates for applications to help you plan in advance of the holiday season.
| 17 November 2023 | SEAFARER LICENSING Applications that arrive complete and fully paid (where payment is applicable) before this date will be prioritised for processing prior to the Christmas shut down. Whilst we cannot guarantee complete processing during this time, these applications will be prioritised. For your application to be assessed, it needs to include all required information, be legible, and have all supporting documents attached. Applications missing any information will not be considered complete and are not guaranteed to be assessed during this period despite initial receipt date. |
| 6 November 2023 | OPERATOR LICENSING Applications will continue to be assessed in order of date of receipt. Due to current application volumes, complexity and timeframes we cannot guarantee that applications already in the queue will be processed prior to the Christmas shut down, and applications received from now (6th November 2023) are unlikely to have a final decision unless priority has been granted. Some new applications may be completed within this period on a case by case basis, dependent on application type or other factors.
Ship registration and exemption requests may be processed faster. |
| 15 December 2023 | Certificates will not be sent following 15 December to ensure safe delivery over this period. |
| 14 December 2023 | Licensing and Certification services will not be available on this day |
| Noon 22 December 2023 – 8 January 2024 | Maritime New Zealand/Nō Te Rere Moana Aotearoa offices will be closed for this period. Licensing and Certification services will not be available during this period. |
Physical certificate – passport booklet change
From July 2022, if your Seafarer certification is issued in a passport booklet style format you will see a difference in how this looks.
You can see a photo of how these now look below.
Due to problems with sourcing supplies, we have changed how we print these. The front and back cover is now a white security label instead of being printed directly onto the booklet and laminated. Certificates issued in the card-style format have not changed.
Printing of physical certificates completed
We have completed printing of certificates issued digitally between March 2020 and August 2021. During this time certificates were issued digitally as COVID impacted our ability to print and send physical certificates.
The last printing was completed in mid-November, and these are being couriered but we are aware of some ongoing courier delays both domestically and internationally. Please contact us at the email below if you have not received your certificate by 9 January 2023.
Thank you for your patience while we worked through this printing, we are pleased to have achieved this milestone.
If you have not received your certificate or there are any issues please get in touch with us by email at seafarers@maritimenz.govt.nz.
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
operators@maritimenz.govt.nz for vessel related safety and certification
ship.registration@maritimenz.govt.nz for Part A and Part B registrations
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 22 55 22
Calling from outside New Zealand: +64 4 473 0111
Calls to this number are answered Monday to Friday 0900 – 1630 New Zealand local time (excluding national public holidays).
