Have you forgotten something? You may have been busy enjoying the open water, fishing, water skiing and soaking up the sun. It can be easy to get lost in being on your boat and enjoying that freedom. You have spent time exploring the seas and haven’t thought much about your registration since you got your documentation settled. If you went about the process of getting your boat registered to the United States Coast Guard you should prepare your documents for USCG vessel renewal. Your documentation needs to be renewed on a yearly basis for it to stay valid. When you want to avoid a hassle of filling out pages and pages and mailing them, think of using a third party service like Maritime Documentation Center. We can make the process much easier and faster.
If on the chance you have forgotten to renew your documentation, don’t stress, it happens. The USCG does have plans in place for vessel owners who don’t have proper documentation. However, you still want valid papers. You have a grace period of 30 days past your expiration date to file for a renewal without any issues. If you have moved beyond those 30 days, you needn’t worry too much. This just means that you will have to apply for reinstatement of your documentation. This is, of course, different than filing a renewal and cost a little more to process. Keep in mind that operating your vessel without proper documentation can lead to potential penalties and fines.
When going about the process of renewing your registration with the United States Coast Guard you need to file forms. The applications you will need are available on the Coast Guard’s website. There you can print them and fill them out before sending it through the mail along with your fee. From there it will be processed by the National Vessel Documentation Center. You will need to be very careful when filling out your forms. One mistake in spelling or an error in missing information can mean that your documentation is delayed by days or weeks.
There are much easier ways to ensure that your renewal documentation is done right. You can use third-party service such as Maritime Documentation Center to fill your forms out with easy and quickly submit to a team of people who look it over. Our staff is dedicated to checking that the information you input is correct before it’s handed over the Coast Guard for final processing. We even have an option for you to advance pay for years so that you don’t have to worry about forgetting to renew. It’s easy to forget deadlines especially ones that come around every few years so if you want to do things more easily you can work with us to make that happen. If you want to learn more about the Maritime Documentation Center you can check out our Frequently Asked Questions page or call us at 1-800-535-8570 for more information.