Do You Have to Register, Renew, or Reinstate Your Maritime Documents?

Taking care of your boat registration and other maritime documents can be overwhelming when you are not super informed about the actual processes involved. If you are looking to register a boat, there are three different circumstances that you will need to consider. If you got a new vessel, you will need to register it. If your registration is expiring, you might need to renew it. And, if it’s been too long since it expired, you will need to reinstate it. 

When to Register Maritime Documents?

It’s important to register your maritime vessel whether you are using it for commercial or recreational purposes. Sure, it will not always be mandatory for non-commercial vessels, but it will be useful to provide you with a certificate of documentation, evidence of the vessel’s nationality. If you need to register your vessel, don’t worry. You don’t have to deal with the Coast Guard, which can get overly complicated and needlessly long. Let us take care of it! Just look for the initial registration form on our home page and fill it up with the right information

When to Renew?

If you know that your registration is expiring soon, you will most likely want to renew it, right? The reason you will need to keep this in mind is you will only have a very brief window to renew your registration once it expires. You only have thirty days following the expiration date of your registration to renew it without a hassle. This usually entails a lot of back and forth, mailing forms, getting rejected for tiny errors, and long waiting periods. However, thanks to the Maritime Documentation Center, you no longer have to deal with all that needless bureaucracy. To do so, just head over to our home page and fill out the renewal form. 

When to Reinstate?

However, if more than thirty days go by after the expiration date of your registration, you won’t be able to renew your registration. Instead, you will have to reinstate it, which is a different procedure entirely. This is also what you will want to do if, say, you put your boat in storage for a few years and didn’t need to renew the registration during that time. Basically, if you have previously registered your vessel, you don’t have to register it from zero. That is what the reinstation process is ultimately for. It’s not as complicated as it might seem, but it is definitely still a process. Just head over to our homepage and select the reinstation form. Once you fill it up, we can take it from there!

Let Us Take Care of Your Vessel Documentation

On our website, you will be able to find all the necessary forms to apply for the registration, renewal, and reinstatement of your maritime documents without having to deal with the actual Coast Guard bureaucracy.  Do you have questions about a process and are looking to learn more about how we can help? Contact us today by phone at 800-535-8570 or email us at info@usvesselregistrar.us. We are here to guide you through your vessel registration.