Bulgarian Maritime Administration - EXTENSION OF DURATION OF DOCUMENTS

In relation to the worldwide situation of the incidence and spread of COVID-19, a number of countries have put in place restrictive measures regarding the free movement of citizens. As a result, many ship owners face the inability to make scheduled crew changes, which in turn raises a number of serious issues, including: validity expiration of certificates of competence (CoC) and/or certificates of proficiency (CoP) for special and additional training of seafarer’s onboard ships. After the discussions held and the international research, upon considering the experience and the recommendations of the flag administrations including a considerable number of registered seafarers Bulgarian Maritime Administration consider the following guidelines for adoption of extraordinary measures of the seafarer’s certificates of competency or certificates of proficiency issued by Bulgarian Maritime Administration:
Extension of the validity of seafarers documents beyond their expiry date