How to track STCW certificate expiry dates
— and never lose a contract to expired paperwork

The renewal lead times that actually matter

• Medical certificate — start 90 days ahead. Approved clinics book out 2–3 weeks in many ports, and if anything in your bloodwork needs a second look you want time to fix it, not a missed sign-on.
• STCW refreshers — 6 months ahead. Basic safety, advanced fire fighting and survival craft courses have limited seats and fill up fast in summer.
• CoC and flag endorsements — 8–12 weeks. Administrations process applications on their own schedule; there is no expediting a flag state.
• Visas (especially US C1/D) — 4–6 weeks minimum. Embassy appointment availability is a lottery; some seasons it is far worse.
• Passport — 6 months validity at sign-on. Many flag states and port states require it, so a passport that is technically valid can still stop a contract.

Why finding out from crewing is finding out too late

Checking your documents before sign-on is your crewing agency’s job — and they do it. The problem is when: by the time crewing runs its checks, the renewal window is usually gone. A medical flagged two days before a flight cannot be renewed in time. The check has to be yours, and it has to happen months earlier.

Tracking this automatically

This is exactly what NAUTIQ was built for: photograph a certificate and the AI scanner reads the certificate name, number and dates by itself — no typing. From that moment the app watches the calendar for you and warns you months before anything expires, matched against your contract dates. Everything is stored end-to-end encrypted: your documents stay yours.

Get NAUTIQ on Google Play — free 14-day trial · See also: the complete sign-on document checklist