How to get a captain's license, step by step

There is no single form that hands you a captain’s license. It is a package: a stack of separate qualifications that all have to be finished, dated, and submitted together to the National Maritime Center (NMC), the U.S. Coast Guard body that evaluates every application. Miss one piece and the whole package waits. This guide lays out the pieces in the order that keeps them from blocking each other, for the entry-level OUPV (six-pack) and the Master 25 to 100 ton routes.

The credential you are actually earning is a Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) with an Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessels (OUPV) or Master officer endorsement. “Captain’s license” is the colloquial name. This site is independent: it is not the Coast Guard, the NMC, or a course provider, and the NMC makes the final call on every application.

What are the steps to get a captain’s license?

The path has seven moving parts. Several run in parallel, and the two with the longest and least predictable lead times, sea time and the TWIC card, should be started first.

1. Accumulate your sea time. You need 360 days of documented service. This is the part that takes years, not weeks.
2. Apply for a TWIC. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential is a separate Transportation Security Administration (TSA) card with its own background check and its own wait.
3. Get your CG-719K medical certificate. A physical exam on the Coast Guard’s form.
4. Complete a Coast Guard-approved course, or sit the exam modules. The course route lets an approved provider administer the test in place of a Regional Examination Center.
5. Complete a DOT drug test (CG-719P). A negative chemical test result.
6. Assemble and submit the CG-719B application package to the NMC, including the conviction disclosure (CG-719C) and your sea-service forms (CG-719S).
7. Wait out the NMC evaluation, then receive the credential.

The rest of this guide walks each one, and every step links to the deeper guide for it.

Step 1: Document 360 days of sea time

Sea time is the requirement that stalls the most applications, so start counting early. You need 360 days of documented service earned since your 16th birthday, with at least 90 of them recent, where a day is 4 or more hours underway and never more than one day per calendar date. Near-coastal and ocean days unlock the Near Coastal route and the tonnage tiers; inland and lake days count toward Inland.

Because the rules are fiddly, the free sea-time calculator takes your actual list of trips and returns your creditable total, your recent-day count, and which route your log supports. The full rulebook is in the sea-time requirements guide.

Step 2: Apply for your TWIC early

The TWIC is a TSA security card, and most mariner applications need it. It has its own background check and its own timeline: TSA advises applying at least 60 days before you need it, standard processing can exceed 45 days, and the card ships 7 to 10 business days after approval. Because it runs on a separate clock from the NMC package, applying for it first means it is not the thing holding you up at the end. See TWIC for mariners.

Step 3: Pass the CG-719K medical exam

A licensed medical practitioner completes Form CG-719K, the Merchant Mariner Medical Certificate, covering vision, hearing, and general fitness. Most applicants clear it routinely, but certain conditions and medications trigger a closer NMC review or a waiver request, which adds time. Knowing that in advance lets you gather supporting letters before you submit rather than after a bounce-back. See the CG-719K medical certificate and disqualifiers.

Step 4: Take the course or the exam

You can qualify to test two ways. Sit the exam modules at a Coast Guard Regional Examination Center, or take a Coast Guard-approved course whose provider administers the same test in-house and issues a certificate the NMC accepts in place of the REC exam. The approved-course route is what most OUPV and Master candidates choose, because it bundles instruction with the test. The exam covers Rules of the Road (the navigation collision regulations, where a high pass score is required), navigation general, deck general, and chart plotting for the higher tiers.

Step 5: Complete the drug test

The application needs a negative Department of Transportation (DOT) chemical test, recorded on Form CG-719P. This is a standard 5-panel urinalysis at an approved collection site. It is quick, but it has to be current when you file, so do it near the end of your prep rather than the beginning.

Step 6: Assemble and submit the CG-719B package

Everything comes together on Form CG-719B, the application for a Merchant Mariner Credential. A complete package generally includes the CG-719B, the conviction disclosure (CG-719C), your sea-service forms (CG-719S), the CG-719K medical certificate, the CG-719P drug result, proof of your TWIC, a First Aid and CPR certificate, and the applicable government user fees. The single biggest cause of delay at this stage is an incomplete packet: a missing signature or an unsigned sea-service form gets the whole thing kicked back for correction. The CG-719 forms walkthrough covers each form field by field.

Step 7: Wait, then receive your credential

Once the NMC has a complete package, it evaluates your sea time, your record, and your exam results, and issues the MMC. Processing time moves with the NMC’s backlog, so read the current, dated figure on the processing tracker rather than trusting an old estimate. A clean, complete first submission is the single biggest thing in your control: complete packets move ahead of the ones that get returned.

What does the whole thing cost and how long does it take?

Budget for the course, the government user fees, the TWIC, the medical exam, and the drug test together, not one at a time. The all-in cost guide breaks down each component with dated ranges, and the processing-times guide explains what drives the wait. As a planning rule: start your sea-time log and your TWIC first, because those two have the longest lead times, and everything else can be finished in the weeks before you file.

Sources: 46 CFR Part 11 and Part 10 via ecfr.gov, the public National Maritime Center application checklists and CG-719 form set (dco.uscg.mil/nmc), and the TSA TWIC program page (tsa.gov/for-industry/twic), verified 2026-07-22. Processing estimates change with the NMC backlog and are dated on the tracker. The National Maritime Center makes the final determination on every application; this guide describes the public process and is not legal advice.