gCaptain21 Jul 2026Supply chain
Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources
Effective immediately, processing times dropped to four months from the previous estimate of eight months announced in June, after having been eight to twelve months when the National Maritime Center resumed operations in May following a funding lapse. The NMC credited expanded production, overtime, surge processing, and personnel reallocation for the faster turnaround against a backlog that exceeded 19,000 applications. Applications are processed first-in, first-out, with expedited service only for documented national defense needs; mariners are urged to submit early via the Application Submission Portal and to verify medical certificate expiry.