Once you have your initial certificate you will need to renew it to keep it valid or upgrade it to sail in a higher position. The initial rating is issued based on your completed maritime education and training. To renew, you must demonstrate sufficient sailing time and keep your STCW training valid (often this means refreshing the training). To upgrade the rating, you must demonstrate the required sailing time and any additional training. See our manual and flow charts for more information.

When your certificate of competency has expired and sufficient authorized sailing time has been achieved in the past five years, your certificate of competency can still be applied for again. If sufficient sailing time has not been achieved in the last five years or it has been more than five years since your license expired, read in our manual what the options are.

Masters and officers who hold a foreign certificate of competency and wish to sail on a Dutch ship must apply for Dutch recognition. The Netherlands recognises certificates of competency from countries with which it has an agreement. To apply for recognition as a master, it is necessary to obtain the certificate of legislation and public authority. Read more about recognitions in our manual.

NB: Applications take a minimum of two weeks to be processed by RBG and Kiwa.

All prices are excl. 21 % VAT and delivery costs.

* The rate for additional work on the application is € 41 per half hour. If this applies to your application, we will inform you.

** If you wish to use the Express service, your application will be given priority. Please contact us first with a phone call. After submitting the application to Kiwa, it takes approximately 3 working days for the certificate to be issued.