A Certificate of Medical Fitness – Domestic Seafarers will be required for all new and equivalent applications from 1 January 2023.

There are new standards for the assessment of medical fitness.

These standards are based on the international requirements for the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) code and convention, used for our foreign-going seafarers.

The new standards provide a more detailed explanation of the medical fitness requirements for working at sea, including vision standards, so that general practitioners and other medical professionals can make an informed judgement on domestic seafarers' fitness. The standard includes information about the work environment of seafarers, including the fact that their workplace may be up to 200 nautical miles (or more) from medical facilities.

For more details, see:

• Standards for medical examination of domestic seafarers PDF608.3 KB
• Apply for a certificate of medical fitness as a domestic seafarer (AMSA Form 1850)