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TWIC enrollment begins in Delaware
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| TSA announces Oct. 16 start date, 11 more sites in November |
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The Transportation Security Administration in early October announced enrollment in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program was to begin Oct. 16 in Wilmington, Del.
Under the TWIC final rule published by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in January of this year, U.S. merchant mariners will be required to obtain a TWIC card by Sept. 25, 2008. The National Maritime Security Advisory Committee has recommended extending the deadline but it is not known if that advice will be heeded by the government. Enrollment in the TWIC program will begin in 11 other cities in the month of November, according to the TSA. Beginning Oct. 9, mariners who will be applying for a TWIC in Wilmington, Del., could pre-enroll for a TWIC card by filling out an online pre-enrollment form from the TSA Web site: www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/twic, according to the TSA. Pre-enrollment--which involves providing detailed information to the TSA prior to coming in to fill out an enrollment application--can speed up the process for obtaining a TWIC, according to the TSA. For mariners planning on applying for a TWIC card in Wilmington, please note the TSA will require you to return to the same enrollment center at which you applied to pick up your TWIC card, have your identity verified and have your card activated. The location of the TWIC enrollment center in Wilmington was not released by the TSA in their announcement. However, a TSA spokesman Oct. 5 said the enrollment center will be located in the administration building at the Port of Wilmington. For more information about pre-enrollment, and dates and locations for TWIC enrollment, the customer service line for the TWIC program is (866) 347-8942. The current fee for obtaining a TWIC card, payable when an application is submitted, is $132.50. This fee includes the cost of a new security screening. The TSA in its announcement again said merchant mariners with a valid background check, such as those conducted for a merchant mariner document, can pay a reduced fee of $105.25. However, a TSA attorney earlier this year told American Maritime Officers that a new TWIC card will only be valid for the same length of time as the background check used to apply for the card (five years from the date the background check was performed). As an example, based on this standard, if a mariner obtained a merchant mariner document with the required background check in January 2004, and obtained a new TWIC card in January 2008 paying the reduced fee, the new TWIC card would only be valid until January 2009. The TSA has also released a list of cities in which TWIC enrollment centers will be located. That list was published Monday, Oct. 8 on AMO Currents at www.amo-union.net. American Maritime Officers maintains the position that the merchant mariner document (MMD), with its extensive security and background screening process, should be allowed to serve as security identification for U.S. merchant mariners, rather than the TWIC. At the 2007 Seafarers International Union of North America convention last week in Maryland, union delegates--including AMO--voted unanimously to adopt a resolution on the TWIC, which concludes: "Rather than further scrutinizing American seafarers, who already have to jump through many hoops before climbing the gangway, it would be more sensible and more effective to add a biometric identifier to the MMD which also would make its usage compliant with ILO Convention 185. This would allow U.S. mariners to travel into and out of foreign ports when being sent to crew U.S. military and commercially contracted vessels." The 11 cities in which enrollment will begin in November are as follows: Early November
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