Seafarer's discharge book

To apply for a seafarer's discharge book, find a suitable service office and bring with you an identity document. A seafarer’s discharge book will be issued based on a valid safety training certificate and a valid seafarer medical certificate entered in the Estonian Seafarers Register, both of which the Police and Border Guard Board can check automatically.

In the absence of an employer, submit a statement from the Unemployment Insurance Fund that you have applied to the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund for a work-focused counselling service and that you are looking for work as a seafarer.

The confirmation from the employer or the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund’s notice must have the issuer’s name, date of issue and number. To apply for a document, the notice must be valid for 3 months starting from the date of issue of the notice.

If desired, reserve a slot at the service office for your document application.

See service offices

Reserve a time

Applying for seafarer's discharge book under ordinary procedure

After your application has been accepted, it will take a maximum of 30 days to prepare your seafarer's discharge book under ordinary procedure.

Applying for seafarer's discharge book under expedited procedure

It will take a maximum of 2 working days to prepare a seafarer's discharge book applied for under expedited procedure. The time until the seafarer's discharge book is issued starts on the working day after the application is submitted.

All service offices accept applications for seafarer's discharge book under expedited procedure, but the document can be claimed only at Tallinn service offices.

Providing fingerprints

You will have to give fingerprints when applying for a seafarer's discharge book.

Authorization for claiming the seafarer's discharge book

If you wish to send a person you have authorized to claim the document, you should decide this when submitting the application and submit the authorization when submitting the application at the service office.

The person authorized must present a valid Estonian identity document when claiming the seafarer's discharge book. They must also have the applicant’s old seafarer's discharge book with them.

Document photo

You can send your document photograph in digital format by email to ....

See requirements and recommendations for document photos.

Taking a document photo at the service office

All client service offices (except for Keila) are equipped with photo booths where you can take a document photograph free of charge.

Sending digital document photo

If desired, the digital document photo may be emailed to ....

The minimum measurements of a digital photograph are 1300 x 1600 pixels and the correct format is JPEG.

Payment of state fee at the service office

The state fee may be paid at the service office:

• in cash
• by card payment
• over the customer computer terminal

American Express is not accepted for the state fee.

Marriage, divorce or name change abroad

If there is a change in personal data while you are abroad, you will have to present a document substantiating the change when applying for a document.

Document translation

If the document is not in Estonian, Russian or English, it must be translated and the translation must be made by a sworn translator or notarised.

Some foreign documents do not need to be legalised

If the country that issued the document is a party to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, it does not need to be legalised. In this case, the public document must be certified by an apostille in accordance with the requirements.

Documents issued in these countries do not have to be legalised.

Information on legalisation of documents and apostils

For more information on legalization of documents and apostils, visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.