---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 7508"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "7508"
heading: "Authority to extend the duration of medical certificates"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/7508"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part E — Merchant Seamen Licenses, Certificates, and Documents"
  - "Chapter 75 — General Procedures for Licensing, Certification, and Documentation"
---

# §7508. Authority to extend the duration of medical certificates

- (a) **Granting of Extensions.—** Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the [Secretary](/usc/46/2101.md?p=46) may extend for not more than one year a medical certificate issued to an individual holding a [license](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-2), merchant mariner’s document, or [certificate of registry](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-1) issued under chapter [71](/usc/46/chstII/ptE/ch71.md) or [73](/usc/46/chstII/ptE/ch73.md) if the [Secretary](/usc/46/2101.md?p=46) determines that the extension is required to enable the [Coast Guard](/usc/46/2101.md?p=2) to eliminate a backlog in processing applications for medical certificates or is in response to a national emergency or natural disaster.
- (b) **Manner of Extension.—** An extension under this section may be granted to an individual or a specifically identified group of individuals.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 112–213, title III, § 306(a), Dec. 20, 2012, 126 Stat. 1565; amended Pub. L. 116–283, div. G, title LVXXXV [LXXXV], § 8505(b)(6), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4751.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2021—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “an individual or a specifically identified group of individuals” for “individual seamen or a specifically identified group of seamen”.