U.S. Coast Guard Force Readiness Command recently published the Coast Guard’s tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, for conducting initial certificate of compliance, or ICOC, exams on foreign passenger vessels. Foreign flag passenger vessels arriving in the United States that embark passengers for the first time or make an initial U.S. port call while carrying U.S. citizens as passengers must participate in the ICOC process. Vessels returning to service after a prolonged absence from the United States must also participate in the ICOC exam process. This publication provides the step-by-step guidance to perform the many tasks involved with conducting the ICOC examination of foreign passenger vessels. The scope of this initial exam is generally a great deal more in depth than the typical annual port state exam.

“With the help of several subject matter experts, including support from the Coast Guard’s Cruise Ship National Center of Expertise, these TTPs were developed to help ensure consistent passenger vessel exam techniques specific to the initial exam conducted on a foreign passenger vessel,” said Cmdr. Randy Jenkins, chief of the Cruise Ship National Center of Expertise. “It should also serve to help the cruise vessel industry, during the design and construction phase, with anticipating what the U.S. Coast Guard will require prior to engaging in service in the U.S.”

View the announcement for full details.

You can view the TTP manual here.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.