§12111 Registry Endorsement

Summary

The Coast Guard may give a vessel a registry endorsement if the vessel meets the rules in section 12103. A vessel with that endorsement may do foreign trade and trade with Guam, American Samoa, Wake, Midway, or Kingman Reef. If the vessel is owned by a trust, the trust’s beneficiaries do not have to be U.S. citizens for the vessel to get a certificate of documentation with only a registry endorsement, so long as the trust meets rules and the vessel is chartered to a U.S. citizen. To qualify, every trustee must be a U.S. citizen and must sign an affidavit saying they do not know of any beneficiary or other person who would hold more than 25% of the power to influence or limit the trustee on ownership or operation matters that could harm U.S. interests. If a non‑citizen can direct or remove a trustee, the trust must limit non‑citizen authority to no more than 25%. A non‑citizen may still hold more than 25% of the beneficial interest. If the charterer is a U.S. citizen under section 50501, the vessel is treated as U.S.‑owned for that section and related laws, except chapter 531. Only vessels with a certificate of documentation with a registry endorsement may set, move, or recover anchors or mooring equipment for a mobile offshore drilling unit over the Outer Continental Shelf (see section 2(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331(a)). Only such vessels may also carry goods or people to or from a mobile offshore drilling unit over the Outer Continental Shelf that is not attached to the seabed. That permission does not let a vessel do coastwise trade unless it meets the requirements of section 12112.