Martin Lex is the pen name of the 7S1L safety desk: SOLAS, lifesaving and firefighting gear, muster drills, emergency signals and safe work on board. Portrait is illustrative.
The days before a flight to the ship have their own rhythm: medical, kitbag, goodbyes, a phone full of chats with the agent. Somewhere in that rush sit the decisions that shape the next nine months. A seafarer sign-on checklist is how you make them ashore, with time and Wi-Fi, instead of from a ship's phone mid ocean.
The first two points carry the law and the money. The other eight decide how the contract feels: whether your family can reach your pay, whether your boots fit, whether a toothache in week three becomes a crisis. An AB joining a bulk carrier and a cabin steward flying to a cruise ship work through the same list. Only the details change, and nothing here needs more than an evening.
The seafarer sign-on checklist: ten points before you fly
1. Documents, with a validity buffer
Line up passport, seafarer's book, medical certificate, STCW certificates and visas, then check the dates against the contract, not against the calendar. The rule of thumb: every document should outlive the contract plus the extension the office might ask for. A nine month contract with a passport that dies in month ten is a problem you will solve from the ship, slowly.
The medical certificate is valid for a maximum of two years under MLC Standard A1.2 (one year if you are under 18). If it expires during the voyage it can carry you to the next port with a qualified doctor, but only for three months. STCW certificates of competency run on five year revalidation cycles: book the refresher early. For visas, ask the agent early which ones the route needs. A join in the United States usually means a C1/D crew visa, and under MLC Standard A1.4 the visa cost sits with the shipowner, not with you. Your own medical certificate, seafarer's book and passport are the only documents you pay for yourself. Anything else billed to you belongs on the red flag list.
2. The contract, read before you sign
MLC Standard A2.1 gives you the right to review the agreement and take advice before signing, and to keep a signed original. An agent who wants your signature at the check-in counter has a reason. Ask for the SEA and its annexes by email, then read the parts that carry money. The wage split: basic, overtime rate and leave pay listed separately, measured against the 2026 floor of USD 690 basic per month for an AB. The length and the way home: repatriation at the owner's cost, and a maximum service period under 12 months per MLC Standard A2.5. And the CBA: if the SEA references a collective agreement, get its name and keep it. Your rank's real wage table lives there.
The clause by clause walkthrough is its own article: what to check in a seafarer contract takes the SEA apart line by line. For the fast version, feed the contract to the free MLC Contract Check, flag selected, sign-on mode. It runs in the browser, takes about a minute, and returns a clause by clause report with the exact questions to put to the agent.
3. Money sorted before the airport
Set up the allotment properly: name the account, name the split, confirm the first transfer month. Your family should not depend on port Wi-Fi and goodwill. Then check your own cards: one that expires in month five of the contract is dead weight, because the replacement lands in a mailbox you cannot reach.
Tell the bank you will be using the card from foreign ports, so the fraud filter does not freeze it at the first ATM. Carry some small US dollar notes for the joining trip: taxis, luggage fees, a long layover. And pay nothing to get the job. Fees are covered in point 8.
4. Packing, and the PPE question
Before you fill the kitbag, ask the agent one question in writing: what PPE does the ship issue, and in which sizes? Occupational safety on board sits with the shipowner under MLC 2006 Regulation 4.3, and most companies issue boiler suits, helmets, gloves and safety shoes. The gap is sizes. If yours run small or very large, confirm before you fly or bring your own broken-in pair. New safety shoes on day one of deck work is its own kind of pain.
The cabin side of the bag is shorter than most first-trippers expect, because the working day happens in coveralls. Pack layers: the mess room runs cold on most ships while the deck runs hot. Many crew set one fresh set aside for the day the contract starts and the day it ends. That ritual has its own kit: the Sign On Set, or build your own sign on set in your combination. A sign on sign off crew hoodie earns its place in the bag by week one, in the mess room air conditioning.
5. Family, and a power of attorney
Someone ashore needs the legal ability to act while you are unreachable in the middle of an ocean. A power of attorney for the bank account, access to the document folder, the authority to deal with a landlord or a government office: one afternoon at a notary sorts it. Not having it can cost your family months.
Check the next of kin entry in the SEA before you sign, name spelled right, phone number current. Then leave a paper sheet at home with the vessel's name and IMO number, the company's emergency contact and the agent's numbers. When the ship goes quiet for a week, that sheet is how your family finds you.
6. The phone, set up on shore Wi-Fi
Everything you download at home is free. Everything you download at sea is expensive, slow, or impossible. Offline maps for the joining port, music and shows for the cabin, an eSIM for the country you land in, WhatsApp backed up, contacts saved to the account instead of the SIM card. The complete walkthrough is in the seafarer phone setup guide. Do it the evening before the flight, not in the terminal.
7. Health, handled ashore
The medical certificate proves you are fit to sail. It does not fix your teeth. See a dentist before the flight, because a toothache in the middle of a crossing waits weeks for a port with a dentist, and the ship's medicine chest holds painkillers, not fillings.
If you take regular medication, carry the full contract's supply plus a buffer, in original packaging, with a doctor's letter for port immigration. The ship's hospital stocks basics, not your prescription. Glasses wearers pack a spare pair. And check the vaccination book against the trade: some ports still ask for yellow fever proof at the gangway.
8. Flight, agent, and the numbers in your pocket
Verify the agency before you trust it with a year of your life: ITF Ship BeSure lists crewing agents and the complaints against them. Recruitment costs sit with the shipowner and agency under MLC Standard A1.4, paragraph 5. If anyone has asked you for a placement fee, a "processing charge" or a ticket deposit, stop and read the manning agency fees article before you pay a cent.
For the trip itself: joining instructions printed. Know who meets you at the airport and what happens if nobody does. The agent, the local port agent and the company operations number belong on paper in your jacket pocket, because the phone will be at two percent exactly when you need it.
9. Copies, digital and physical
Original SEA in the kitbag. Photos of every page of every document on your phone, stored offline, because the cloud does not answer at sea. The same folder uploaded once to a cloud account and shared with the person from point 5. Three layers. Losing any one of them stops mattering.
Add two contacts most crew forget: the flag state and the ITF. The stern flag decides which administration stands behind your contract. Save the flag state complaint contact in your phone before you need it, next to the ITF helpline. Nobody finds those numbers easily on board, mid dispute.
10. Mental preparation, before the gangway
The last point has no documents. Say the goodbyes properly instead of stretching them to the departure gate. Expect the first week to be hard: handover, new faces in the mess room, a watch schedule your body has not accepted yet. That is normal, and it passes. What daily life on board actually looks like, honestly, is written up in a real look at working at sea. Worth a read for first-trippers, and for the family staying behind.
And decide how you will count the contract. Some crew start a countdown on day one and make nine months feel like eleven. Settle in instead, find your people in the mess room, and let the weeks do their own counting.
A note for Filipino, Indian and Indonesian crew
A large share of the world's ratings and hotel crew sign through national systems, and some of those publish standard terms. If you deploy on the Philippine standard employment contract under the DMW, the standard terms are public documents: read them before the agent summarizes them for you. The same habit serves crew from every manning country. The standard is your floor, and the floor is only useful if you know where it is.
Source note
The MLC references in this article (Standards A1.2, A1.4, A2.1, A2.5 and Regulation 4.3) come from the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 as published by the ILO. Agency verification runs through ITF Ship BeSure. Philippine standard employment contracts are published by the Department of Migrant Workers. This article is editorial context for crew, not legal advice. For a live dispute, talk to the ITF or a maritime lawyer.
FAQ
What should be on a seafarer sign-on checklist?
Documents with a validity buffer (passport, seafarer's book, medical certificate, STCW papers, visas), the SEA reviewed and signed, allotment set up, the PPE question answered, health handled ashore, copies in three places, and the agent, company and flag state contacts saved before the flight.
The agent says the full contract comes on board. Normal?
Common, and wrong. The right to review before signing is the whole point of MLC Standard A2.1. Ask for the SEA and its annexes by email before the flight. A professional agency sends a PDF the same day.
What goes in the kitbag document folder?
SEA original, medical certificate, seafarer's book, passport, vaccination records, the CBA name, the flag state contact, and printed wage statements from your last ship if a wage dispute is still open there.
How long is a seafarer medical certificate valid?
A maximum of two years under MLC Standard A1.2, one year for seafarers under 18. If it expires during a voyage it stays valid until the next port with a qualified doctor, for at most three months.
Does the ship provide PPE, or do I bring my own?
Occupational safety sits with the shipowner under MLC 2006 Regulation 4.3, and most companies issue boiler suits, helmets, gloves and safety shoes on board. Confirm sizes in writing before you fly; many crew still bring their own broken-in safety shoes.
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