diff --git a/apps/portal/src/app/features/seaman-book/pages/SeamanBookPage.tsx b/apps/portal/src/app/features/seaman-book/pages/SeamanBookPage.tsx
index 91e65a622..4d04d4063 100644
--- a/apps/portal/src/app/features/seaman-book/pages/SeamanBookPage.tsx
+++ b/apps/portal/src/app/features/seaman-book/pages/SeamanBookPage.tsx
@@ -236,10 +236,21 @@ export function SeamanBookPage({
   const isBtc = service === "BTC";
   const isCombined = service === "COMBINED";
 
-  const { data, isLoading, refetch } = useApiQuery<SeamanBookOverview>({
-    url: "/seaman-book/my",
-    method: "GET",
-  });
+  // Polled, not fetch-once: the officer who claims/reviews/approves this
+  // application (and the auto-promotion when the parent seafarer
+  // registration is approved) all happen in a different session, so nothing
+  // in this tab would otherwise tell RTK Query the status changed underneath
+  // it — the applicant would see a stale "Draft"/"Payment Pending" until they
+  // manually reloaded. `useApiQuery` is a generic untagged passthrough (many
+  // unrelated callers share it), so polling this one call is the fix that
+  // doesn't risk over-invalidating everyone else's cache.
+  const { data, isLoading, refetch } = useApiQuery<SeamanBookOverview>(
+    {
+      url: "/seaman-book/my",
+      method: "GET",
+    },
+    { pollingInterval: 15_000 },
+  );
   const { data: paymentCapabilities } = useGetPaymentCapabilitiesQuery();
   const [bypassPayment, { isLoading: bypassingPayment }] =
     useBypassPaymentMutation();