This must be the best kept secret in the whole TSA process, because this is the first time I've heard of this since I did my flying in the US two years ago.
IO540 wrote recently:
trained in the USA 2 years ago; did the IR there.
When I visited the USA again recently (1st time since the IR) Immigration spotted the long lapsed flight training Visa in my passport. You could see the man's 2 braincells revolving at 5rpm.... 9/11 and all that... He claimed that he had information saying that I did not complete the study (learnt to fly but not to land, perhaps??) and I got taken to a special terrorist interrogation facility (well not quite but the 2nd lot were crude even by normal U.S. Immigration standards) where more time was wasted.
SoCal App wrote, and this is completely novel to me:
When the Training is concluded, the Student is required to complete a document to that effect which the Flight School then countersign and file and they then log onto the AFSP website and update your training request to that effect.
and
As an aside, the student filing the AFSP request can log onto the AFSP website and check the status of ALL training requests. Log on and down the left side is the "Request History" Click it and you are presented with all your training requests that you have ever submitted and the status of each. You should see "Training Completed".
Sooo... After you've finished your training, make sure the flight school presents you with a TSA form requiring your signature somewhere to identify the fact that you've finished training. And a month or so after getting home, logon to the AFSP website again to make sure everything has been administered properly. Otherwise you might run into problems on a subsequent US visit, even years after.
Complete thread here:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?p=3907361