Thanks Whopity. Just to be clear, my FI cert lapsed on 31/12/14 and it's listed (now expired) in section XII of my EASA licence. The bit that was confusing me was the 'within a period of 12 months before renewal' which, if taken literally, has already happened - it's in the past! So as I understand it, provided I both attend the instructor refresher seminar AND pass an assessment of competence within a 12 month window, I could feasibly renew the lapsed FI cert at any time, e.g. one, three of five years after it expired. Is that right?
Thanks,
HW