Naples Air Center, Inc.
6th Oct 2004, 21:19
We have been fielding many questions about this subject. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what this means for students training.
Yesterday I spent a good deal of time going over the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Training Rule with Homeland Security.
One thing that the TSA did not mention in the ruling, is that this only applies to FAR Part 141 Schools. Only FAR Part 141 Schools have Visa Authority to Issue I-20s for Foreign Students to train in the U.S. and this Rule only applies to Foreign Students that are training towards a Certificate, Licence, or Rating. (This is the same criteria used to determine whether a Students needs an M-1, J-1 or F-1 Visa.)
Right now, the TSA do not have any packets (with applications and fingerprints cards) ready for the Flight Schools but are expected later this month. At this moment there is no registration procedure for any Flight School, since the TSA has not given any information to the FSDOs. (So right now there are no passwords for any Flight Schools to be issued.)
The Security Training Material for both Schools and Instructors is still under development and not expected till the end of the month. Currently no one can be trained on the procedures which are required by this new Rule.
The goal of this new TSA Rule is to verify the person that shows up for training is in fact who they say they are. The procedure will be quite simple, and all that is required will be for the student to have and application completed, a picture taken and then be finger printed.
For NAC we have the local Law Enforcement setup to take the finger prints without any additional charges to the students. (The other schools should be able to work out similar arrangements.)
When this rule is finally implemented, the student on arrival will fill out an application, have their picture and finger prints taken and sent off to the TSA. During this time, the student will continue their training and will only stop if the TSA comes back and says to. The only time the TSA will stop a student's training will be if the student who shows up for training is not the person their passport says they are, since all students would have already been verified by the U.S. Embassy.
Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
[Note to moderators: I posted this thread in three forums so you could merge them into one thread and leave links in Private Flying, Professional Pilot Training (includes ground studies), and North America Forums.]
Yesterday I spent a good deal of time going over the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Training Rule with Homeland Security.
One thing that the TSA did not mention in the ruling, is that this only applies to FAR Part 141 Schools. Only FAR Part 141 Schools have Visa Authority to Issue I-20s for Foreign Students to train in the U.S. and this Rule only applies to Foreign Students that are training towards a Certificate, Licence, or Rating. (This is the same criteria used to determine whether a Students needs an M-1, J-1 or F-1 Visa.)
Right now, the TSA do not have any packets (with applications and fingerprints cards) ready for the Flight Schools but are expected later this month. At this moment there is no registration procedure for any Flight School, since the TSA has not given any information to the FSDOs. (So right now there are no passwords for any Flight Schools to be issued.)
The Security Training Material for both Schools and Instructors is still under development and not expected till the end of the month. Currently no one can be trained on the procedures which are required by this new Rule.
The goal of this new TSA Rule is to verify the person that shows up for training is in fact who they say they are. The procedure will be quite simple, and all that is required will be for the student to have and application completed, a picture taken and then be finger printed.
For NAC we have the local Law Enforcement setup to take the finger prints without any additional charges to the students. (The other schools should be able to work out similar arrangements.)
When this rule is finally implemented, the student on arrival will fill out an application, have their picture and finger prints taken and sent off to the TSA. During this time, the student will continue their training and will only stop if the TSA comes back and says to. The only time the TSA will stop a student's training will be if the student who shows up for training is not the person their passport says they are, since all students would have already been verified by the U.S. Embassy.
Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
[Note to moderators: I posted this thread in three forums so you could merge them into one thread and leave links in Private Flying, Professional Pilot Training (includes ground studies), and North America Forums.]