TSA flight training approval
If you are not a United States citizen or national, 49 CFR part 1552 requires a security threat assessment and a Determination of Eligibility from TSA before flight training begins. If you are, the requirement lands on the school instead: it must establish your status before training starts. This page sets out both sides.
Do you need TSA approval to take flight training?
If you are a United States citizen or national, no approval is required of you, though the school must examine your documentation and establish that status before training begins. If you are not, you are a candidate under 49 CFR part 1552 and you need a security threat assessment and a Determination of Eligibility from TSA before flight training starts.
The obligation is written onto the flight training provider rather than onto you, which is worth understanding because it explains why a school will ask for documents at enrolment rather than at some later point. Under 49 CFR 1552.7 no provider may give flight training, or access to flight training equipment, to any individual before establishing that the person is a United States citizen, a United States national, a Department of Defense endorsee, or a candidate holding a valid determination.
For most readers of this site that is the whole story: bring documentation once, the school records it, and nothing further happens. The rule is not a background check on a citizen and it is not an approval a citizen applies for.
For a candidate the process is real administration with a real timeline, and it is best started early. It has nothing to do with the FAA medical certificate, the two run on entirely separate tracks, and they can proceed at the same time.
What does a candidate actually have to do?
Submit a security threat assessment to TSA through the FTSP Portal, provide biographic and biometric information and identity verification documents, pay the fee, and wait for a Determination of Eligibility. Flight training does not begin until that determination exists.
What has to be submitted
49 CFR 1552.31 requires a candidate to provide biographic and biometric information that TSA determines is necessary for conducting the assessment, identity verification documents, and the applicable fee. The submission runs through the FTSP Portal, which 1552.17 establishes as the system of record for this process.
What the portal asks for in practice can change, so the portal itself is the authority on the current list rather than any web page, including this one. 49 CFR 1552.7 makes the same point about acceptable identification documents: the rule directs providers to a list maintained on the portal rather than printing one in the regulation.
- Biographic and biometric information
- Identity verification documents
- The applicable fee
- Submitted through the FTSP Portal
The Determination of Eligibility, and how long it lasts
Five years from the date it was issued, under 49 CFR 1552.31, with earlier expiry in defined circumstances including where the candidate’s authorisation to remain in the United States ends sooner. A candidate may not engage in flight training after their determination has expired.
That five-year window is longer than most people expect and it is worth knowing, because a candidate who trains, pauses and returns within it does not necessarily begin the process again. Check the current position on the portal rather than assuming either way.
What the school has to do
Verify eligibility before any training or any access to training equipment, under 1552.7. Where you are a candidate, that means confirming through the FTSP Portal that TSA has issued you a determination and that it remains valid. Where you are a Department of Defense endorsee, it means confirming through the portal that your photo identification matches the endorsement.
The rule also reaches the staff. 49 CFR 1552.13 requires that every flight training provider employee with direct contact with flight students receives initial security awareness training within sixty days of being hired, and 1552.9 requires a Security Coordinator. 1552.15 sets the recordkeeping obligations behind all of it.
- Eligibility established before any training
- Portal confirmation for candidates and endorsees
- Security awareness training within sixty days of hire
- A designated Security Coordinator and records kept
Who needs what?
Three categories in the rule and they are treated very differently. Find yourself here before you start planning a timeline.
United States citizen or national
No application, no fee and no waiting. The school examines your documentation, records that it did, and training can begin. This is a check on the provider rather than a process you go through.
- ApplicationNone
- FeeNone
- What you bringGovernment-issued documentation
- Rule49 CFR 1552.7
Department of Defense endorsee
A separate route in the rule. The provider confirms through the FTSP Portal that your government-issued photo identification matches the information in the endorsement.
- ApplicationVia the endorsement
- Verified throughThe FTSP Portal
- What you bringPhoto identification
- Rule49 CFR 1552.7
Candidate
An alien applying for flight training. A security threat assessment and a Determination of Eligibility from TSA are required before flight training begins, and the determination runs five years from issue.
- ApplicationThrough the FTSP Portal
- FeeApplicable STA fee
- Valid forFive years
- Rule49 CFR 1552.31
What does the training itself cost?
The published program prices, unchanged by any of this. TSA fees are paid to TSA rather than to us, we neither set nor bill them, and no figure for them appears anywhere on this site.
Airline Career Track
Every phase from the first logged hour to a flight instructor rating, priced once and fixed at the point of enrolment.
- ✓Five phases under a single number
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓No repricing at a phase boundary
- ✓Part 61 from start to finish
Private Pilot — Comprehensive
Sixty hours in the logbook: fifty-five airborne, five in the box, fifty flown dual, plus ten hours of ground school.
- ✓60 hours logged
- ✓5 simulator sessions
- ✓10 hours of ground school
- ✓Books and materials included
Instrument Rating
Phase two of the career route, and the rating that changes how you fly more than any other single step.
- ✓40 instrument hours under 61.65(d)
- ✓An IFR cross-country of 250 nautical miles
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
Multi-Engine Add-On
The class rating that opens twin-engine flying, and later the ability to instruct in one.
- ✓No hour floor under 61.63(c)(3)
- ✓Ten to fifteen hours is typical
- ✓Fixed at enrolment
What can you verify about how this is handled?
The rule itself is public and short enough to read in an evening, which beats any assurance a school could give you. The five items below are about the school rather than the regulation.
Airframe types on the ramp, owned rather than brokered
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo and Piper Seminole. The airplanes belong to the operation, so the maintenance calendar is ours and not a lessor’s.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Instructors working here
Each carries a commercial certificate or an ATP beneath, an instructor certificate above it, and a medical in date. You are matched with one of them, and you may ask for another if the fit is wrong.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23 · 61.195Training-capable days measured across twelve months at this field
Counted from NOAA ASOS observations for the year ending 1 August 2026, admitting a day only where the ceiling held at 3,000 feet with five statute miles of visibility across four qualifying daylight hours.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetA session in the full-motion simulator
Two of those sessions sit inside the Standard and the Premium private pilot programs and five inside the Comprehensive, and weather never takes one away.
Published, not quoted on requestProgram prices withheld until you enquire
None. Every program figure is printed on the site, nothing is offered as a spread, and the price you sign for is the one you read.
Stated rather than impliedHow should you sequence this against everything else?
In parallel with the medical, and both before you pay a deposit. Neither process waits for the other, neither has any bearing on the other, and both have timelines that are outside your control once they start.
For a candidate the practical advice is to begin the security threat assessment as soon as you have decided on a school, because the determination has to exist before flight training does. Nothing about the process is unusual, and nothing about it is fast enough to leave until the week before you want to start.
For a United States citizen or national, there is nothing to begin. Bring documentation to enrolment and the step takes minutes. It is worth knowing the rule exists mainly so that a request for documents does not read as a school being awkward.
A downside worth stating: this school has no ability to expedite anything in this process, no relationship with TSA and no visibility into where an application sits. We can confirm a determination through the portal and nothing else. Any school implying otherwise is describing something it does not have.
And one clarification, because it causes confusion. Part 1552 is a security requirement and it is not an immigration route. It does not grant, extend or affect any immigration status, and it is not a substitute for whatever visa position applies to you. Where your plan depends on a student visa category requiring a certificated school, this part 61 provider does not satisfy that and you should establish it before anything else.
The limits of what this page can tell you
This page summarises 49 CFR part 1552 as it currently reads. The FTSP Portal is the authority on what a candidate must submit and which identification documents are acceptable, because the rule itself directs providers there rather than printing a list. Nothing here is immigration advice, no fee is quoted, and this school cannot expedite, influence or see inside any TSA determination.
Airline Pilot Flight School trains under part 61 of 14 CFR, at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and no carrier holds a cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring arrangement with us. We do not guarantee an interview, a job or a salary.
No pass rate, no graduate count and no rating of any kind is published on this site. The operation is new, any such figure would come from a sample too small to mean anything, and inventing one is the easiest lie available in this industry. What is published instead is the syllabus, the price, the hours and the regulation behind each requirement.
Questions about the TSA process
No approval is applied for by the citizen. The obligation sits on the school: under 49 CFR 1552.7 no flight training provider may give training or access to training equipment before establishing that the person is a United States citizen, a national, a Department of Defense endorsee, or a candidate with a valid determination. In practice that means showing documentation once.
An alien who applies for flight training or recurrent training from a flight training provider. A candidate must complete a security threat assessment and receive a Determination of Eligibility from TSA before flight training begins, under 49 CFR 1552.31.
Five years from the date it was issued, under 49 CFR 1552.31, subject to earlier expiry in defined circumstances including where authorisation to remain in the United States ends sooner. A candidate may not engage in flight training once the determination has expired.
Biographic and biometric information that TSA determines is necessary for the assessment, identity verification documents, and the applicable fee, submitted through the FTSP Portal. The portal itself is the authority on the current list rather than any web page, because the rule points providers there instead of printing one.
No. The requirement is that a candidate completes the security threat assessment and receives the determination before flight training begins, and a provider must confirm through the portal that a valid determination exists before giving any training or access to training equipment.
There is an applicable security threat assessment fee, addressed at 49 CFR 1552.39, and it is paid to TSA rather than to this school. No figure for it appears anywhere on this site, because we neither set it nor bill it, and the same is true of examiner fees and your medical examination.
Not at all. They are separate processes run by different agencies on entirely separate tracks, and neither one waits for the other. Start both early, in parallel, because both have timelines that leave your control once they begin.
No. Part 1552 is a security requirement attached to flight training and it grants, extends or alters no immigration status whatsoever. It is not a substitute for whatever visa position applies to you, and this page is not immigration advice.
Yes. 49 CFR 1552.13 requires that each flight training provider employee with direct contact with flight students receives initial security awareness training within sixty days of being hired. 49 CFR 1552.9 requires a Security Coordinator and 1552.15 sets out the recordkeeping obligations.
No, and nor can any other flight school. We have no relationship with TSA, no ability to expedite anything and no visibility into where an application sits. What we can do is confirm through the FTSP Portal that a determination exists and is valid, which is what the rule requires of us.
Where to go next
Two processes, two agencies, no reason to run them one after the other
The security threat assessment and the FAA medical examination have nothing to do with each other and neither is fast. Begin both as soon as you have chosen a school, and fly an hour while they run.
Fly the aeroplane once, then decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →