Why does the faa take 2-3 month to process new certificate

[RobertGary1]

Got to thinking about this. When your examiner approves your application for a new airmen certificate why does it spend 2-3 month waiting in the airmen registry queue? What manual process could the faa possibly do? Why not immediately update the airmen registry the second the examiner approves the application? Surely someone isn’t reading through every app and making some type of personal judgement on each. 

-Robert 

Edited November 30, 2018 by RobertGary1

[carusoam]

Have you ever needed an SI for your medical?

It is current for one year and takes several months to get the paperwork approved...  

Often, this is an annual event with no changes in between...

Best regards,

-a-

[Hank]

Because of government inefficiencies. The bureaucrats have neither incentive / reward for working hard and no punishment for being slow. Many of them are just marking time, collecting paychecks from our tax money and waiting to retire, enjoying the benefits of being almost impossible to fire.

How many years (decades?) behind is full implementation of Next Gen ATC, and at what multiple of the original budget?

Edited November 30, 2018 by Hank

[0TreeLemur]

2 hours ago, carusoam said:

Have you ever needed an SI for your medical?

It is current for one year and takes several months to get the paperwork approved...  

Often, this is an annual event with no changes in between...

Best regards,

-a-

What does 'SI' mean?  I want to know so I can know what I hope I will never need.

-thx.

[Mooneymite]

Why does the faa take 2-3 month to process new certificate?

Because it can. 

Who else are you going to go to?

It's a monopoly run on your tax dollars and you better like it.

[EricJ]

People want low taxes, so federal agencies tend to be understaffed in general.   Else people would complain. 

My understanding is that the applicants qualifications and status (e.g., not on a federal baddie list anywhere) are checked before the permanent certificate is issued.

[Yetti]

Tell me how much you paid the FAA to get the new certificate?

[Vno]

1 hour ago, Fred_2O said:

What does 'SI' mean?  I want to know so I can know what I hope I will never need.

-thx.

Special Issuance. It is a letter in regards to a Medical Certificate that requires a waiver for certain conditions.

Brian

 

[RobertGary1]

36 minutes ago, EricJ said:

People want low taxes, so federal agencies tend to be understaffed in general.   Else people would complain. 

My understanding is that the applicants qualifications and status (e.g., not on a federal baddie list anywhere) are checked before the permanent certificate is issued.

I feel like I could write software to automate that in a day or two. Why does it take a human?

-Robert 

[Immelman]

Its because pilots want their shiny new certificate. Right now!! After the govermnent-mandated waiting period is up and you are no longer eagerly anticipating the certificate, it will show up in the mailbox.

Its really low-cost a psychological torture program.

Edited December 1, 2018 by Immelman

[M016576]

1 hour ago, RobertGary1 said:

I feel like I could write software to automate that in a day or two. Why does it take a human?

-Robert 

Most likely because paying a human is probably cheaper than buying your software.... and then having to maintain it... and hire a person to keep the software operating properly when new hardware comes out  

[RLCarter]

When I got me IR it only took a few weeks for the new plastic to come in, but that was 5yrs ago. When I purchased the plane it took almost a full year, I called several times to see what was going on (web said pending), was told no issues, just backlogged, then they lost all the paper work and I had to send it all back in...3 or 4 weeks on the second try

[flyboy0681]

When I passed my IR in 2014 the plastic took about 2 months, but the online Airmen Registry showed the rating within two weeks.

[M016576]

My last CFII certificate (have to get a new one every 2 years) only took 3 weeks from submission to having the card in my hand

[RobertGary1]

5 minutes ago, M016576 said:

My last CFII certificate (have to get a new one every 2 years) only took 3 weeks from submission to having the card in my hand

I’ve noticed renewals are much faster than new issuance. 

-Robert 

[M016576]

I bet they have a tiered system of some sort-

Top priority- renewals of cfi/cfii

Add on ratings.. new issuances... etc etc.

Another idea would be it might require extra evaluation for new tickets- (maybe some additional background pulls from another agency)... just spitballing here  

[steingar]

The FAA hasn’t had a budget in memory. Pretty hard to update systems when you don’t have the money to pay for them. And I’ll bet cash money that they’re violently understaffed. I worked for Govco for awhile, the folks I saw were conscientious and tried to do their jobs as best they could. I can say the same about the folks I know now.

[GDGR]

2-3 months? Wow! Things are fast down there. 

TC has a 90 day mandate up here, and you’re lucky if anything you request is completed within that time frame. 

[midlifeflyer]

5 hours ago, M016576 said:

I bet they have a tiered system of some sort-

Top priority- renewals of cfi/cfii

Add on ratings.. new issuances... etc etc.

Another idea would be it might require extra evaluation for new tickets- (maybe some additional background pulls from another agency)... just spitballing here  

I'm sure they do. I'm thinking student pilot certificates are near the top of the certificate group and there are probably higher priorities than that.. The rest of us can wait. 

[RobertGary1]

4 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

I'm sure they do. I'm thinking student pilot certificates are near the top of the certificate group and there are probably higher priorities than that.. The rest of us can wait. 

I still don’t know why the competed, approved iacra application doesn’t just instantly update the airmen registry immediately. The airmen already holds the new privilege on his temporary so it’s not adding any new privileges to update the airmen registry  

-Robert 

[RLCarter]

2 hours ago, RobertGary1 said:

I still don’t know why the competed, approved iacra application doesn’t just instantly update the airmen registry immediately. The airmen already holds the new privilege on his temporary so it’s not adding any new privileges to update the airmen registry  

-Robert 

My guess is it's 2 seperate pieces of software, one for the applicationand and a seperate one for the registry

[RobertGary1]

On 12/1/2018 at 10:06 PM, RLCarter said:

My guess is it's 2 seperate pieces of software, one for the applicationand and a seperate one for the registry

Oh, like they need a G1 to hand type it into the airmen registry? It’s hard to imagine anything being that low tech today. 

-Robert

[ZuluZulu]

On 11/30/2018 at 12:24 PM, RobertGary1 said:

Got to thinking about this. When your examiner approves your application for a new airmen certificate why does it spend 2-3 month waiting in the airmen registry queue? What manual process could the faa possibly do? Why not immediately update the airmen registry the second the examiner approves the application? Surely someone isn’t reading through every app and making some type of personal judgement on each. 

-Robert 

Another data point for this discussion: It took about six weeks for my shiny new PPL to arrive after a mid-September checkride.

[thinwing]

It takes that long because the FAA is busy processing thousands of drone registrations and pilots ,and didn't hire people to handle the influx

[kpaul]

My ATP cert took less than a month, but that was a couple of years ago.  

My re-registration for my plane took exactly one week from online submit until it was in my mail box.