After the events of September 11th, the United States has implemented more stringent guidelines for anyone entering the country for Flight Training. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has developed a website, TSA Alien Flight Student Program which all foreign nationals must go through to obtain permission for training.
Click here for step-by-step Instructions for completing your TSA request.
The TSA is a component of the Department of Homeland Security and is responsible for security of the nation’s transportation systems. With state, local and regional partners, the TSA oversees security for highways, railroads, buses, mass transit systems, ports, and 450 U.S. airports. The TSA’s mission is to prevent terrorist attacks and to protect the US transportation network. The TSA employs approximately 50,000 people. Roughly 40,000 of its employees are Transportation Security Officers, commonly known as screeners.
The mission of the Alien Flight Student Program is to ensure that Non-U.S. Citizen Candidates seeking training at flight schools regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) do not pose a threat to aviation or national security. This website contains the application for aliens seeking to train at FAA-regulated flight schools. Candidates are required to complete this application prior to beginning flight training in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 44939 and 49 CFR 1552.
Category 1
Category 2
Category 3
Category 4
The candidate will be required to submit the following information:
A candidate’s fingerprints must be collected by or under the supervision of one of the following:
Note: Aliens are exempt from resubmitting fingerprints for taking additional flight training. Fingerprints will continue to be transferred to new flight training requests but only if the alien uses the same account (pin) number that was used for the initial flight training request.
For Category 2 Candidates: If an “Illegible/Un-received Security Document” e-mail is received, please follow the instructions in the e-mail carefully. This may indicate that the candidate either sent in an illegible security document, the document has not been received, or that the candidate may not be eligible for Category 2 and should follow the e-mail instructions given.
Further questions about the status of your flight training request should be directed to TSA by e-mail to AFSP.help@dhs.gov or by calling (571)227-4544.
Note: Aliens are exempt from resubmitting fingerprints for taking additional flight training. Fingerprints will continue to be transferred to new flight training requests but only if the alien uses the same account (pin) number that was used for the initial flight training request.
Notice: Effective April 17, 2006, if a candidate submits/submitted fingerprints prior to paying for his/her training request and receiving the official Alien Flight Student Program (AFSP) fingerprinting instructions, the fingerprints are invalid, and the associated training request(s) will be canceled. The fingerprints will NOT be applied to any current or future training request. Both the candidate and the provider will receive an e-mail notifying them that the fingerprints are invalid, the training request(s) is/are canceled, and what steps need to be taken to resolve the problem to complete processing through the AFSP.
Domestic and International Fingerprinting Locations
Certain international locations are equipped to process fingerprints for alien candidates as part of an expanded partnership with NATA Compliance Services. A list of participating airports is available at www.tsc-csc.com/printoffices