FAA U.S. Agent for Service FAQ
Everything you need to know about FAA U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) requirements, how this review works and how to manage your USAS registration.
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USAS Requirements
If you hold or apply for an Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certificate, rating, or authorization under 14 CFR Part 47, 61, 63, 65, 67, or 107, and your address of record with the FAA is a P.O. box or a foreign address rather than a U.S. physical address, federal regulation requires you designate a U.S. Agent for Service.
Your agent must have an FAA compliant physical address in a U.S. state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam and the American Samoas). The regulation specifically prohibits a post office box, a military post office box, or a mail drop box — which rules out most mailbox rental services and PMB’s. Your designation must include the agent’s full name, U.S. address, and email address, along with certification that the agent has accepted the responsibility.
This is not optional and it is not a formality. Without a valid designation you cannot exercise the privileges of any FAA certificate, rating, or authorization you hold, and an aircraft registration certificate issued to you is ineffective.
The rule is based on your address of record, not your citizenship. A U.S. citizen living abroad with a foreign address on file or a P.O. box needs an agent just like a non-U.S. citizen.
The FAA established the U.S. Agent for Service requirement to provide a reliable U.S.-based point of contact for the prompt and effective service of important, safety-critical, and time-sensitive FAA documents to certificate holders, applicants, and U.S. registered aircraft owners who have a foreign address.
The FAA specifically identifies documents that will be served through a designated U.S. Agent for Service, including:
- Enforcement action letters, notices, and orders
- Reexamination letters
- Letters of Investigation (LOI)
- Letters requesting additional information or denying a medical certificate
- Notices to aircraft owners of an ineffective or invalid aircraft registration
Because these communications may involve regulatory deadlines, certificate privileges, enforcement proceedings, medical certification, or aircraft-registration status, timely and reliable receipt is critically important.
In practical terms, the U.S. Agent for Service is therefore more than simply a U.S. mailing address. Its purpose is to ensure that the FAA has a dependable U.S. location through which these consequential documents can be served and promptly transmitted to the certificate holder or aircraft owner.
MedXPress requires non U.S. resident applicants to designate a U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) provider. You need to select an FAA Agent before you can make the required designation with the FAA on the USAS Portal. The USAS Portal is for designating your choice of FAA Agent, not for helping you find one.
You can see ChatGPT’s reviewed U.S. Agent for Service providers here. Compare each USAS providers price, address compliance, accountable-mail handling, notification speed and other important requirements. Select your USAS provider, go to their website and enroll in their U.S. Agent for Service plan — once complete go to the FAA USAS Portal to designate your chosen USAS provider. You can then complete your MedXPress application.
When IACRA sends you to the FAA’s U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) Portal, you need to designate a U.S. Agent before completing your IACRA application. The FAA USAS Portal is where you designate your U.S. Agent — it does not find or select an agent for you.
To find an FAA U.S. Agent, compare your options by reviewing the available USAS providers here. Select the service provider that fits your needs, enroll on their website, then use the information provided by your chosen U.S. Agent to complete the designation in the FAA USAS Portal. You can then complete your IACRA application.
No. The USAS requirement applies to all MedXPress and IACRA applicants, as well as current and historical FAA certificate (license) holders who do not have a compliant U.S. address on file with the FAA. Additionally, N-registered aircraft owners who do not have a U.S. address on file with the FAA must also designate a U.S. Agent for Service.
It affects anyone holding or applying for a certificate (license), rating, or authorization under:
- Part 47 — registered aircraft owners
- Part 61 — pilots, from student and private through commercial and ATP, and flight instructors
- Part 63 — flight engineers and flight navigators
- Part 65 — mechanics, repairmen, parachute riggers, aircraft dispatchers, and air traffic control tower operators
- Part 67 — holders of FAA medical certificates
- Part 107 — remote pilots operating small unmanned aircraft
If you hold credentials on this list and your address of record with the FAA is outside the United States or not compliant, such as a P.O. box, you need to designate a U.S. agent for service — even if you are a U.S. citizen.
Yes — FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (license) holders and those applying for a certificate, rating or authorization, must designate a U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) if either of these address conditions apply:
- You have a foreign address of record with the FAA.
- You do not have an FAA compliant U.S. physical address of record with the FAA (e.g. P.O. Box, PMB or mail-drop, etc.) — even if you are a U.S. citizen.
This requirement applies specifically to individuals, including commercial drone pilots, professional UAS operators and prospective Remote Pilot Certificate applicants with a non-compliant FAA US address.
Does every drone operator need an FAA US Agent if one of the address conditions above applies? No. The requirement does not apply merely because someone owns or operates a drone. A recreational drone flyer who does not hold or seek a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate does not need an FAA US Agent solely because the person completed TRUST or flies recreationally, however other FAA credentials held by that person could create a separate USAS requirement. (ecfr.gov)
The two-part process is straightforward. First, choose a provider from our rankings. Visit their website and complete their enrollment form — you will typically need your FAA Federal Tracking Number (FTN) and personal details. Once enrolled, you will receive a U.S. address and the USAS provider information to designate your FAA Agent for Service. You then log into the FAA USAS portal at usas.faa.gov and designate, then certify your Agent for Service information. Both you and your provider will receive a copy of your enrollment confirmation.
Your US Agent for Service (USAS) agrees to:
- Receive and accept all legally accountable mail and documents from the FAA addressed to you (including Certified Mail, Registered Mail, and any items requiring a signature).
- Notify you promptly—normally the same business day the item arrives—because many FAA documents carry short, hard deadlines (some as brief as 2 days).
This is the core legal and practical commitment of the designation. Everything else (holding, scanning, forwarding, shredding, etc.) is secondary value added services built on top of these two obligations.
Service of process is the legally recognized delivery of judicial, administrative, or other official documents to a person or that person’s authorized agent, for the purpose of providing formal notice and establishing the recipient’s legal obligation or opportunity to respond.
Below is an expanded definition of the scope of service of process:
Service of process is the formal legal procedure by which a person or entity is officially given notice of a legal or governmental proceeding, claim, order, subpoena, or other legally significant document in a manner recognized by law.
Its fundamental purpose is due process: a person or organization generally must receive legally adequate notice and an opportunity to respond before legal rights or obligations can be adjudicated or enforced.
In a legal framework, service of process typically involves three elements:
- The document being served — for example, a summons and complaint, subpoena, administrative order, enforcement notice, or other official legal document.
- An authorized method of delivery — depending on the governing law, this might include personal delivery, certified or registered mail, delivery to an authorized agent, or another legally prescribed method.
- A legally recognized recipient or location — such as the individual personally, an officer of a corporation, a registered agent, or another person/entity formally designated to accept service.
The critical distinction is that service of process is not merely ordinary mail delivery. It is a legally significant act intended to establish that notice was provided according to the applicable procedural rules.
When an agent is designated for service:
If a person appoints an agent for service of process or an agent for service, the law treats delivery to that agent as legally effective delivery to the person who appointed the agent.
In practical terms:
Service on the authorized agent constitutes legal notice to the principal, even if the principal is physically somewhere else.
That is why an agent’s address, availability, ability to receive accountable documents, recordkeeping, and prompt transmission to the principal can be extremely important.
In the FAA U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) context:
This concept is particularly relevant to the FAA’s U.S. Agent for Service requirements. Under 14 CFR Part 3, Subpart C, individuals and entities with addresses outside the United States or P.O. boxes must designate a U.S. agent upon whom the FAA may serve specified documents.
So, in that framework, the U.S. Agent for Service is not simply functioning as a mail-forwarding address. The agent occupies a legally significant position in the FAA’s mechanism for providing official notice to the certificate holder or aircraft owner.
Minutes, not weeks — but there are two separate steps and only one of them is the FAA’s.
Step one is your provider. You enroll, and they give you the agent’s name, U.S. address, and email address. How long that takes is entirely up to the provider.
Step two is you. You log into the FAA USAS portal, enter your agent’s details, and submit the designation yourself, including certification that the agent has accepted the responsibility. Your provider cannot do this part for you.
Once you submit, the portal generates an automated confirmation within minutes and sends it to two email addresses: yours, and your designated agent’s.
That second email is worth paying attention to. Your agent receiving their copy is your confirmation that the email address you entered for them is real and monitored. If you designate an agent and they never mention receiving anything, find out why before you assume the designation is working. The address on file is where the FAA will reach you, and the first time you discover it’s wrong should not be when something important has already been sent to it.
Keep both emails.
Changing USAS providers is relatively simple. Sign up with your new provider first and obtain your new U.S. agent address and contact details. Then update your designation with the FAA at usas.faa.gov. Once the new provider designation is confirmed, cancel with your old provider — never leave a gap.
You must notify the FAA of any change to your U.S. agent designation, or to your agent’s contact information, within 30 days of the change on the FAA’s USAS portal. That deadline applies to your provider changing their own address or email as much as it applies to you switching providers. If your provider changes their address and does not tell you, the obligation is still yours.
There is no FAA fee to change your designation. Your new provider will have their own enrollment or subscription cost.
Without a valid U.S. agent designation on file with the FAA USAS portal, you may not exercise the privileges of any certificate, rating, or authorization issued under the affected parts, and an aircraft registration certificate issued to you is ineffective. This applies whether the lapse happened because you did not renew with your provider, because your provider closed, or because the address on file is no longer valid.
There is a second consequence that is easy to miss. The FAA treats service on your designated agent as the equivalent of service directly on you. If the FAA sends correspondence — including enforcement correspondence — to the address on file, you are responsible for responding to it whether or not it ever reached you personally. A non valid address does not pause the clock.
Check your designation at least annually, and confirm your provider is still operating.
No. The FAA does not charge a fee to designate or update your U.S. Agent for Service in the USAS portal. Any fees you pay are charged by the companies that provide USAS agent services — not by the FAA itself. This is why pricing varies significantly between providers and why price transparency is one of the criteria in the scoring methodology.
About FAA Agent Review
FAA Agent Review (FAR) is an independent site that uses AI to identify, research, analyze, review and rank FAA U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) providers. FAR is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Federal Aviation Administration in any way, and is not affiliated with any provider reviewed.
This site is created by aviation professionals who went looking for a straight comparison of USAS providers, found none, and built one utilizing Artificial Intelligence.
The provider rankings were produced using research and analysis performed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT against a published set of weighted criteria, using publicly available provider information (provider websites, state records of incorporation, BBB, Google-Earth, Zillow, Redfin, multiple social media sites, among others). The scoring metrics is applied consistently across every provider and the method used is published in full on the Methodology page.
No.
No provider reviewed on this site has paid for placement, sponsored any part of it, or been offered a score. There are no affiliate links, no advertising, and no referral commissions.
When the U.S. Agent for Service requirement took effect, multiple USAS providers rapidly appeared — with widely varying prices, insufficient disclosures, and in some cases very little published about their USAS address, service, support and aviation compliance experience.
There was no consolidated resource, and no published standard against which to compare the USAS providers. This site was built to resolve those concerns in an independent and non-biased way. The application of Artificial Intelligence provides for an even-handed analysis of the US Agent for Service (USAS) industry.
No compensation has been received from any USAS provider in exchange for a ranking position, a favorable review, editorial coverage or anything else. A provider’s position is solely determined by the published scoring methodology.
This website carries no advertising, no ad network, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate links. There is no financial reason to prefer one USAS provider over another.
FAR reserves the right to sell ad-copy placement space to non-USAS related advertisers in the future.
FAA Compliant US Address
No, it is on you. The regulation places the obligation to designate a compliant agent on the certificate holder or applicant, and the designation includes your certification that the agent accepted the responsibility. An address that turns out to be a mail drop does not become compliant because it was accepted into a form or web portal.
This is the practical reason the first question on our checklist below is whether the address is a genuine physical location. If it isn’t, the risk exposure is yours.
No, it does not have to be, though it can be under special circumstances. However, it is not recommended, as the FAA will still ship your certificate directly to your home country – free of charge – through USPS International First-Class mail.
Many providers offer mail forwarding as a paid add-on, and some include a limited amount in their base price. Practice varies widely, and so does cost — international shipping for a physical certificate is not trivial.
Confirm three things with any provider before you rely on this: whether forwarding is included or billed separately, what it costs per item, and what shipping method they use. Get the answer in writing or posted on their website.
NO! Being anywhere near the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) – Airmen Certification Branch (AFB-720) at 6500 South MacArthur Boulevard, Oklahoma City, OK 73169, provides no meaningful speed advantage for receiving FAA U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) accountable mail.
FAA legal matters, enforcement, investigation, reexamination, and other accountable correspondence originates from FAA regional offices across the United States or the FAA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
FAA legal correspondence arrives via two different channels, the United States Postal Service (USPS) delivery network or through a legal process server to your designated U.S. Agent for Service — regardless of their location in the United States. Being near OKC provides no meaningfully inherent or guaranteed USAS delivery-speed advantage.
What really matters: is an FAA compliant U.S. office address, reliable receipt of accountable mail, immediate scanning and notification, and a secure chain of custody.
For USAS, reliability beats proximity, every time!
There is no single Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mailing location from which a document will originate. Depending on the nature of the matter, the responsible FAA office, and where the underlying event occurred, correspondence may originate from FAA headquarters, an investigative or certification office, or an FAA legal/enforcement office.
For legal enforcement matters, the FAA’s Office of the Chief Counsel, Aviation Litigation Division (AGC-300) is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is organized into six national Aviation Litigation Teams: Midwest, Miramar, Northeast, Southern, Southwest, and Western.
Serving overseas enforcement actions; events occurring outside of the United States, her territories and territorial waters:
FAA Aviation Litigation Division Headquarters
Office of the Chief Counsel
FAA Aviation Litigation Division, AGC-300
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591
Telephone: 202-267-5158
Serving domestic enforcement actions; events occurring inside the United States, her territories (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the American Samoa’s) and territorial waters, the FAA currently lists the following six litigation teams and their principal office locations: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/enforcement/contacts
1. Midwest Litigation Team — Des Plaines, Illinois
2300 E. Devon Avenue, Room 419
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Telephone: 847-294-7313
Generally associated with the FAA’s central/midwestern geographic area, including states such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
2. Miramar Litigation Team — Miramar, Florida
2895 SW 145th Avenue
Suite 120
Miramar, FL 33027
The Miramar Team is a separate national Aviation Litigation Team based in South Florida. Its caseload should not be assumed to correspond simply to the traditional FAA regional-state boundaries; the FAA’s current AGC contact page identifies the team and its Miramar office but does not publish a state-by-state jurisdiction list for it.
3. Northeast Litigation Team — Burlington, Massachusetts / Jamaica, New York
12 New England Executive Park, Room 311
Burlington, MA 01803-5299
Telephone: 781-238-7040
and
1 Aviation Plaza, Room 561
Jamaica, NY 11434-4848
Telephone: 718-553-3285
Generally associated with the northeastern United States, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, although individual legal assignments should not be inferred solely from these geographic descriptions.
4. Southern Litigation Team — College Park (Atlanta), Georgia
1701 Columbia Avenue, Suite 530
College Park, GA 30337
Telephone: 404-305-5200
This is the FAA legal office commonly referred to as the Atlanta office. The traditional FAA Southern Region encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Thus, an airman involved in an enforcement matter connected with the southeastern United States may very well encounter correspondence originating from College Park/Atlanta, Georgia.
5. Southwest Litigation Team — Fort Worth, Texas
10101 Hillwood Parkway Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76177
Telephone: 817-222-5099
Generally associated with the south-central/southwestern area, including Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
6. Western Litigation Team — California / Washington / Alaska
The FAA lists three offices for the Western Litigation Team:
15000 Aviation Boulevard
Lawndale, CA 90261
Telephone: 310-725-7100
1601 Lind Avenue, SW
Renton, WA 98057
Telephone: 425-227-2007
227 W. 7th Avenue, Mail Stop 14
Anchorage, AK 99513
Telephone: 907-271-5269
The Western Team generally serves matters arising throughout the western United States, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, together with relevant Pacific jurisdictions.
Important: These geographic descriptions are useful for understanding where FAA correspondence may originate, but they should not be treated as rigid jurisdictional boundaries for every enforcement case. The FAA’s current Aviation Litigation Division page identifies the six national teams and their addresses but does not publish a definitive state-by-state assignment table for every team. Cases can be assigned according to FAA organizational enforcement responsibilities and caseload rather than simply the airman’s residence.
Therefore, a pilot’s designated U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) provider should be prepared to reliably receive FAA correspondence regardless of which FAA office sends it. Depending upon the matter, that could include correspondence originating from Washington, D.C.; Atlanta/College Park; Chicago/Des Plaines; South Florida/Miramar; Boston/Burlington; New York/Jamaica; Dallas–Fort Worth; Los Angeles/Lawndale; Seattle/Renton; Anchorage; or another responsible FAA office.
This is a reason why the U.S. Agent for Service function is important: the FAA needs one dependable U.S. address to serve official documents, regardless of the documents FAA office of origin.
A CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agency) is a private business that accepts U.S. Mail on behalf of private individuals or businesses. Its customers typically receive their mail through a Private Mailbox (PMB) on site, that is leased or rented to them on an monthly basis.
CMRA = the mail-receiving company/operator
PMB = the private mailbox assigned to the customer
A CMRA is not permitted by the FAA because it essentially becomes a PMB to the end user/entity (you or your USAS provider), which is strictly forbidden for use by the USAS program.
Under 14 CFR § 3.302, a U.S. agent address must be a physical address in the United States (or U.S. territory) and may not be a post office box, military post office box, or a mail drop box.
Here’s how the common address types break down:
| Address Type | What It Is | Allowed for US Agent Address? | Practical Risk for Time-Sensitive FAA Mail |
|---|---|---|---|
| PO Box | Official U.S. Postal Service post office box | No – explicitly prohibited | N/A (not allowed) |
| Mail Drop / Mail-Drop Box | Any commercial location that receives mail for later pickup or forwarding (not the agent’s actual office or residence) | No – explicitly prohibited | N/A (not allowed) |
| PMB (Private Mailbox) | A private mailbox rented at a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) such as a UPS Store, Mail Boxes Etc., USA2Me, or similar. These almost always require a “PMB” designator and are treated as commercial mail-drop services. | No – treated as a mail drop / commercial mailbox that is not the agent’s true office or residence | N/A (not allowed). Even if the street address looks legitimate, the PMB designation and CMRA nature make it non-compliant. |
| CBU (Cluster Box Unit) | Centralized, multi-compartment locked mailbox common in residential neighborhoods, townhomes, and apartments. It is the official delivery point for a real street address. | Technically yes (it supports a real street address), but high practical risk | Significant. Accountable / certified mail that requires a signature is almost never left in a CBU. The carrier leaves a notice; the agent must travel to the post office (or other designated location) to sign for and retrieve the item. Best-case scenario often costs a full day before the agent even knows the document exists. With FAA deadlines that can be as short as 2 days, this delay can be critical. |
Bottom line for choosing a US Agent address: The safest and fully compliant option is a true physical office or residential address where someone is available to sign for and take possession of accountable mail the same day it arrives.
CBUs, while supporting a street address, introduce a built-in delay for signature-required items and should be avoided whenever possible for US Agent service.
Pure PO Boxes, mail drops, and PMBs are prohibited by regulation.
Often, yes. The regulation does not require you to hire a company. A responsible adult or entity may serve as your U.S. agent, and for an individual the address given is normally their usual U.S. residence.
Three conditions still apply. The address must be an FAA compliant physical address in a U.S. state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession — never a post office box, military post office box, or mail drop box or PMB. Your agent must actually receive FAA documents and pass them to you in a timely manner. And your agent has to agree: the designation requires the agent’s full name, U.S. address, and email address, plus certification that they have accepted the responsibility.
Think carefully before asking a friend (view the pros and cons here). You are asking them to be legally reachable on your behalf, to notice what arrives, and to forward it promptly — for years, including while they are at work, on vacation or moving. Service on your agent counts as service on you whether or not it reaches you. A paid provider is not more compliant than a reliable friend; it is more accountable.
Review Methodology
Address integrity carries fifteen points, more than any other category, because every other category depends on the document arriving somewhere real. It is also the category where a wrong answer costs the most. A designated provider’s address that fails compliance is not just a paperwork problem — it adversely effects your certificate
The addresses were not taken on trust. Each published address was reviewed against its location type, and where the evidence pointed toward a private mailbox, mail center, cluster-box unit, or mail-forwarding arrangement, the finding was cross-checked with the company’s articles of incorporation. In some instances provider’s articles of incorporation were not found and are indicated as such.
The remaining categories are drawn from each provider’s own published material, from the location type, or from both together.
Provider’s street addresses are not published on FAA Agent Review. What appears here is the location type, and an indicator of whether the provider posts its own address publicly.
The Annual Report evaluation was performed on 22 August 2026. The next evaluation is scheduled for August 2027 — the whole matrix is re-run, not spot-edited.
Between evaluations, scores and rankings do not change. The record, such as a price change, a URL, an entity name, a statement that has gone out of date, a new facility, or a new service introduced mid-cycle is recorded and applied to during the next evaluation cycle.
That is deliberate. Every provider was scored on the same day against the same evidence standard, and that is the comparison baseline that makes the matrix results valuable.
Twenty providers, fourteen categories, one hundred points, scored the same way on the same day. The weights are published rather than described:
| Category | Max | |
|---|---|---|
| ADDR | FAA Address Integrity | 15 |
| PE | Price and Economic Value | 10 |
| CC | Corporate Credibility | 10 |
| INFRA | Physical Infrastructure and Security | 10 |
| Accountable-Mail Capability | 10 | |
| NOTIFY | Customer Notification | 8 |
| COC | Chain of Custody | 8 |
| TRANS | Transmission Speed | 7 |
| FWD | Original-Document Forwarding | 5 |
| SUP | Customer Support | 5 |
| LAT | Longevity and Aviation Track Record | 5 |
| TECH | Technology and Portal | 4 |
| BBB | Complaint and Response Signal | 2 |
| RISK | Risk Disclosure and Continuity | 1 |
Address integrity carries the most weight because every other category depends on the document arriving somewhere real. Risk disclosure carries one point because disclosure is a signal, not a capability.
Two further fields — address confidence and chain-of-custody confidence — are color-coded but deliberately carry no points. They tell you how strong the evidence was, which is a different question from how well the provider performed.
Price is the one category set by a published band table rather than by a judgment about what a provider is worth. The bands run from $0–19 at ten points down to $500 and above at zero, and where a provider bills monthly the annual-billed figure is the one scored — so no provider is measured against a number its customers never actually pay. The full table is on the Methodology page.
Where two providers record the same total, they are listed alphabetically by provider name and the numerical ranks stay consecutive from 1 to 20. No shared ranks, no skipped numbers. Alphabetical order is a display tie-breaker only and carries no assessment that one tied provider is better than the other.
The research and analysis were produced using OpenAI’s ChatGPT utilizing this scale and published. Full detail, including what can and cannot be proven, is on the Methodology page.
Two color scales run through this site and they answer different questions.
Overall tier ranks the provider based on a maximum score of 100
- Tier 1 — Emerald · 90–100 — Highest operational confidence
- Tier 2 — Amethyst · 80–89 — Strong, with identifiable limitations
- Tier 3 — Sapphire · 70–79 — Plausible and generally credible; verification remains advisable
- Tier 4 — Amber · 60–69 — Material weaknesses or unresolved dependencies
- Tier 5 — Orange · 45–59 — High risk, substantial uncertainty, or limited transparency
- Tier 6 — Magenta · Below 45 — Very high or critical operational risk
- Insufficient data — Too little established information to place the provider on the scale
Category color grades a single category, set by the percentage of that category’s maximum the provider earned — not by the raw points. Eight points is a strong result in a ten-point category and a weak one in a fifteen-point category, so the percentage is what the color reflects.
Insufficient data is a finding, not a low score. A black marker means the evidence needed could not be established from public sources. It is not a judgment that the provider performs badly, and it is not counted as though it were.
One category works differently. The two-point complaint and response signal uses a defined key rather than a percentage: two points and green where a profile was located with no unresolved complaints; one point and blue where complaints were located but appear answered or resolved; one point and black where no profile could be located, since the absence of a record is not evidence of a bad one; zero and red where complaint history indicates unresolved or unanswered complaints.
It means a score is a judgment formed by AI, not a fact discovered.
Every factual statement about a provider on this site sits in one of five registers, and the register is part of the finding. A documented finding is supported by official provider materials, government records, property records, or consistent independent evidence. A provider claim is what the provider says, recorded as such and not confirmed. An investigative finding was established by ChatGPT research. An analytical conclusion is the comparative judgment AI reached after weighing the evidence. Pending verification means a conclusion not be established.
Reasonable reviewers applying the same scale to the same evidence may reach a different conclusion. The scoring process is applied consistently to every provider and the scale is published in full — so any disagreement can be located precisely rather than argued in the abstract.
Because they measure different parameters.
A star rating aggregates how customers felt about their experience. FAA Agent Reviews score measures whether a provider can demonstrate the operational capability the job requires — a genuine physical address, staffing that can accept accountable mail, a documented chain of custody, prompt notification, continuity if the company changes hands.
A provider can have warm reviews from customers who have never had a certified letter arrive, and that tells you very little about what happens when one does. It can also score well here and still not suit you, because price or support hours may matter more in your situation than they do in the matrix weighting.
Use both. They answer different questions.
Yes to both. If you are aware of a USAS provider that has not been evaluated here, or if you believe information on an existing provider is incorrect, please reach out via the Contact page. FAA Agent Review welcomes corrections from pilots, mechanics, drone operators and aviation professionals who have first-hand experience with specific providers.
No, and that is deliberate.
The evaluation is built entirely from publicly available information — researched, analyzed and scored using ChatGPT’s methodology, then published. No provider is interviewed, surveyed, or given advance notice of their score.
The reason is that a provider’s influence should not be able to move their position. If interviews were conducted, the providers with a marketing department, a large budget and time to spend would be advantaged over the ones without, and the comparison would quietly stop being about operational capability.
The correction channel is open to every provider. Send documentation to ai@faaagentreview.com. Potential corrections are kept on file and submitted to OpenAI’s ChatGPT for consideration during the next evaluation round.
Yes. Send documentation to editor@faaagentreview.com identifying the statement, what is wrong with it, and what supports your version.
Potential corrections and evidence that would change a score are kept on file and provided to ChatGPT for consideration during the next evaluation. Nothing is discarded, and nothing moves a score early.
Four things never happen: a score does not change because a provider disagrees with it; no published finding is altered in exchange for payment or advertising; low scores are not removed from the rankings; and the evaluation date is never changed to make findings appear more current.
As the U.S. Agent for Service industry matures, USAS provider’s Better Business Bureau reputations will become established based on their customers BBB user reviews.
Request an update for AI’s consideration
Before You Designate – What To Ask A USAS Provider
Introduction
A U.S. Agent for Service is a compliance relationship, not a mailbox rental. These are the questions worth asking before you pay anyone. Ask them by email so the answers are in writing.
Is the address actually compliant? | ADDR, 15 points, the heaviest category
- Is this a genuine physical USPS recognized street address, NOT: a post office box, military post office box, mail-drop, PMB (Private Mailbox e.g. UPS store, FedEx Office, USA2Me, etc.), or CBU (Cluster Box Unit)?
- Is it in a U.S. state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession?
- Is it a dedicated office, a shared suite, a co-working space, or a residence? (None of these are necessarily disqualifying. Knowing which one it is lets you know what you’re buying.)
Who actually receives the FAA correspondence? | INFRA and MAIL, 20 points combined
- Will someone be present during normal business hours to accept certified, registered, courier, and signature-required deliveries?
- Can you accept accountable mail requiring a signature? What happens if no one signs?
How will I hear about mail or process service? | NOTIFY and TRANS, 15 points combined
- How will you notify me when something arrives from the FAA — email, portal, WhatsApp, phone?
- How fast will I be notified (stated as a commitment rather than an intention)?
What happens to the document? | COC and FWD, 13 points combined
- Between the courier’s hand and mine, how many parties touch it, and who are they?
- Will you forward physical originals internationally, at what cost, by what method?
- Where are originals stored in the meantime?
What does it cost, all in? | PE, 10 points
- What is the total annual price, including every fee?
- What is not included — mail forwarding, scanning, address changes, renewal?
- What does it cost at renewal? Is the first year discounted?
- Is there a fee to cancel or to change to another provider?
Who is the USAS provider? | CC and LAT, 15 points combined
- What legal entity actually performs this service? Is it the company on the website?
- How long have you operated under this name?
- Do you have aviation-specific experience, or is this a general registered-agent business?
What happens if something changes? | RISK and SUP, 6 points combined
- What happens to my designation if you are sold or shut down? How much notice?
- Do you notify me before my registration lapses?
- If your address or email changes, how and how quickly will you tell me? (You have 30 days to report any changes to the FAA — but only if you know about it.)
Closing:
A USAS provider who answers all these questions to your satisfaction is noteworthy.
Sources
Essential Aviation Resources
Direct links to the official Federal Aviation Administration portals and regulatory tools every FAA certificate holder needs.
FAA Official Site
Federal Aviation Administration homepage — regulations, safety, airmen services, aircraft registrations and more.
faa.govUSAS Portal
The only accepted platform to designate or update your FAA U.S. Agent for Service (USAS) per 14 CFR Part 3 Subpart C.
usas.faa.govMedXPress
FAA medical certificate application portal — required for foreign-address applicants to designate a U.S. Agent.
medxpress.faa.govIACRA
Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application — for airmen certificate and rating applications.
iacra.faa.govAirmen Services
FAA airmen services portal — certificate verification, replacement notices, and airmen records.
amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/amsrvseCFR
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations — look up 14 CFR Parts 3, 47, 61, 63, 65, 67, and 107 directly.
ecfr.govFederal Register
Official U.S. government rule publications — find the full text of FAA Final Rule 89 FR 81305 and all amendments.
federalregister.gov