Schedule the UAG only after you have an FAA Tracking Number. Create an IACRA applicant profile, save the FTN, then sign in at https://faa.psiexams.com/faa/login and choose the exam named Unmanned Aircraft General – Small. That appointment is a knowledge-test seat. It is not a waiver and it is not an airspace authorization.
The knowledge-test appointment
The FAA's certification steps put the FTN before the testing center. PSI asks for the FTN when you register. You do not need to finish Form 8710-13 before you book the seat. You do need the number. The ACS says you may register online or by phone with PSI, choose a testing center, and make financial arrangements for the fee. You may register weeks ahead, and you may cancel under that testing center's cancellation policy. The FAA says knowledge testing centers charge approximately $175. Confirm the figure on the PSI screen. What you bring, including identification, is on the test day page. The passing mark is on the passing score page.
Nothing in that sequence asks LAANC whether you may sit for the test. Nothing in it files a certificate of waiver. People mix the portals because all three sound like FAA approval. They are three different requests, filed in three different places, for three different results.
The exam name on the PSI list is Unmanned Aircraft General – Small, code UAG. A different airman test will not produce the remote-pilot knowledge-test report. You may take the UAG at 14. You must be 16 before the FAA issues the certificate. Bring identification that shows you meet, or will meet, that age before the knowledge-test report expires. The testing center does not issue the temporary certificate. After you pass and TSA vetting clears, you print that certificate from IACRA. Booking the seat is the step that gets you into the room. It does not authorize a flight that needs a waiver or an airspace authorization the same week.
Waiver and authorization portals are not the test seat
The FAA Part 107 waivers page, last updated 22 June 2026, is the fact the knowledge test uses for portals. New operational waiver applications go through the Aviation Safety Hub. Previously submitted waivers remain in FAADroneZone. Airspace authorizations use LAANC for near-real-time requests or FAADroneZone for the manual authorization process. LAANC does not issue operational waivers. Submitting every request "only through LAANC" is wrong. Treating FAADroneZone as the only portal for new operational waivers is also wrong. The waivers and authorizations page separates the legal tools. The LAANC page is only the authorization side.
A Tuesday plan makes the split concrete. You book a Thursday UAG seat at a PSI center so you can test. The same week you also want to fly a mapping job in Class D after you are certificated. The Class D flight needs an airspace authorization under §107.41, through LAANC or the manual FAADroneZone process. The PSI confirmation email does not enter that airspace. If the mapping job will also go beyond visual line of sight, that deviation needs its own waiver. The authorization does not waive the visual-line-of-sight rule, and the waiver does not replace the authorization.
What a waiver file has to contain
Section 107.200 allows a certificate of waiver only when the Administrator finds the proposed operation can safely be conducted under the terms of that certificate. The request has to contain a complete description of the proposed operation and a justification that the operation can be conducted safely. For a waiver of the visual observer requirements in §107.33, the application that matches the rule identifies the specific operational risks of flying without the standard observer arrangement and describes concrete mitigations, such as detect-and-avoid equipment and defined containment procedures. Years of experience are not that safety case. Proof of registration and Remote ID compliance does not waive §107.33. Asking LAANC to "evaluate the risk against UAS Facility Maps" asks an authorization system to issue a waiver. It will not.
If the FAA asks for more detail, the clock on that request is not polite silence. The waivers page says an information request that goes unanswered for 30 days cancels the application. Twenty-five days of quiet is not yet that cancellation, and it is not a reason to wait. There is no automatic 90-day extension while you gather the lost-link description they asked for. The FAA will not approve the waiver by default after 90 days of silence. The 90-day figure is the FAA's review goal, not a deadline that grants the waiver.
Use the free practice test on portal and waiver items before you sit. The course that teaches the application path is at pricing.