A temporary remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating is issued for up to 120 calendar days under §107.64. It expires on the date printed on it, when the permanent certificate arrives, or when you receive notice that the certificate sought is denied or revoked. While it is valid, it is the certificate you use to act as remote pilot in command.
How you get the paper
The FAA's certification steps run in order. Pass the initial knowledge test, complete Form 8710-13 in IACRA, and wait for TSA vetting. The knowledge test report may take up to 48 hours to appear in IACRA. When vetting clears, a confirmation email explains how to print the temporary certificate from IACRA. The permanent card is mailed after FAA processing. The 120 calendar days are the life of that temporary document, not a guess about the mail. Sixty days is the wrong figure. Twenty-four calendar months is the §107.65 recency window, not the temporary certificate's life. Carry the temporary certificate and identification on the job. Section 107.7 still requires them to be physically available. The sequence up to test day is on the test day page.
The temporary certificate does not shrink the operating rules. The person named on it is the remote pilot for flights they are designated to command. The duties in §107.19 apply on the first flight, including a fully automated one. If the printed certificate shows an expiration date inside the 120 calendar days, that printed date controls under §107.64(b)(1). If the permanent certificate arrives sooner, the temporary certificate expires on receipt. If a denial or revocation notice arrives, it expires then too. You do not keep flying on the printout after any one of those three events.
You cannot appoint a remote pilot after the flight
Section 107.19(a) requires a remote pilot in command to be designated before or during the flight. After a small unmanned aircraft strikes a parked car, an operations manager cannot designate a crewmember "for the paperwork" and thereby satisfy the rule. The designation comes too late. It does not fail only if that person refuses to sign an incident report. Ownership of the aircraft is not the test either. There is no 10-day window in §107.19 for naming someone. Ten calendar days is the §107.9 clock for reporting a qualifying safety event to the FAA. People borrow that number and paste it onto designation. The reporting duty and the designation duty are different sentences.
On a company mapping flight, name the remote pilot before launch, while the temporary certificate is the document that person holds. If control will pass to another certificated pilot during the flight, that change happens during the flight, which §107.19(a) allows. Writing a name on a form the next morning does not reach back and create a remote pilot for the flight that already happened.
Automation does not take command
A mapping aircraft on a fully automated grid is still a Part 107 operation. If it strays into a path that violates an operating rule, the remote pilot remains directly responsible under §107.19(b) and must have the ability to direct the aircraft to ensure compliance under §107.19(e). That ability is required during automated flight, not only when someone is on the sticks. The flight-planning software is not in command. The software developer does not become the remote pilot while the automation is engaged. The automated segment is not exempt because no person is manipulating the controls.
The same point is the planning duty. Programming a waypoint mission does not remove the need to monitor the flight. The programmed mission is not the thing responsible for regulatory compliance. The remote pilot plans the mission inside the rules, watches it, and intervenes when it leaves them. Automation is not a waiver. A temporary certificate does not create a special automated privilege that a plastic card lacks. The remote pilot in command page is the full §107.19 list.
The trap is to treat the temporary printout as a waiting period during which the duties are lighter, or to treat the autopilot as the certificate holder until the permanent card arrives. The printout is the certificate for up to 120 calendar days. The person named on it is responsible for the flight, including the automated minutes, and must have been designated before or during that flight.
Drill designation and automation items on the free practice test. The certification lessons are at pricing.