I went to the local Flight Standards District Office of FAA yesterday to get "verified" by an FAA official. The whole thing was interesting. I was met at the door and escorted inside as usual post Sept. 11. The FAA person was great, she took a copy of my passport and drivers license. Put them in the folder , clicked on a webpage and voila I was "verified".. While I was there, I asked her couple of questions: Me: TSA wants a specific endorsement on the logbook of my student and my logbook and they want me to keep this record for 5 years, if they are US Citizen. Now, I am only required to keep records of training for 2 years by FAA, does TSA want me to keep record of this endorsement or the entire flight training for 5 years? Counselor: I don't know. Frankly that's TSA's rule, not ours. Me: Ok, what if the student want to switch instructors? Does the new instructor have to enter in his logbook the same endorsement? Counselor: TSA didn't tell us anything about that. That's a good point, but I don't know where I can get the answers from? Me: If an international student from , say Canada , wants to come to get training, can I train them by registering at www.flightschoolcandidates.gov ? I was told that I have to be Part 141.. Is that correct? Counselor: We can get your application to get Part 141, but about the issuing of visas, about formal paper work , I have no clue.. That's TSA's ballpark.. Then we talked about Tomahawks, her former flight school in Central California and her grand parents being from Samos.. I leave you with the following AOPA excerpt. Confusion reigns over TSA flight training rule Pilots tell AOPA they didn't know it applies to them One thing is clear: The Transportation Security Administration's new alien flight training/citizenship validation rule is confusing to most pilots, students, flight instructors, and flight schools. "From my talks with pilots during Pilot Town Meetings last week in Georgia and Florida, I know there is still a great deal of confusion about this rule," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "Most pilots don't know if the rule applies to them, and those that do are unsure of how to register and comply with the rule. "And flight instructors are particularly unhappy about being turned into de facto immigration agents," Boyer said. AOPA is working with TSA to resolve the many issues with the rule (see "AOPA to help TSA revise citizenship validation rule"). The association has been vocal in exposing the problems and has had some success in getting clarifications and changes to the rule (see "TSA amends parts of new flight training rule"), including a change to allow a simple logbook entry to show that a student's citizenship was properly validated.