A U.S. aircraft registration certificate is not permanent. It expires, and it has to be renewed. If the registration has lapsed, the aircraft is not legally eligible to fly until it is put right.
Three years became seven
Registrations used to run three years. The FAA issued a direct final rule on 22 November 2022 amending 14 CFR 47.40 to extend the duration of the Certificate of Aircraft Registration from three years to seven. The rule took effect on 23 January 2023.
The change was applied to existing registrations, not just new ones — certificates expiring after the effective date had their expiration extended. So a certificate in a logbook may show an older printed expiration date that is no longer the operative one. If the date on the paper looks alarming, check the current status in the FAA's registry before assuming there is a problem.
What an expired registration actually means
- Flying: the aircraft is not eligible to be operated. This is a paperwork failure, not an airworthiness failure — but it grounds the airplane just the same.
- Insurance: an operator flying an unregistered aircraft is not somewhere you want to be at claim time.
- Selling: it complicates the transfer and it looks careless to a buyer.
- Buying: it is a signal. An owner who let the registration lapse may have let other things lapse. Look harder at the logbooks.
Renewing
Renewal is filed with the FAA Civil Aviation Registry, and the FAA sends a renewal notice to the address of record before expiration. The most common reason a registration lapses is that the notice went to an address the owner moved away from years ago — the registry's copy of your address is the one that counts. Keeping it current is the whole trick.
If a registration has been expired long enough, the N-number can be cancelled and released, at which point re-registering is a longer job than a renewal.
Checking status
Current registration status for any U.S. tail number is public. Look it up in the FAA Aircraft Registry, or check it as part of a wider records search when you are evaluating an aircraft to buy. Registration status is the first thing to verify and the fastest thing to verify.