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The initial step in applying for the liability protections available under the SAFETY Act or for requesting a Pre-application Consultation is to register with the Office of SAFETY Act Implementation (OSAI). Registration can be done electronically at the SAFETY Act website (http://www.safetyact.gov).
Registering with OSAI does not commit you to any further actions. The purpose of registration is to establish an official point of contact for the DHS to use in its interactions with you concerning your technology and to create a unique identification number for you as a potential seller.
A Pre-application Consultation is a voluntary means through which OSAI provides helpful guidance to potential applicants without requiring the completion and submission of a full SAFETY Act Application. The Pre-application Consultation is intended to facilitate a process by which a potential applicant may provide DHS with initial information regarding their technology, so that DHS may, in turn, provide potential applicants with guidance regarding the submission of an Application for SAFETY Act Designation. The Pre-application Consultation is also intended to facilitate discussions regarding the SAFETY Act Application process.
A Pre-application Consultation will let you know whether the chances of your anti-terrorism technology (ATT) receiving SAFETY Act protections are promising, uncertain, doubtful, or rejected. However, a Pre-application Consultation is not a prerequisite for submitting a full application for SAFETY Act Designation.
By completing a Pre-application before applying for full SAFETY Act protections, an applicant will receive feedback from the DHS, which may be helpful or even essential to his or her application for Designation and/or Certification.
Once an applicant has completed a Pre-application, DHS officials will review it. If DHS officials decide they need more information , they will send a request for information (RFI). The applicant will be expected to respond to this RFI with the appropriate information. After reviewing the Pre-application, DHS officials will send a Pre-application recommendation indicating whether the technology's chances of becoming a QATT are promising, uncertain, doubtful, or rejected. Such feedback will help determine whether or not an applicant may want to complete an application for Designation.