Part 107 Waivers Explained: What You Can Get, How Long It Takes, and When to Bother

Part 107 is a rule set, and every rule set needs an escape hatch. The waiver system is that hatch: a formal way to ask the FAA for permission to break one specific rule for one specific kind of operation. Most pilots will never need one. The pilots who do need one usually discover it at the worst possible time, mid-conversation with a client whose job requires exactly the thing the rules forbid. Here is how the system works before you are in that conversation.

Quick answer: a Part 107 waiver is FAA permission to deviate from a specific waivable rule, like flying over people or beyond visual line of sight. You apply through the FAA’s Aviation Safety Hub portal with a description of the operation and a safety case. The FAA aims to decide within 90 days, and it is only worth pursuing for repeatable work, not one-off jobs.

What can actually be waived

Only specific sections of Part 107 are waivable. The ones that matter in practice:

• Operations over people (107.39) and over moving vehicles (107.145). The big one for event work, filming, and any job where you cannot clear the area below. Note that the 2021 rule change created categories of flight over people that are legal without a waiver if your drone qualifies, so check whether you actually need the waiver first.
• Beyond visual line of sight (107.31). The holy grail. BVLOS waivers exist but are slow and demanding, and the pending Part 108 rule is expected to replace much of this need eventually. We have a separate post on where that stands.
• Operation from a moving vehicle (107.25). Relevant for corridor work like pipelines and rail, in sparsely populated areas.
• Night lighting (107.29(a)(2) and (b)). Night flight itself has been legal since 2021 for pilots with the updated night training and a three-mile anti-collision strobe, and the FAA terminated every pre-2021 night waiver in May of that year. The only thing left to waive is the lighting requirement itself, for an operation that genuinely cannot fly with the strobe. The night training requirement is not waivable.
• Altitude above 400 feet in certain cases (107.51(b)) and a few others.

What you cannot waive: the certificate requirement, the prohibition on careless or reckless operation, the drug and alcohol rules. The waiver system bends procedures, not fundamentals.

How the application actually works

New applications run through the FAA’s Aviation Safety Hub, the interactive system that took over Part 107 waiver applications from FAADroneZone. You pick the rule you want waived, describe the operation (where, when, what aircraft, what mitigation), and make the safety case: how you will achieve an equivalent level of safety without following the rule as written. The FAA is not grading your enthusiasm. It is grading whether you understood the risk the rule exists to control and engineered around it.

The applications that fail read like requests: “I need to fly over people for a wedding.” The ones that succeed read like engineering documents: the aircraft has these failure modes, here is the parachute or prop-guard mitigation, here is the maximum population density in the operating area, here is how the crew is briefed, here is the lost-link behavior. You are writing a small safety management system. Take it seriously or do not bother.

Timelines, honestly

The FAA’s stated goal is to approve or deny within 90 days of submission, and actual timing varies with the complexity of the request and the completeness of the application. Complex requests like BVLOS can run past that, usually with rounds of FAA questions in between. Approvals also come with conditions, sometimes narrow ones, so the waiver you get may not cover the job you imagined. Read the grant letter like a contract, because it is one.

Denied applications are not the end. The denial usually tells you what was missing, and you can reapply with a better safety case. But each round costs time, which is why the calculus below matters.

When a waiver is worth it, and when it is not

The test is repeatability. A waiver makes sense when the operation it unlocks recurs: an events company that shoots festivals every month, a filming operation that always works near talent, an inspection firm building toward corridor work. The three months of paperwork amortizes across years of jobs.

A waiver makes no sense for the one-off. If a client wants a drone over a crowd at one wedding, the waiver will arrive months after the cake is eaten. The professional answer to that client is a redesigned shot, a telescoping mast, or a zoom from outside the crowd, not a promise the FAA cannot keep on your schedule.

Waivers versus airspace authorization

The most common confusion in commercial drone work: these are different permissions from different systems. Airspace authorization says you may fly in this controlled airspace, at this altitude, at this time, and it usually comes through LAANC in near real time. A waiver says you may break this operating rule. A downtown night job over a sidewalk could legally require an airspace authorization, nothing for night (since 2021), and possibly a waiver for operations over people depending on your drone’s category. Untangling which permissions a job needs is a core professional skill, and it starts with knowing the base rules cold, which is, not coincidentally, what the certification test is actually testing.

Common questions

What rules can be waived under Part 107?

The waivable sections include the night anti-collision lighting rule, flying over people, flying over moving vehicles, beyond visual line of sight, operations from a moving vehicle, and certain altitude and airspace provisions. You cannot waive the big structural rules, like the requirement to hold the certificate itself.

How long does a Part 107 waiver take?

The FAA’s stated goal is to approve or deny within 90 days of submission, and actual timing varies with the complexity of the request and how complete the application is. Complex requests like BVLOS can take longer, and FAA questions during review add more time.

How much does a Part 107 waiver cost?

The real work is the safety case. Writing a good one takes time, which is why consultants sell waiver-writing services. Check the FAA’s waiver page for any current fees before you file.

What is the difference between a waiver and airspace authorization?

Airspace authorization (LAANC or DroneZone) is permission to fly in controlled airspace at a specific place and time. A waiver is permission to break an operating rule, like flying over people. A job can need both, and they are applied for separately.