Submitting Your Form 471 Application

The Form 471 application, in which you apply for E-rate funding, can be submitted to the SLD either online on the SLD's website, or on paper via mail or courier service. The completed applicaiton must be submitted and certified within the dates establised by USAC. This period of time is known as the Form 471 Filing Window. For the 2009 Funding Year, the Form 471 Filing Window closes at 11:59PM Eastern Time on February 12, 2009.

For Paper Applicants

Applications must be postmarked by the establised window closing deadline. The postmarks of applications that are received by the SLD after the close of the Form 471 Filing Window are checked to verify that they were postmarked prior to the filing window closing.

Applicants can use the postal service or a courier serivce that offers package tracking. Oftentimes, this is the only way to demonstrate that an application was on its way to the SLD prior to the close of the filing window.

When submitting your application on paper, be sure to include the completed application, including the certifications pages and the signature of the authorized signatiory for your organization. Omitting any portion of your application could put your opportunity at receiving E-rate discounts in jeopardy.

For Online Applicants

Applications must be submitted to the SLD's website by the close of the Filing Window. An applicant that is using the SLD's website in the process of preparing its application at the moment when the window closes is generally NOT considered to have timely filed the application, even if the application is submitted just a few minutes after the deadline.

Form Submission and Certification

There are two distinct steps to completing a Form 471 application on the SLD's website--submission and certification. The submission of the form must be completed by the close of the filing window. Users of the SLD's online system will receive an immediate confirmation that their Form 471 has been submitted successfully.

Users that have a PIN issued by USAC can then certify their Form 471 on the SLD's website. If the user does not have a PIN, or is otherwise inable to certify the submitted form online, they must send the certification pages of the Form 471 to the SLD on paper.

If an applicant has submitted Form 471 online and has not certified it by close of filing window then the applicant has 20 days to certify either online or on paper.  Applicants do not need to wait for the letter from USAC informing them that their 471 was not certified to arrive.