Daryl Stout wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW{at}>> AFAIK, if you already have a license and you've successfully passed
 RW{at}>> a higher license exam, you may operate with the higher privileges
 RW{at}>> on your present class of license for 30 days or the day your new
 RW{at}>> license is delivered in the mail. If you aren't presently licensed,
 RW{at}>> you'll not be able to operate until you do have your license in
 RW{at}>> hand.

 DS>   Actually, the Certificate Of Successful Completion Of Examination
 DS> (CSCE) that an examinee receives for passing a license exam is good
 DS> for 365 calendar days after initial issuance. The only time an
 DS> examinee can't operate with a CSCE is if they don't have a callsign.

Not having a need to know, I wasn't familiar with this new rule.

 97.9   Operator license grant.

(a) The classes of amateur operator license grants are: Novice,
Technician, General, Advanced, and Amateur Extra. The person named in the
operator license grant is authorized to be the control operator of an
amateur station with the privileges authorized to the operator class
specified on the license grant.

(b) The person named in an operator license grant of Novice, Technician,
General or Advanced Class, who has properly submitted to the administering
VEs a FCC Form 605 document requesting examination for an operator license
grant of a higher class, and who holds a CSCE indicating that the person
has completed the necessary examinations within the previous 365 days, is
authorized to exercise the rights and privileges of the higher operator
class until final disposition of the application or until 365 days
following the passing of the examination, whichever comes first.

[75 FR 78169, Dec. 15, 2010]

 DS>   If they have the callsign, they can use the new privileges
 DS> immediately, with the special suffix identifiers, as follows:


         R\%/itt, K5RXT


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