Both notices start the same clock, and it is short. An applicant who wants a hearing to review the denial of an original or renewal application files a request, in duplicate, with the Director of Industry Operations within 15 days after receipt of the notice of denial, and the request should include a statement of the reasons for it. A licensee who wants a hearing after receiving a notice of suspension or revocation, or the imposition of a civil fine, files the same way: in duplicate, with the Director of Industry Operations, within 15 days after receipt. The two routes converge on one desk and one deadline.

The consequence of letting the 15 days pass differs by route, and it is worth being precise about. On a denial, the application is disapproved and returned marked as such — the merits are never examined by anyone, and nothing about the reasons for denial is ever tested. On a suspension or revocation, the notice takes effect on its own terms. This part provides no further opportunity to request a hearing once the fifteen days have run, on either route, so the action is the same whichever notice arrived: file inside the fifteen days.

How the notice reaches you determines when the clock starts, and this is where the deadline is most often lost. Every notice and document required to be served under this subpart is served by certified mail with return receipt requested, or by personal delivery — to the applicant or licensee at the address stated on their application or license, or at their last known address. For a corporation, partnership, or association, personal delivery may be made to an officer, manager, or general agent, or to its attorney of record. Service is complete on delivery to the address on file, not on the day the envelope is opened; § 2.3 flagged this for applicants, and it governs licensees identically.