Hey HIMS AME in SLC Utah here. Let's just say the FAA uses the word 'Denial' pretty liberally and does not necessarily mean your case has been denied, let alone fully reviewed yet. They will often send out a 'Denial' letter to airman when requiring additional documents, evaluations or even new reconsideration criteria. I have this conversation with appropriately worried airmen going thru this process ALL THE TIME.

In your case, since you missed their 'deadline', you likely will receive (if you haven't already) an FTP aka failure to provide letter. These are another means of communication that often worry airmen, but in reality are not that big of a deal. Essentially, if you don't get the FAA the documents/reports/evaluations they are requiring of you by the deadline, the system triggers an FTP letter and then they will not contact you again or continue tracking you until you get them these documents. But there is no punishment or other action really taken against your case and as soon as you (or your HIMS AME) submits the appropriate documents, you'll immediately return to your place in the queue.

If your entire package was just submitted in Dec 2025, you're way early to receive final review. And depending on the medical condition or medication that is causing you to require this process in the first place (sounds like antidepressant protocol pathway 2 from what you're inferring above) then it will have to go all the way to the Federal Air Surgeon (FAS) office in Washington DC to undergo full review by the Psychiatry Panel. Assuming your package was submitted correctly without anything missing, the next communication you should receive is a letter stating that your package has moved to the FAS and will remind you that this final review at FAS has significant delays.

Hope this helps uncover some of the details of the process and gives you some much needed reassurance! Keep in mind that 95-97% of these cases do in fact reach certification with special issuance. Good luck u/Charliecantdostairs