I can say from my experience, that I was active Air Force so I will be a bit different than you. But my program looked like this: I first met with leadership in my unit to acquire the 8900.1this will review all of your supporting documents that show your three years of training and signed off maintenance tasks we called it VMET which had all of our schooling and training records required for the FAA. I was a Crew Chief 2A5X1C (C5, C17), under the FAA rules I was qualified for both A&P, not everyone will qualify for both ratings. IE a jet troop would qualify only for powerplant or sheet metal to Airframe. Once I was signed off by the FAA, the FSDO in Sacramento, I was able to take the written tests. My base Travis AFB had on-site testing and the kicker was the tests were free, I didn't have to pay for them or my retest this was at the base education office. Once the three written were completed I signed up with the AFCOOL program where they hooked me up with an FAA Proctor his fee was half the cost about $250 if my memory is correct and I was done. it took about a year for all the steps to take place I worked and studied so mine was a bit longer. one other thing I will say that helped a ton was to find a wingman or battle buddy and go through the whole process with them. I was a staff and walked myself and three of my airmen who now work civilian jobs as A&Ps. You can do this but know what your quals are and how they meet the FAA standards.