ATF Posts New Processing Times for Applications and Variance Requests

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently posted new processing times for National Firearms Act (NFA) transfer applications, Gun Control Act (GCA) license applications, and explosives applications.

Processing times of most interest to firearms industry members are the following:

In addition, the current processing time for ATF Form 4, Application for Tax-Paid Transfer and Registration of Firearms, is six months. Industry members may recall that within the past two years processing time for this form was as high as ten months.

The decrease in processing time is attributable to ATF’s recent hiring of more Examiners to process NFA registration and transfer documents. However, ATF officials advise the agency has received hundreds of thousands of transfer applications during the months of May and June as industry members try to avoid the requirements of recent regulatory changes.  The changes to 27 C.F.R. Part 479, require that all responsible persons of trusts and legal entities such as partnerships and corporations submit photographs and fingerprints when the entity submits an application to make or transfer a firearm subject to the National Firearms Act.

Previous regulations allowed the transfer of NFA firearms to trusts and other legal entities without any photographs and fingerprints. The new requirements became effective on July 13, 2016, and ATF has been deluged with transfer applications submitted under the old requirements. It is likely that processing times for Forms 4 (and potentially other NFA forms) will increase with application volume.

The updated information on ATF’s website indicates the processing times indicated are those applicable to paper forms only. Processing times may be significantly less for electronic forms. Read More