The question “How long does it take municipality XYZ to issue ABC” is asked here frequently.
If you have recently applied, or applied in the past two years, for a FPID card, a Permit to Purchase a handgun, or a Concealed Weapons Permit, please share your experience here. This information will be helpful to applicants, and aid gun rights organizations in holding municipalities accountable.
You can either cut and paste, or highlight and quote the below text into your reply.
Municipality:
Permit Type:
Date Submitted:
Date Completed:
Municipality: Manalapan
Permit Type: PP
Date Submitted: 02/10/2025
Date Completed: 02/28/25
Probably would have been a week earlier but we have a retired officer who does it in our town, he’s in on Thursdays and I dropped off the $50 10 minutes after he had left for the day.
Municipality: Upper Township, Cape May County, serviced by Woodbine NJSP
Permit Type: PTC
Date Submitted: 12/15/2024
Date Completed: 2/14/2025
Additional Information: After 7 weeks I contacted the Firearms Investigator at Woodbine to find out how much longer it would be, because my initial permit (that took me over 7 months to obtain) was expiring. He promised to see if he could expedite the process, which he did. My permit arrived the next working day. So that FI deserves a bit of credit, NJSP itself, not so much.
I’m not sure if enough time has elapsed for this to be a concern yet. The initial permits for my wife and I took about 3 months, but it was the end of 2022 and they were monkeying around with the application process. My app went to the County Court and my wife’s stayed with the PD. We submitted the same day and she got hers a day before I got mine. Not sure what the common time frame is lately and guess it depends on the town. One way or another you will either get approved or denied so you’ll eventually hear something.
Stay positive and be ready to do it all again in 2 years. When my wife and I renewed in January 2025, that only took about 2 weeks for us so that seems about on par for handgun permits.
I do recall one time it was like over 2 months for permits which was unusual so I called the detective and she was like, yeah we will get to it… it’s in a pile of 1500 other applications! So it depends how busy they get and where you are in the queue and who might be on vacation when you apply.
There seems to be huge turnover in our PD, but also lots of new hires. We have 2x the number of cops we had 30 years ago but the town’s population is the same.
Before Bruen the cop who took care of many of my purchase permits was extremely pro-2A and used to poke fun at me for only asking for one permit at a time. He’s long gone and is probably now halfway through earning his second pension .
I’m going to wait until tomorrow, when the chief returns from what is likely a junket of some sort. He must have gone to Uzbekistan because his email message referred to a location “with limited email.”
The statute allows the PD to take up to 90 days to process a PTC application and they can tack on another 30 days by notifying the applicant.
Your 90 day window doesn’t close until September 26, so they are not obligated to do anything yet.
Once the application is deemed complete by the chief police officer or the superintendent, if it is not approved or denied by the chief police officer or the superintendent within 90 days of filing, it shall be deemed to have been approved; provided, however, the chief police officer or the superintendent may, for good cause shown and upon written notification to the applicant, extend by up to an additional 30 days the time period for which the application may be approved or denied. The written notification sent to the applicant shall provide a detailed explanation of the reasons for the extension. An applicant also may agree in writing to an additional extension of time past the 120 day statutory time frame.
Maybe this is a topic the ANJRPC can address. 120 days, 4 months, is ridiculous. My background check should have been a slam dunk.
I’m convinced at this point that my PD is purposely stalling in the hope that I let this lapse and have to start over. All five individuals in my personal sphere who applied got their permit between 5 days and 3 weeks after the last reference was completed.
The fact that they’re not responding to my emails doesn’t instill confidence.
Municipality: Cliffside Park
Permit Type: PP
Date Submitted: 08/17/2026
Date Completed: 08/26/2025
My PD is usually quick. I love it.
Additional Information: I figured it could help if someone is curious.
Form 1 AOW
Date Submitted: 05/10/2026
Date Completed: 08/09/2026
This one took forever.
.