Form 4 individual

Moorvogi · Jan 12, 2020

What drives the extreme difference in times for a form 4 individual? I’ve see some posts that say 3-6 months while I also see some that say it’s been over a year.

If your GUESSING... mark it as a guess. If you work for the atf and “know”... you should be processing more forms not replying here.

Guesses are welcome snd fun.

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ToolAA · Jan 12, 2020

Guess.

I understand that a lot of the responses depend on historically when you applied. There was a massive rush to submit form 1 and 4 trust applications prior to the rule change in July of 2016. I submitted three trust applications a few days prior and waited until june of 2017 for the stamps. So I suspect that individual form 4’s were also quite delayed during the same time period.

I suspect that since 2016 demand has remained quite high and if anything that probably has the most impact on turn around time. Recently I believe that Individual form 1’s and 4’s have been getting approved in about 2-4 months while trusts are still taking longer.

One thing is for sure, the sooner your turn in your paperwork the sooner it will get approved. Dont wait until the next scare and panic buy.

Moorvogi · Jan 13, 2020

ToolAA said:
Guess.

I understand that a lot of the responses depend on historically when you applied. There was a massive rush to submit form 1 and 4 trust applications prior to the rule change in July of 2016. I submitted three trust applications a few days prior and waited until june of 2017 for the stamps. So I suspect that individual form 4’s were also quite delayed during the same time period.

I suspect that since 2016 demand has remained quite high and if anything that probably has the most impact on turn around time. Recently I believe that Individual form 1’s and 4’s have been getting approved in about 2-4 months while trusts are still taking longer.

One thing is for sure, the sooner your turn in your paperwork the sooner it will get approved. Dont wait until the next scare and panic buy.

Great feedback. This makes sense too. It could also be people trolling SAYING they applied and are still waiting. Perhaps they have a questionable background. Who knows.

I like the last paragraph you wrote. Hahaha much like I tell people about MD W&C, you’ll never get approved if you never apply.

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Pinecone · Jan 13, 2020

There is a thread in the NFA section with people posting their ACTUAL results in turn around times.

alucard0822 · Jan 13, 2020

Have a few here, but a LOT of people posting on Reddit about wait times, F4 individual has been 6-12mo for the last couple years, F4 Trusts were similar, but maybe a couple months longer. Seems currently most F4Ts are 10-12months, F4I around 8-10mo, but there are a handful of F4I getting really quick approvals, like 2-3mo. When the NFA branch moved last year, as the story goes, they just started pulling apps from the top of the pile after the payment went through, giving fast approvals. Problem was that people that submitted apps before the February budget shutdown were basically stacked up at the bottom of the pile, and were royally PO'ed when people submitting apps months more recent were getting approved. There was a rumor the ATF got enough complaints about slow service that they tried to knock out a lot of apps that were recently submitted to get the AVERAGE wait times down, when people started questioning it, they stopped, but maybe not entirely. There is also the promise of E-file coming back to F4's, they were supposed to be in the works last year, but nothing yet, if F4s do join all the other forms online, you might get routine 30-90 day approvals, Basically expect the current wait times when purchasing, the Reddit NFA approvals threads tend to be relatively accurate in predicting wait time, or at least if you have waited long enough, you may "win" a fast approval, but likely it will be 8-12mo.

Lousy Shot · Feb 4, 2020

My guess is that the actual paperwork and background check takes about 15 minutes but there are so few people working in that department that it takes half a year or more to get to anyone's application. Question...is ATF doing any more checking than the "instant check" to buy and take home a rifle?

mattsomer · Feb 4, 2020

Moorvogi said:
What drives the extreme difference in times for a form 4 individual? I’ve see some posts that say 3-6 months while I also see some that say it’s been over a year.

If your GUESSING... mark it as a guess. If you work for the atf and “know”... you should be processing more forms not replying here.

Guesses are welcome snd fun.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Different examiners have different wait times. Not sure if it still works this way but they used to assign examiners by the first letter of your last name.

Form 4 individual

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