(This post might really belong in the NFA section, but since it's Engage-specific, I'll leave it here for now. They can add whatever comments they want.)
Like many others, ATF 41F put me off of doing any more form 1s or form 4 transfers. I'm lucky in that my trust only has my wife and I as trustees; we're somewhat less lucky in that both of us have time-consuming jobs in DC, and getting the requisite fingerprinting at a police station or Livescan outlet is a nightmare for us schedule-wise.
One day, I noticed that Engage had obtained a SilencerShop kiosk, AND they were a SilencerCo dealer. I had been saving money for a SiCo Hybrid for years, so I felt like this was a sign that I should "pull the trigger" ("screw on the suppressor"?) and finally get this done. We worked out a time after work we could both make it over to the shop to see if we could make this happen. Alas, Carlos was not around to hold our hands through the process, but I figured that I was smart enough to make it work anyways.
I'm going to list these steps in the order I did them, but you could do them in nearly any order and probably still come out alright.
First: everyone on the trust should get their SS accounts set up on the web, even though you CAN create an account at the kiosk. Make sure you've got your email and password in order. SS has a link (which I can't get at work) where you can prefill out your trust details after doing this. Doing so will save you time. I didn't do that, so I did it all at the kiosk.
Second: go to Engage, and use the kiosk. They nominally have someone who will walk you through this, but it's really rather simple - put in your name, email, and password, and then follow the directions. Most of it is just typing in anything that you didn't put in in step one. Both of us went together, but you could easily do it separately.
When you are at the fingerprinting step, PAY ATTENTION. There is a very specific place on the pad they want you to put your fingers. I had to redo mine because I put my fingers too far forward. Otherwise, it's a pretty painless process, pretty much the best you could ask for.
Third: take pictures of the trustees with the SS app on your smartphone. This was surprisingly tricky - the app itself will crop the photo, so you really only need to make sure you get a good upper body shot with the entire head in the photo... I think we stood about five feet away when taking the photo, but YMMV. You can do this before the kiosk, I think.
Weirdly, the kiosk has a camera but can't actually take your picture. I guess because the background isn't white/off-white? That would be a nice improvement.
Fourth: buy the form 4 tax stamp off the SS website. It's $205. I assume you can do this any time after step one. (I assume that if you were buying a form 1 item, you'd buy the form 1 stamp and then follow their directions instead of going to step five.)
Fifth: you pay the shop for the form 4 item, and they set up the form 4 transaction on their SiCo dealer account. You'll get an email you have to digitally sign.
Sixth: wait forever for your stamp to come back. Oh well.
All in all, it's a relatively pain-free process and a huge improvement over how things used to work with pics and prints for form 1s/4s. I'd like for the kiosk to give a little more direction about things remaining to be done, but I think they're assuming a guided experience by trained personnel, versus me just poking at it and hoping for the best.
I am looking forward to using the SS system to do a form 1 in the future, albeit the emails to my wife about my activities may lead to more, uh, "disclosure" than I had with the previous stamps.
Like many others, ATF 41F put me off of doing any more form 1s or form 4 transfers. I'm lucky in that my trust only has my wife and I as trustees; we're somewhat less lucky in that both of us have time-consuming jobs in DC, and getting the requisite fingerprinting at a police station or Livescan outlet is a nightmare for us schedule-wise.
One day, I noticed that Engage had obtained a SilencerShop kiosk, AND they were a SilencerCo dealer. I had been saving money for a SiCo Hybrid for years, so I felt like this was a sign that I should "pull the trigger" ("screw on the suppressor"?) and finally get this done. We worked out a time after work we could both make it over to the shop to see if we could make this happen. Alas, Carlos was not around to hold our hands through the process, but I figured that I was smart enough to make it work anyways.
I'm going to list these steps in the order I did them, but you could do them in nearly any order and probably still come out alright.
First: everyone on the trust should get their SS accounts set up on the web, even though you CAN create an account at the kiosk. Make sure you've got your email and password in order. SS has a link (which I can't get at work) where you can prefill out your trust details after doing this. Doing so will save you time. I didn't do that, so I did it all at the kiosk.
Second: go to Engage, and use the kiosk. They nominally have someone who will walk you through this, but it's really rather simple - put in your name, email, and password, and then follow the directions. Most of it is just typing in anything that you didn't put in in step one. Both of us went together, but you could easily do it separately.
When you are at the fingerprinting step, PAY ATTENTION. There is a very specific place on the pad they want you to put your fingers. I had to redo mine because I put my fingers too far forward. Otherwise, it's a pretty painless process, pretty much the best you could ask for.
Third: take pictures of the trustees with the SS app on your smartphone. This was surprisingly tricky - the app itself will crop the photo, so you really only need to make sure you get a good upper body shot with the entire head in the photo... I think we stood about five feet away when taking the photo, but YMMV. You can do this before the kiosk, I think.
Weirdly, the kiosk has a camera but can't actually take your picture. I guess because the background isn't white/off-white? That would be a nice improvement.
Fourth: buy the form 4 tax stamp off the SS website. It's $205. I assume you can do this any time after step one. (I assume that if you were buying a form 1 item, you'd buy the form 1 stamp and then follow their directions instead of going to step five.)
Fifth: you pay the shop for the form 4 item, and they set up the form 4 transaction on their SiCo dealer account. You'll get an email you have to digitally sign.
Sixth: wait forever for your stamp to come back. Oh well.
All in all, it's a relatively pain-free process and a huge improvement over how things used to work with pics and prints for form 1s/4s. I'd like for the kiosk to give a little more direction about things remaining to be done, but I think they're assuming a guided experience by trained personnel, versus me just poking at it and hoping for the best.
I am looking forward to using the SS system to do a form 1 in the future, albeit the emails to my wife about my activities may lead to more, uh, "disclosure" than I had with the previous stamps.
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