First NFA application! And a question!

[Madcap_Magician]

I e-filed my Form 1 to manufacture an SBR from my 8" Sig MPX pistol last Tuesday, and mailed my fingerprint cards today! Really excited. I was very careful in filling it out, but the interwebs does have some conflicting information. But hopefully it will go through.

My question is kind of retrospective - I did paper FD258 cards, which I requested from ATF, so they already had the appropriate ORI and requesting agency information.

Do digital print cards work just as well, as long as they're in the FD258 standard and not some other state or local format?

I am thinking probably so, and also I discovered my local sheriff can print on supplied cards, which would negate the question about the card format, but I discovered this too late to do them locally and went to the next county over yesterday for ink cards.

There's only one agency in my area that does ink prints, and it's a 20-minute drive and also they're 50% more expensive per card than the local agency, which will do a digital print card only but is also within walking distance of work over my lunch hour.

The other question, that probably no one knows is, does ATF start working on your documents right away based on your e-file submission, or does basically nothing happen until all your documents are in their hands, i.e. fingerprint cards?

 

[greyling22]

I can only.partially answer you last question: it took me 18 days to get my efile approval from the day I submitted my file online. I sent the my fingerprints 2 days later. On reddit/nfa they have a stamp megathread that people tell how long it took for approval. Currently efile is 15-22 days, and paper forms are 270-300 days.

 

[Spats McGee]

When I had my prints done to buy my suppressor, the sheriff's office used a scanner which then printed a card. For those of us who don't get fingerprinted very often, it was a bit of a surprise that there was no ink involved. As far as I could ever tell, that wasn't a problem for BATFE.

 

[MachIVshooter]

When I had my prints done to buy my suppressor, the sheriff's office used a scanner which then printed a card. For those of us who don't get fingerprinted very often, it was a bit of a surprise that there was no ink involved. As far as I could ever tell, that wasn't a problem for BATFE.

As I understand it, that method is much preferred, since the software will reject prints that aren't of a certain quality (a bit troublesome for those of us with lots of scars on our fingertips). One of the advantages is that I believe the digitally stored prints are valid for 2 years, so if you paid to have pics & prints done by your SOT, all you have to do is call them up to submit a new application during that timeframe. They print off your pics & prints, do their end of the F4 and you can just pick it up or have it mailed to you to finish before sending off to NFA branch.

 

[dogtown tom]

Remember, there is no requirement to have a law enforcement agency "roll" or scan your fingerprints.
You can do it yourself.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

When I had my prints done to buy my suppressor, the sheriff's office used a scanner which then printed a card. For those of us who don't get fingerprinted very often, it was a bit of a surprise that there was no ink involved. As far as I could ever tell, that wasn't a problem for BATFE.

Thanks! That's good to know. I will do that in the future.

Remember, there is no requirement to have a law enforcement agency "roll" or scan your fingerprints.
You can do it yourself.

Yep, I know. I just find it helpful to have someone else do it. I would have spent as much money on cards and ink practicing as I would just having them done right once by someone with experience.