E-Form4 information

[tylerwhat]

How long are you guys typically seeing between signing your e-docs and being ready to certify at your dealer?

Just under 2 months for me. I'm using a smaller dealer that I don't think does a lot of NFA stuff though. Was beginning to get a bit frustrated and then they finally came through.

 

[TX_Diver]

The shop I purchased my suppressor from just had his first e filed form 4 approved. It was 29 days from submission to when he got the approval email. The method was efile form 4 and physically mail in fingerprint card separately, as he is not equipped with a fingerprint scanning kiosk. My dealer believes it went through so fast because this individual had just had a paper form 4 approved in November. My eform 4 was submitted the exact method and dealer as the guy that was approved in 29 days. For me it has now been about 50 days since I submitted.


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Now you’re gonna get my hopes up…

 

[B_Reynolds_AK]

Jan. 8th: Purchased my Dead Air Mask on SilencerShop website.

Jan. 17: Physically went to my dealer, Alaska Ammo, in Anchorage to use the Kiosk for fingerprints and completed DocuSign.

Feb. 10: eForm4 Ready to Certify at Dealer.

To be continued..


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[RyanT26]

Purchased a suppressor through SilencerShop on 1/29/22. They already had my prints on file so I had the trust paperwork completed same day.

Never received The ready to certify email. Logged on today to see where I was at in the process. In my account it shows that I am indeed ready to certify. Got excited for a moment.
I called the dealer and spoke with one of the employees, he could not have less of a *ucking clue. Keeps telling me I need to contact SilencerShop. Explained numerous times that the latest information from SilencerShop is that I need to contact dealer and have them certify and submit the form 4. Guys not having any of it so before I lose my temper I decided I will check with SS to make sure I’m not misunderstanding something.

Contact SS after being on hold approximately 25 minutes and they clarify that I am in fact ready to certify and can be done remotely.
Call back my dealer and speak to a different employee, thank God!
She explained to this will be the first one they will have completed using this new process. But says she can take care of it. Things are looking up.
Never mind whatever website or portal they use is down, Try back tomorrow.

Overalls spent about a hour and made little to no progress. I’m pretty much at the point any time I deal with anything involving the 3 suppressors (2 paper 1 eform) that I currently have in various stages of this Jackwagon process it just pisses me off more and more that it is this difficult to purchase a suppressor.

 

[BlueHeeler42]

Gotcha. So you can do paper copies even with the efile? I was looking for options for using a local dealer without the SS kiosk. I was reading in some other places and it looks like there's a print scan company that you can go to to get a digital (EFT) file of your fingerprints to upload with the efile.

PrintScan is the company I used; they directly state that their .EFT fingerprint scan files can be used for submittal to the ATF. I believe the process I followed was hopping on their website and finding a PrintScan equipped company nearby (mine was a UPS store 50 minutes away), setting up an appointment and paying around $45. The fingerprinting process was fairly straightforward and self-guided using the PrintScan machine. Upon completion they’ll email you your fingerprints in the ATF eForm format (.EFT) in about 24-72 hours.

Note there is a backlog due to people taking advantage of this service, so my prints didn’t find their way to me until about 9 days later. I haven’t submitted my eForm4 yet so I can’t comment on their effectiveness, but several others I know have with PrintScan EFTs and they haven’t had any issues yet.

Here’s a link to the site:

PrintScan - Fingerprinting Locations Near Me

Learn more about PrintScan's fingerprinting locations near you.

www.printscan.com

 

[RyanT26]

Back on the phone today with my powered by SilencerShop dealer who is supposed to know all about certifying and submitting the Eform 4. First employee I have contact with says sure no problem, about 60 seconds later she ask if I can be put on hold. Not a great sign.
After a few minutes on hold a different employee picks up the phone and begins the conversation with “you have questions about purchasing a suppressor“. I clarify that’s not the case and explain again that I need to certify and submit my E form 4. He starts to tell me that I need to contact SilencerShop to do that. I lose my patience is and tell him he is full of shit. I continued to explain after speaking with SilencerShop yesterday this is something that is powered by SS dealer should know how to do.
Miraculously he all of a sudden remembers email they received from SS about the process. After a while on the phone with him he explains he can see that everything is done but cannot certify it due to what he described as software compatibility issues between SS and their store.

Said he was gonna call SS to try to figure this out and call me back. I guessing I don’t get a call back. Not sure what to do from here.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Back on the phone today with my powered by SilencerShop dealer who is supposed to know all about certifying and submitting the Eform 4. First employee I have contact with says sure no problem, about 60 seconds later she ask if I can be put on hold. Not a great sign.
After a few minutes on hold a different employee picks up the phone and begins the conversation with “you have questions about purchasing a suppressor“. I clarify that’s not the case and explain again that I need to certify and submit my E form 4. He starts to tell me that I need to contact SilencerShop to do that. I lose my patience is and tell him he is full of shit. I continued to explain after speaking with SilencerShop yesterday this is something that is powered by SS dealer should know how to do.
Miraculously he all of a sudden remembers email they received from SS about the process. After a while on the phone with him he explains he can see that everything is done but cannot certify it due to what he described as software compatibility issues between SS and their store.

Said he was gonna call SS to try to figure this out and call me back. I guessing I don’t get a call back. Not sure what to do from here.

I hate that for you. I am so glad that my shop is on top of things. I got the email from SilencerShop to sign my stuff via Docusign on a Monday, approximately 17 days after purchasing the suppressor, which considering it had to be Form 3'ed from the distributor (who actually wasn't SS) to my dealer is pretty good time. On Wednesday I got a call from my dealer that I was ready to certify. The first attempt was made at about 1:30 eastern time and while I could get in to the session, it kept freezing up. My dealer stated that it was probably because of the demand at the time (lunch time in Central land), so she suggested she call me back at 6pm if I was OK with that. I was, and she did. 5 minutes later, I put my pin and and within another 5 minutes I got the email from the ATF that my Form had been submitted.

For anyone in Upstate South Carolina, the dealer is Upstate Armory Group. They know what they are doing and they will eForm your Form 4 through SS even if the suppressor doesn't come from SS.

 

[RyanT26]

I hate that for you. I am so glad that my shop is on top of things. I got the email from SilencerShop to sign my stuff via Docusign on a Monday, approximately 17 days after purchasing the suppressor, which considering it had to be Form 3'ed from the distributor (who actually wasn't SS) to my dealer is pretty good time. On Wednesday I got a call from my dealer that I was ready to certify. The first attempt was made at about 1:30 eastern time and while I could get in to the session, it kept freezing up. My dealer stated that it was probably because of the demand at the time (lunch time in Central land), so she suggested she call me back at 6pm if I was OK with that. I was, and she did. 5 minutes later, I put my pin and and within another 5 minutes I got the email from the ATF that my Form had been submitted.

For anyone in Upstate South Carolina, the dealer is Upstate Armory Group. They know what they are doing and they will eForm your Form 4 through SS even if the suppressor doesn't come from SS.

The dealer did call me back after two hours and stated he’s been on hold with SS for an hour and a half. I think I’m just gonna see if I can’t file it the old at this point and just wait it out I guess.

Called the dealer back this afternoon. Of course the gentleman I talked to earlier that seemed like he was somewhat helpful is not in. So I had to go through the whole goddamn process again with the new person. Got nowhere. FML
So….. I contact SilencerShop and after a lengthy wait time, which is always super fun, I switch it back to a paper application. 10-12 month wait time is what I was told.
Maybe with a little luck it will go through a little quicker with people using eform process.

 

[LeftyWilbury]

As someone who works with a gun store selling NFA items, here's what we're seeing currently with SS e-form fun: You submit your paperwork electronically and SS eventually sends you an email saying Ready to Certify. You call your dealer and your dealer says, "um, lemme check. Nope, not seeing it in our available to certify list." You get pissed off at your dealer. You call SS, wait 2 hours to get someone on the phone, they say, it's ready to certify. Call your dealer." You call your dealer. Same answer as before, which makes you understandably unhappy. Your dealer calls SS, waits 2 hours to talk to someone. SS may or may not confirm it's not actually showing in dealer's list of suppressors to certify. And may or may not have a solution for when it's not. Rinse, repeat as necessary.

Always good to get thrown under the bus.

And just a head's up, in our talks with the ATF, the reason there's a loooong wait with getting a stamp back is that background checks go through the FBI, and there's no requirement they actually do them in a timely fashion. So the FBI takes their time. Don't expect submitting anything digitally to change that fact.

There's probably a reason there's a question mark at the end of "Your ATF e-Form 4: Approved in 90 days?" I mean it COULD happen. A huge asteroid once slammed into earth and ****** up the dinosaurs. Weird shit happens.

 

[RyanT26]

Update to my previous update. My local dealer got back to me this week. The employee stated it was something on their end and after working with SilencerShop they were able to get it corrected so they should be able to certify and submit.
It was nice that he was honest about what the issue was and that it is now hopefully corrected. I explained to him I’ve already advised SS to submit it the old way and I don’t have an 1 1/2 - 2 hours to spend on hold with SS to try to switch it back. Hopefully the handful of other people that we’re waiting for the dealer to figure this out will get their suppressor in 90 days now sounds like I will be waiting 10 to 12 months.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Silencer Central did a podcast with Backcountry hunting podcast.
Atf goal is to get to 90 days eventually. That is not there projection currently, just means they will keep adding people and improvements until they get it down to 90 days. But they put no timeline on that so they may not try to do it for years. He also said he thought maybe they would hold back for awhile on e form to discourage everyone from over loading it.
They are just getting to Mar 2021 paper and 200k were submitted that month.
So yeah. Don't hold your breath.

 

[LeftyWilbury]

Here's what we just saw with SS. After weeks of being told by customers that SS said it's on US to take the steps to certify yet nothing being available in our SS account to actually certify....yesterday we had ELEVEN suppressors appear awaiting certification. Some of them had been submitted by customers around December 15....and just showed up in our account March 2. So some of our customers have lost 3.5 months just waiting for SS to get their um, ducks in a row.... And when we attempted to log into our SS account and move the process forward, their site just spun for hours....because I'm sure they just figured out a glitch that affected a boatload of dealers and now everyone is trying to clear a backlog of paperwork for pissed off customers.

And don't think we haven't attempted many times to actually get in touch with SS. Our phone wait time is the same as yours, with about the same level of assistance you're getting...if and when we get someone on the line.

Ah the sweet joys of technological progress. Stick with paper. At least that process is tried and true and will probably end up quicker due to everyone thinking e-forms is going to make santa appear in june.

 

[Dunky]

I went in to certify the other day with the same result. Spinning computer forever. Wasn’t able to do it. Going to try again today.

 

[twall13]

I purchased a couple of suppressors from Silencer Central at the Hunt Expo (they had the fingerprint scanners all set up there at the show). I just certified over the phone with them today. They told me this starts the clock and it's 30-90 days for a response, then it goes to the local sheriff's department before they ship it out to me. She told me her understanding is they have to respond within 90 days. I'm not sure I believe it, but we'll see how things go. Either way, I'm excited to get my first suppressors.

 

[Msowa]

The E forms site hasn't been playing nice with silencershop's Full Auto program since day 1. I've had some very frustrating sessions trying to certify form4's...there are some work arounds but not many. I know the eforms site goes down for monthly work the 2nd saturday of the month for the whole weekend so hopefully there is some positive progress by SS IT department. To say it's been rough is an understatement, and honestly not surprising. I still feel e form4 will be faster than paper in the long run, even with these initial delays

 

[Northpark]

I have one form 4 efiled on February 12th and just had a second one submitted today. I’ll be curious to see how long it really takes.

 

[Lawnboi]

The E forms site hasn't been playing nice with silencershop's Full Auto program since day 1. I've had some very frustrating sessions trying to certify form4's...there are some work arounds but not many. I know the eforms site goes down for monthly work the 2nd saturday of the month for the whole weekend so hopefully there is some positive progress by SS IT department. To say it's been rough is an understatement, and honestly not surprising. I still feel e form4 will be faster than paper in the long run, even with these initial delays

Strange that there are so many problems and so many different experiences.

I had two cans go through the silencershop software very smoothly, in mid January.

 

[huntsman22]

I bought 3 Banish cans from Silencer Central on Dec 20th. They ran my card on 12/22. Set up my ATF eform acct on 12/23. I returned digital photo and mailed fingerprint cards the same day they notified me. Then, SC dicked around until certify call on Feb 19th. I received emails from the ATF on Feb 26th saying they were 'submitted'. They still don't show up on my ATF account. Do any of you guys have your purchases show up on the ATF site?

 

[ID_Matt]

I did it through a local dealer. Not SC or SS and mine doesn’t show on my atf account. Got the email a few weeks ago saying it was submitted and pending but nothing on the site.


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[Lawnboi]

I did it through a local dealer. Not SC or SS and mine doesn’t show on my atf account. Got the email a few weeks ago saying it was submitted and pending but nothing on the site.


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It won’t apparently.