For those who have been following along with the gradual development of the new Federal Firearms Relief program, or as DOJ is calling it – Federal Firearms Rights Restoration, that was revived in March 2025, has hit its first delay.
Most recently, DOJ published a Final Rule on August 20, 2026, setting out the regulations that would govern the process moving forward, and at the same time, published an initial rollout schedule on their website. Under their published rollout schedule, the “Application opens to invited candidates” on September 25, 2026, or at least, it should have. How they chose who received such an invitation is anybody’s guess, but those candidates who were invited were instead given a September 25 deadline to register their request to be considered in this initial wave, and then informed that they would receive a link by no later than October 5, 2026, which would permit them access to an electronic application they would then be required to complete.
Instead, on October 5, those invited candidates who registered their interest received an email notifying them that the rollout had been delayed due to a technical issue and they would receive that link by no later than October 9, 2026.
It remains to be seen if they will make the October 9 deadline or what this delay means for the other rollout dates still published to their website.
If you received an invitation to apply for relief and want assistance completing your application or want to prepare to apply for relief with the greater public rollout in the future, contact us today.
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