Check your SAPS firearm licence, renewal or competency application status

SAPS publishes no official turnaround time. Its own FAQ answers this question by describing the last step: once the safe inspection is reported, the licence is printed and sent to the DFO. Sources outside SAPS commonly quote somewhere between 90 and 180 days, and longer waits are common. We do not publish a figure of our own, because we have not measured one and repeating somebody else's is not the same thing. What we can tell you is which of the thirteen recorded stages your application has reached and what normally comes next. Most of the waiting happens after your file leaves the station, which is why an application can sit unchanged for weeks and then move several steps at once.

SAPS usually sends it to you by SMS once the Designated Firearms Officer has captured your application, which can take several weeks after you hand it in. If the SMS never arrives, the DFO at the station where you applied can look the number up for you. Enter it at the top of this page to see where your application stands.

A competency certificate says you are legally permitted to hold firearms at all, and you apply for it on form SAPS 517. A licence is for one specific firearm, on form SAPS 271. A renewal extends a licence you already hold, on form SAPS 518(a). They are separate applications with separate reference numbers, and SAPS will not grant a licence or a renewal unless you hold a valid and relevant competency certificate.

It depends on the section of the Firearms Control Act it was issued under. Section 13, a firearm for self-defence, runs five years. Section 14, a restricted firearm for self- defence, runs two. Sections 15, 16 and 16A, for occasional, dedicated and professional hunting and sports shooting, and section 17, a private collection, all run ten. Your competency certificate has no separate expiry calendar of its own: SAPS states it stays valid for the same period as the licence it relates to.

You must submit the renewal to your DFO at least 90 days before your current licence expires, meaning 90 days or more, not at some point inside the final 90. Lodge it that early and your existing licence stays legally valid until the application has been decided, and SAPS counts it as decided only once any appeal is finished. Leave it later and you lose that protection; let the licence expire without renewing and it lapses, and you are then in unlawful possession of the firearm.

You may not lawfully possess a firearm on an expired licence, and a lapsed licence cannot be renewed. The route SAPS has directed people to is a fresh licence application backed by a valid competency, handled through your DFO. This has been through the courts more than once and the position has moved, so do not act on anything you read online, including this page. Speak to your DFO and to an attorney.

A licence application moves through thirteen recorded stages, from the payment being captured, through the DFO and the provincial office, to the Central Firearms Register. "For consideration" means it is being assessed at the CFR with no decision recorded yet, and "preliminary approval" is the step before a final one. This site maps whatever wording SAPS returns onto that ladder and tells you what normally comes next.

Section 133 of the Firearms Control Act gives you a right of appeal to the Appeal Board. Regulation 91 requires the appeal to be noted within 90 days after the date on which the Registrar made the decision, not 90 days from the day the notice reached you, which may be later. That deadline is short and it is strict, so get advice quickly rather than waiting.

Section 13 covers one firearm for self-defence: a handgun that is not fully automatic, or a shotgun that is neither semi-automatic nor fully automatic. Section 15, for occasional hunting and sports shooting, covers four, but holding a section 13 licence leaves you three. Sections 16 and 16A, for dedicated and professional hunting and sports shooting, carry no limit on the number. Section 91 limits you to 200 cartridges for each licensed firearm, and that limit does not apply to a dedicated hunter, a dedicated sports person or a professional hunter, nor to ammunition bought and discharged at an accredited shooting range.

A safe is required, and the regulations name the standard: it must conform to South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) 953-1 and 953-2. The duty applies whenever the firearm is not under your direct personal and physical control, and it covers the ammunition too. In practice SAPS asks late in the process: once your application has been considered the DFO will ask you to obtain and install one within 14 days, then inspects your premises to confirm it. Budget for it before your licence arrives rather than after.

For the 2025/26 year the published fees are R92 for a competency certificate, R183 for a licence to possess a firearm, and R92 to renew a licence. The DFO issues a remittance advice which you take to the station's financial office; payment is by cash or bank-guaranteed cheque, and you hand the receipt back to the DFO. Training at an accredited provider is separate and costs considerably more. These fees are raised most years, and SAPS's own pages are not always current, so confirm the amount with your DFO before you go.

No. We are independent of the South African Police Service and the Central Firearms Register, and we are not endorsed by or acting for any government body. We send your reference to the same public SAPS enquiry page you could use yourself, and present the answer more clearly. We cannot influence or speed up an application.

Yes, for a licence that has not yet expired. Section 24 requires the application at least 90 days before expiry and requires you to show you have continued to comply. Our renewal motivation is written as the additional motivation to the sworn Annexure to SAPS 518(a), for one firearm, from your own answers. An expired licence cannot be renewed; the route is a fresh application, and that is our motivation letter.