How a SAPS firearm licence application moves
An application does not sit in one place. It moves along a chain of offices, and the status you see when you check a reference is the name of the stage it has reached. Knowing the order tells you whether something has moved recently and what should happen next.
Where the stage names come from
These are the status strings SAPS itself returns, not a description written from the outside. They are reproduced as SAPS words them, including a spelling inconsistency SAPS carries between two consecutive stages: one says LICENSING and the next says LICENCING.
That is a small thing, and it is the reason you can trust this list. It was observed, not composed.
The chain, in order
- Payment received.
- Received at the Designated Firearms Officer.
- In process at the DFO.
- Sent to the Provincial DFO.
- Received at the Provincial DFO for quality control.
- Sent to the Central Firearms Register.
- Received at the Central Firearms Register.
- Sent to the Licensing Section.
- Received at the Licensing Section.
- In preparation for consideration.
- For consideration.
- Preliminary approval.
- Approved.
What happens after approval
Approval is not the last step you have to take. Go to your DFO for a printout of your SAPS 526 authorisation to possess, which is what allows you to hold the firearm while the card is produced. The licence card follows, and SAPS sends an SMS when it is ready to collect.
How long each stage takes
SAPS publishes no official turnaround time. Its own FAQ answers the question by describing the last step rather than giving a period. 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We do not publish a figure of our own. We have not measured one, and repeating somebody else's is not the same thing as knowing.
What we can tell you is where an application is and what the next stage should be. When enough tracked applications have passed through to make an average mean something, it will appear here and it will be ours.
Where this comes from
- Observed SAPS status responses
This page describes how the process works and what the Act says. It is not legal advice about your own application.