DOJ Gun Rights Restoration Portal Hits 5,000-Applicant Limit on First Day
The Justice Department (DOJ) opened its Federal Firearm Rights Restoration application to the public on November 4, 2026, and by the end of that day the portal was full. According to DOJ’s application page, the Department has reached its limit of 5,000 new applicants and cannot accept any new starts. The site will reopen in January 2027. People who already began an application can still log in, finish, and submit; anyone who didn’t start before the cap hit will have to wait for the next window.
That first public opening is the start of a program that’s been effectively dead for more than 30 years. Congress left 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) on the books, but appropriations riders dating to the early 1990s starved the old ATF process until it stopped. The Attorney General’s authority never went away; the funding did. On August 17, 2026, DOJ announced a final rule putting the process back online through the Office of the Pardon Attorney rather than Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives(ATF).
Section 922(g) is the federal prohibited-person list covering felons, fugitives, unlawful drug users, certain mental health findings, certain aliens, dishonorable discharges, citizenship renunciants, and qualifying domestic violence orders or misdemeanors. Section 925(c) is the relief valve. It lets the Attorney General restore federal firearm rights if the applicant is not likely to endanger public safety and if granting relief is consistent with the public interest.
That standard is discretionary. A grant isn’t automatic just because someone finished a sentence. DOJ’s rule also sets out presumptive disqualifiers, some permanent and some that run for five or ten years after a sentence is complete. Extraordinary circumstances can overcome a presumption in some cases.
One important limit, according to DOJ: federal relief doesn’t wipe out a separate state or tribal firearm ban. If a state still bars someone, that person may need a state process too.
DOJ chose a phased launch on purpose. The Department’s FAQ says a working restoration program hasn’t been in place for over 30 years, and DOJ wants to test the platform and its procedures before opening the floodgates. September 25, 2026, was invite-only. November 4 opened the first public slot for 5,000 applicants, first come, first served. That slot is now closed to new starts. On January 4, 2027, DOJ plans to take 500 more applicants and start collecting the $30 fee, specifically to test the payment portal. After that, the Department says it will open access more broadly once it trusts the process.
For people who missed the November rush, the next hard date is January 4, 2027, and even then the window is only 500 deep.
There’s no paper form. Applications are online only, OMB Form 1123-0017, through justice.gov/ffrr. According to DOJ, applicants should collect documents first. Once the electronic application is started, there’s a 30-day clock to finish and submit. Miss that window and the application has to be started over. If an applicant loses the link and PIN, the Office of the Pardon Attorney says it cannot recover them, and the person may have to begin again.
Fingerprints come after the first part of the e-application, not before. DOJ emails a QR code, and electronic fingerprints are then taken at a participating U.S. Post Office. Showing up at a post office before that QR code arrives doesn’t help, the Department said.
Applicants also need three character references. The references can’t be related by blood or marriage, must have known the applicant for at least three years, and can’t themselves be prohibited under § 922(g). After the application is submitted, those references get a link and PIN and affirm a checklist under penalty of perjury. DOJ’s FAQ advises confirming they’ll fill it out before naming them. If one declines, the applicant can swap them on the status page, but DOJ won’t email when a reference fails to respond.
The $30 fee begins with the January 2027 stage. Fingerprints and record pulls can cost more on top of that. Fee waivers for indigency are supposed to be available; DOJ says more waiver details are coming.
Mental health cases under § 922(g)(4) have an extra gate. If a state or territory runs a relief-from-disabilities program that meets the NICS Improvement Amendments Act standard, applicants generally have to exhaust that first. If the jurisdiction offers no relief at all, they can go federal without the state stop. DOJ’s current no-relief list is Arkansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Wyoming, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. That list can change.
A grant means the Attorney General or a designee decided restoration isn’t likely to endanger the public and is consistent with the public interest. DOJ publishes the names of people granted relief in the Federal Register, as § 925(c) requires. The Office of the Pardon Attorney keeps those records and shares them with NICS. Granted applicants may also get an RPIN to use when buying a firearm. PARDON still won’t call a gun dealer or override a NICS decision.
A denial can be challenged in the U.S. district court where the applicant lives. Waiting periods before reapplying depend on why the person was denied, and some presumptions are permanent while others are timed.
For three decades, prohibited people who’d rebuilt their lives had almost no federal path back, and state restorations often didn’t clear a federal disability. The November 4 open-and-close showed both that demand is real and that DOJ is still metering access in the hundreds and thousands, not the tens of thousands. That metering will frustrate people who waited years for this window, and it also means the January 4, 2027, reopen is likely to fill fast. Anyone serious about applying should have court records, criminal history reports, proof that every sentence term is finished, and three willing references lined up before hitting start. Thirty days isn’t a lot of time to chase paperwork that should’ve been gathered first.
For now the portal is closed to new applicants. According to DOJ’s application page, it reopens in January 2027, with the next intake of 500 set for January 4.
About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and constitutional activist with more than 26 years of experience in networking and cybersecurity for major Fortune 100 companies. John has written about firearms, the Constitution, and cybersecurity, and has interviewed people from all walks of life. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons. Follow him on X at @right2bear, or at www.crumpy.com.