“I figured it would be really easy to get a concealed permit in Texas,” RF said. “I thought Texas was the wild west.” As a northeastern city boy, Farago probably assumed I could walk into an office, shake someone’s hand, look them dead in the eye, and receive my CHL permit. In fact, when I told him I wanted to do this series, I think he was skeptical that it would create more than two articles. But here we sit with a project that started at the very end of December, now reaching its final hurdle at the beginning of March . . .
Friday was my birthday. Normally, I buy myself something nice to celebrate. This year, the only thing I wanted was to get my CHL paperwork dropped off in person at the DPS office in Austin. I completed my state mandated class the prior weekend, and secured my passport-sized photos Wednesday night.
Luckily, I live in Austin; dropping the paperwork off was convenient and gave me peace of that my documents survived the trip. As I applied online, the document load is actually quite a bit lighter than the full application: my receipt for the online application and electronic fingerprinting, passport photos, photo ID information card, and a receipt from the state-mandated training class.
Click here for the full list for fees and all the rest of the bits you’ll need if you don’t apply online.
So now the great wait starts. Various sources say 30 to 60 days. I’m hoping that the Texas DPS hasn’t started taking cues from the ATF. In the interim, I’ll be checking the application status page every day for changes. Expect a final recap on this project when my new State ID card comes in the mail.