I realize that any status check on a pending NFA transaction is only a phone call away, but I’ve got a couple in the wind right now, and am closing on six months, plus. These were paid with postal money orders, vice a personal check, and as this is the first time I’ve taken that particular approach, it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t see my payment clear the bank (thus, confirming receipt).
Has anyone paid a transfer tax with a money order before, and if so, does this effectively result in a “silent” transaction where the approved stamp just suddenly arrives one day … or should there have been some kind of confirmation along the way? I can’t really imagine what that would be, but it just feels odd to wait for so long with no clear indication that the wheels are turning.
You can go to the post office and pay the $5.50 (give or take) inquiry fee per money order and they’ll let you know if they have been chased or not. You’ll need the money order receipt and they can check while you wait.
I don’t know if this service is available online or not. It might be now but I didn’t see it. Obviously an ATF status check would make more sense.
As far as I know, you won’t receive any confirmation from the ATF. You’ll just receive it when it’s time.
I suppose the other piece of encouraging non-news in all of this is that I haven’t seen my forms returned for correction(s). Just feels like a very different process with this “newer” approach to payment.
I was told by Dana Pickels, last Form 1 I sent in, that “payment received” was one of the things on their final checklist before approval. All the interval steps (FBI, CLEO etc) are done while the application is “pending” he gets the checklist, reviews the form as the last step. I suspect that when the application finally hits the desk of the examiner for approval, that might be the first they notice that payment hasn’t been received. OTOH, if the application is “pending”, that means they received it and presumably the money order in the same envelope. It’s the US Post Office. What could go wrong?
The current time from ATF getting your forms and check and it going pending is now close to 8 weeks. I sent my paperwork on Jan 25th and it went pending on March 11. Given that you are already 6 months into the wait I’d say that you should get your stamp within the next month if not a week or so sooner.
I paid with a USPS Money order for my SBR. It took between 6.5-7 months if I recall for my stamp to come back. I paid with a personal check for my suppressor. They cashed my check w/in 2 weeks of sending in the paperwork. I was getting a little worried about the SBR after 6 months past because I hadn’t heard a word, but it all worked out in the end.
I’m within the capture zone, but am inclined to be patient just a while longer. You see, I sent these forms in when the doctors were giving me just a couple more weeks to live, and I fully expected that another family member (trust) would be the one picking them up.
As it turns out, I don’t really mind the wait at all.
With no Trust checking account, I chose to do cashier’s checks from my bank on behalf of the Trust for my first 2 stamps. With the receipt and the check numbers I was able to ask a teller to check the date cashed when I was in the bank one day.
I mailed the 2 sets of form 4’s via USPS Express Mail (with confirmation of receipt) to start the audit trail.
Package received 2/14, checks cashed 2/15, went Pending on 3/27.
And now the long wait begins…
I was told by Dana Pickles that “pending” doesn’t mean that they acknowledge payment of the tax or that your form is correctly filled out. It means that your application has gone from the big stack of forms in the corner to the smaller stack of forms on your particular examiner’s desk, and that “payment received” is now on the list of things to check before the examiner can approve it. You may not know that they haven’t found or cashed the money order until you get a notice that payment wasn’t received two weeks before your form would have otherwise been approved.
