Fingerprints for gun rights restoration: the post office step
By Desk Technologies, Inc. · Published · Updated · 8 minute read
Fingerprints for gun rights restoration, under the Department's current pages, are electronic prints taken at a participating United States post office after an email supplies a case number and a QR code. The same pages say prints from any other provider are not accepted for this program, and they tell the person to bring that email, a form of payment, and an accepted photo identification. This article follows those instructions and does not say that a completed appointment produces a grant.
Not a law firm; not legal advice. This article describes public sources. It is not advice about any person's case, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Fingerprints for gun rights restoration, in the order the pages describe
Fingerprints for gun rights restoration are a required part of an individual application, and the Department has published a specific way to take them. Section 107.10(g)(3) says an individual applicant shall include an electronic fingerprint scan or two properly completed FBI Forms FD-1222. The public instructions then narrow the electronic path. The fingerprint page, updated September 22, 2026, says electronic fingerprints from the United States Postal Service are required, and that fingerprints collected from anywhere other than that USPS electronic process will not be accepted. A local police department, a sheriff, or a private livescan shop may take excellent prints for some other purpose. The Department's page says those prints are not the ones this program accepts.
That is also why this appointment is not an FBI Identity History Summary. The summary is a person's own rap sheet, requested from the FBI for a published $18 fee. The prints in that request are how the FBI matches the summary to the person. The prints in this article are how the restoration application gets the scan the Department requires. Doing one does not finish the other. The FBI article keeps the rap sheet on its own page so the two errands stay apart.
A checklist for the appointment
The pages describe a sequence. Court papers and reference names can be gathered before the electronic application starts. These prints cannot, because the QR code comes from the Department after the person has started.
- Collect the other records first. The questions page gives 30 days to finish an e-application after it is started, and it encourages people to collect required documents before beginning. The fingerprint page does not move the prints in front of that start.
- Start only when the papers you can gather are in hand. The questions page also says that a lost link and PIN cannot, at this time, be replaced by the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
- Watch for an email from Criminal Justice Information Services. The fingerprint page says that email describes the next steps and includes the case number and the QR code.
- Watch for a second email, from the United States Postal Service, confirming fingerprinting services. Read it. Not every post office performs fingerprinting. The page says the location-search link in that email finds the closest participating office.
- Take the Criminal Justice Information Services email, a form of payment, and an accepted photo identification to that office.
- After the prints are taken, the page says they are sent directly to the FBI, processed, and uploaded into the application. The person is notified when the FBI receives them.
| Bring | What the page says | What this article will not add |
|---|---|---|
| CJIS email | Case number and QR code | A replacement if the email is lost |
| Payment | A form of payment; ask that post office | A dollar amount the page does not state |
| Identification | Driver's license, state non-driver card, passport or passport card, or military ID | A substitute ID the page does not list |
| Location | A participating post office, not every branch | A police-station alternative |
Identification and payment
The accepted identification on the fingerprint page is a closed list of four: a state-issued driver's license, a state-issued non-driver identification, a United States passport or passport card, and a military identification, which the page calls a Uniformed Services Identification Card. The page says questions about identification or payment should go to the post office directly. This article will not add a fifth document, and it will not guess what a particular window will accept on a given day.
The same page says to bring a form of payment. It does not publish the amount. The Department's questions page says there may be additional fees, with fingerprints and criminal records as examples, and that fees vary by jurisdiction, so the person should contact the local servicing agency for the actual cost. A national price for this appointment is not something this series will invent. The $18 figure belongs to the separate FBI summary, which the FBI FAQ states. Mixing the two prices is how a budget goes wrong before the appointment is even booked.
Two descriptions of the timing
The questions page, updated September 9, 2026, says fingerprints must be obtained after the person submits the first part of the e-application and receives the QR code by email, through a participating post office. The fingerprint page, updated September 22, 2026, says that after the person submits the application, Criminal Justice Information Services sends the email with the case number and the QR code. Both pages put the prints after a Department email. They do not use the same words for how much of the application is already in. The preparation article records the same caution: if the descriptions seem to differ, follow the current page on justice.gov rather than a memory of either page. Portal steps change. The regulation's demand for fingerprints does not become optional because two web pages were summarized here.
Section 107.10 is the rule. It says what the application shall include. The web pages say how the Department wants the portal used. A person who is unsure which click comes first can read both on the day of filing. This website does not operate the portal and does not store a person's QR code.
What happens to the prints
The fingerprint page says that once the prints are taken, they are sent directly to the FBI, processed, and then uploaded into the restoration application. The person receives a notification when the FBI receives the fingerprints. That notification is not a decision on the application. It is a receipt of the scan. The application process page tells the person to wait for a decision and does not publish a number of days. The published clocks, including the 30-day finish window, are collected in how long to get gun rights back. None of those clocks says that a completed fingerprint appointment is a grant.
If the notification does not arrive, the practical step the pages support is to check the email that was used and the application status, and to keep the post office receipt if one was given. This article will not invent a number of days after which silence means the prints were lost. The Department has not published that number.
Documents to keep from the appointment
Keep the Criminal Justice Information Services email, the Postal Service email, the name of the post office, the date of the appointment, the receipt for the payment, and the later notice that the FBI received the prints. Those are the papers that show the step happened. They are not a substitute for the court file, the state criminal records, or the three character references. Each of those has its own page in this series or on justice.gov.
A blurry photo of a QR code is a poor backup. The questions page says a lost link and PIN cannot currently be recovered from the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and that the person may have to start again. Store the email where it can be opened on the day of the appointment. Starting again is not a denial. It is also not free of the 30-day clock the second time.
What to ask an attorney
Ask whether the fingerprint step is the only identity check that record needs, or whether an FBI Identity History Summary is separately useful because a line may be wrong. Ask what to do if the only photo identification in the house is not on the page's list. Ask whether a prior fingerprint card, taken for a job or a license, changes anything on the Department's page. The page says other prints are not accepted for this program. A lawyer can say whether that record has a different problem the prints do not solve.
The lawyer is not there to take the prints. The post office is. The lawyer can help decide whether starting the e-application, which is what triggers this appointment, is the right next move. This article does not make that decision for anyone.
My Gun Rights Back is the public name of Rights Restore, software from Desk Technologies, Inc.. It can track that the appointment is ahead, done, or waiting on the FBI receipt. It does not take fingerprints, it does not send them to the Department, and it does not decide the application. No outcome is guaranteed. The beta page is that organizational help. The legal reading of the record stays with a lawyer the person chooses.
Questions
Can a police station or a private fingerprint office take the prints for this application?
The Department's fingerprint page says electronic fingerprints from the United States Postal Service are required, and that fingerprints collected anywhere else will not be accepted. A card taken for an FBI Identity History Summary is a different request. Bring the question to the current justice.gov page if a local office offers a different product.
When do the prints happen, before the application or after?
The questions page says fingerprints must be obtained after the first part of the e-application is submitted and the QR code arrives by email. The fingerprint page says that after the application is submitted, Criminal Justice Information Services sends an email with the case number and the QR code. If those two sentences seem to differ, follow the current page on justice.gov rather than a recollection of either one.
What identification does the post office page list?
The fingerprint page lists a state-issued driver's license, a state-issued non-driver identification, a United States passport or passport card, and a military identification, described as a Uniformed Services Identification Card. It also says to bring the Criminal Justice Information Services email and a form of payment. Questions about which identification or payment a particular post office accepts are directed to that post office.