What do I need for an NFA fingerprint appointment?

Bring these

• Government photo ID for every person being fingerprinted. Not optional — identity verification is the point of the exercise.
• Your exact legal name as it will appear on the application. A mismatch between prints and form is a slow, avoidable problem.
• Trust documents, if you are filing as a trust.
• Any dealer instructions from wherever you bought the item.

The mistake that costs a second trip

Filing as a trust and bringing only yourself.

Every responsible person on the trust needs their own fingerprints and photograph. If your trust names you and your spouse, that is two sets. Name three family members and it is three. People routinely arrive alone, get printed, and discover later that the application needs everyone.

Bring them all at once. Additional people are $25 each in the same appointment rather than $50 on separate visits, and it saves you a drive.

How long it takes

About fifteen minutes for one person. We scan your ID so your details import rather than get typed, take your photograph, capture all ten fingers on our 10Scan live-scan station — three flat captures, roughly thirty seconds — and produce your EFT file or FD-258 cards.

The scanner checks each impression as it is taken, so a poor capture gets redone on the spot rather than coming back rejected weeks later.

Which format do you need?

If you are filing through ATF eForms, you want an EFT file to upload. If you are filing on paper, you need FD-258 cards in duplicate, mailed to the NFA Division within ten business days.

Not sure? Bring the instructions and we will read them with you. See EFT vs FD-258 for the full comparison.

Doing the whole transfer here?

If the suppressor is transferring through us, the fingerprints, the photograph and the Form 4 all happen in the same visit. That is the entire reason this side of the business exists — most people otherwise do it as three separate errands.

NFA fingerprinting in Houston →
How a suppressor transfer works →