Inside DOJ’s Official Application Form: What It Actually Requires

By Dan Parker, Practice Leader · Bluegrass Gun Rights, a practice of Clark + Harris, PLLC · September 16, 2026

We have obtained and read all 17 pages of the Department of Justice’s official Application to Restore Federal Firearms Rights, prepared by the Office of the Pardon Attorney — the form the online portal will be built around when it opens to invited candidates September 25 and to the public (5,000 applications) November 4. Here is what it requires, in plain English, and what surprised us.

The biggest surprise: 25 years of local arrest records

The form requires a local arrest record from every place you have lived in the last 25 years — or since age 18, whichever is longer — even for localities where you were never arrested. You list each city and the approximate years you lived there, attach a record for every entry, and separately attach records from any locality where you were arrested but didn’t live. This is far broader than the statewide criminal-history pull most people expected: it means a records request to local law enforcement in every place you’ve called home since roughly 2001. For anyone who has moved around, this is now the slowest item on the list — start it first.

Character references: stricter than anyone expected

The application itself asks only for each reference’s name, email, and how they know you. The substance happens on DOJ’s Character Reference Sheet — one per reference, signed under penalty of perjury. To serve at all, a reference must:

• Have known you for at least three years
• Not be related to you by blood or marriage
• Never have been convicted — anywhere, ever — of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison

Each reference then certifies, to their knowledge, that you have committed no crime beyond minor infractions in the past five years; are not a regular user of illegal drugs; do not regularly abuse alcohol or other intoxicants; are not suffering from a mental-health condition that would impair your judgment or behavior; are a person of good character and reputation; have not used or threatened violence against anyone in the past five years even if authorities were never notified; and would not pose a danger to public safety if permitted to possess a firearm. Finally, each must affirmatively check: “I recommend that the applicant’s federal firearms rights be restored.”

The practical point: choose references who can truthfully check every box. A well-meaning friend with a decades-old felony of their own is disqualified from serving. We screen references before they sign — it’s far better to learn about a problem at the kitchen table than after the Department reads the sheet.

The disclosures: yes/no, under penalty of perjury

Section 2 is a series of checkbox disclosures. First, current status: fugitive, unlawful drug use or addiction, pending indictment, active protective order, unlawful presence, sex-offender registration, serving a sentence, or on supervision — the conditions that stop an application cold. Then past history: the form asks directly about the final rule’s presumptive-denial categories — violent and enumerated felonies, weapon-involved crimes, drug-trafficking sentences within ten years, misdemeanor domestic violence within ten years, any conviction or sentence within the last five years, and prior denials. Answering falsely is itself a federal crime carrying up to five years and a $250,000 fine. This is exactly where honest legal judgment matters: the questions are simple, but what your record actually says is not.

Convictions: certified proof your sentence ended

For every conviction — federal, state, military, or misdemeanor domestic violence — the form requires the statute, court, judgment date, and sentence, plus a certified document citing the date you completed your sentence, including any supervision, and at least one document with factual information about the offense (judgment, indictment or information, plea agreement, or presentence report). Domestic-violence cases require more: all local arrest records, police reports, and a record disclosing the victim’s identity and relationship to you.

The rest of the package

• Fingerprints: two FD-258 fingerprint cards or an equivalent electronic scan (electronic submissions only as an EFT file)
• Two signed authorizations: a broad release covering criminal-justice, employment, school, medical, and financial records — and a separate mental-health release covering counseling and psychotherapy records
• Law-enforcement notice: written notification to your local chief law-enforcement officer that you are applying — DOJ includes a template letter, and the officer gets 14 days to comment
• Military applicants: DD-214, charge sheet (DD-458), PROM order, and court-martial records as applicable
• Submission limits: no more than 20 attachments, 30 MB each, 600 MB total — organizing a complicated record into 20 clean attachments is its own job

And know this going in: if relief is granted, your name, court of conviction, and the date of restoration are published in the Federal Register — the form requires you to acknowledge and consent to that publication.

What’s not on the form

Notably, there is no section for a narrative personal statement — the form is structured disclosures plus attachments. We still prepare one for every client and file it as a supporting attachment: twenty attachment slots exist for a reason, and a record that explains itself — honestly, consistently, in your own voice — beats a stack of bare court documents.

Sources: U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Office of the Pardon Attorney, Application to Restore Federal Firearms Rights (OMB clearance pending); DOJ Federal Firearm Rights Restoration program page (verified September 16, 2026); final rule, Fed. Reg. Doc. 2026-16981 (Aug. 20, 2026). This article is general information, not legal advice.