New Jersey appears to be processing permit-to-carry applications faster than it did in the immediate post-Bruen period, but newly cited records show the system is still producing long waits for thousands of applicants.
According to data obtained through an Open Public Records Act request identified in the source as OPRA W258774, 82,952 permit-to-carry applications were approved between Jan. 1, 2024, and July 31, 2026. The reported average wait time for those approved applications was 40.15 days.
That marks an improvement from the period after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision through 2024, when the source says about 10% of applicants waited beyond the statutory 120-day limit. For applications approved from 2024 to the present, the report says that figure dropped to 4.2%.
Thousands still passed the 90-day mark
Under New Jersey law, the issuing authority generally has 90 days to approve or deny a permit-to-carry application. The statute cited in the report, N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4.c, says an application is to be “approved or denied by the chief police officer or the superintendent within 90 days of filing,” or else “it shall be deemed to have been approved.”
The law also allows an extension of up to 30 additional days “for good cause shown” with written notice to the applicant. The report notes that an applicant may also agree in writing to an extension beyond the 120-day statutory timeframe.
Even with the improved average, the records cited in the report show 7,151 of the 82,952 approved applications took 90 days or longer. That equals 8.62% of the approved applications in the reviewed period.
Among applications that reached at least 90 days, the report says 49.34% took 120 days or more.
Some waits stretched far longer
The oldest application approved during the reviewed period was filed on Aug. 2, 2022, according to the report. That applicant reportedly waited 824 days before approval.
The longest wait cited involved an application filed June 30, 2023, and approved July 13, 2026 — a reported delay of 1,109 days.
The report says the available records do not show how many applications, if any, were automatically approved because an issuing authority failed to act before the 90-day or 120-day deadlines.
Critics argue even shorter waits are too long
The source argues that New Jersey’s online system and modern background-check technology should make lengthy waits unnecessary. It also notes that applicants seeking a permit to carry must first have obtained a firearms purchaser identification card, and says the statutory disqualifiers for that card and a carry permit are identical.
Based on that view, the source’s author argues that seven days would be an appropriate outer limit for processing, while acknowledging that the question of what counts as an unreasonable delay is subjective.
By that seven-day benchmark, the cited records show most applicants still waited longer: 77,152 of the 82,952 approved applications, or 93.01%, took seven days or more.
The report also notes that New Jersey’s permitting process is online and that approved applicants receive an electronic permit, which they print themselves. Some applicants reportedly use private companies to print more durable cards, while others simply print the state-issued electronic version.
The bottom line from the cited data is mixed: New Jersey’s average processing time has improved, but thousands of applicants still waited at least 90 days, and some approvals took many months or longer.
