DOJ begins inviting selected candidates to apply.
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New DOJ Final Rule • 18 U.S.C. § 925(c)
Federal Firearm Rights Restoration
A new federal application process is being launched in stages. PCRA is preparing case-specific readiness reviews for people seeking relief from a federal firearm disability.
Current statusThe final rule was announced August 17, 2026. The online public application is not open yet.
The public application opens for the first 5,000 applicants.
Five hundred additional applications open and the $30 fee begins.
What changed
A working federal process—but not automatic restoration.
Section 925(c) permits the Attorney General to remove a federal firearm disability when the applicant’s record, reputation, and circumstances indicate that the person is unlikely to act dangerously and that granting relief would not be contrary to the public interest.
The final rule requires an individualized examination of the actual conduct, complete criminal history, sentence, rehabilitation, current circumstances, public-safety evidence, and the specific federal disability identified in the application. A charge label alone does not decide the case.
Do not purchase, possess, receive, transport, or carry a firearm based on an application, preliminary screen, or federal grant alone. The person must confirm the federal decision and every independently applicable state law first.
The federal/state distinction
Every case has two separate locks.
A strong intake must answer both questions before anyone is told what restoration could actually accomplish.
Federal disability
Does § 922(g) prohibit the person, and can the Attorney General remove the identified federal disability under § 925(c)?
State possession and carry law
Would the person’s current state independently prohibit possession, ownership, transport, licensing, or carrying even after federal relief?
A state conviction does not automatically prevent a § 925(c) application.
A qualifying state conviction may create the federal § 922(g)(1) disability that DOJ can consider. But a federal grant does not itself expunge, pardon, set aside, or neutralize an independent state prohibition. State relief may still be required.
Who may apply
The process reaches more than federal firearm convictions.
Any person subject to a federal disability under § 922(g) may potentially apply, subject to the final rule’s timing and presumptions.
Felony convictions
Federal or state convictions punishable by more than one year, subject to the federal definition and any recognized restoration, pardon, expungement, or set-aside.
Fugitives and unlawful drug use
Current status can create a presumption against relief. Marijuana receives specific treatment under the final rule, but federal and state issues remain case-specific.
Mental-health adjudications
Applicants generally must first exhaust any available qualifying state, territorial, or federal agency relief program.
Other federal disabilities
Certain immigration status, dishonorable discharge, citizenship renunciation, domestic-violence orders, and misdemeanor domestic-violence convictions.
Final-rule screening framework
Timing and conduct determine how the file must be approached.
Specified serious conduct
Includes listed violent, sexual, trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, arson, terrorism, stalking and related conduct, plus certain firearm brandishing or discharge and explosive conduct. Extraordinary circumstances are required to overcome the presumption.
Drug, firearm and related matters
Includes specified drug-trafficking, threat, firearm, explosive, school-weapon, animal-abuse, and misdemeanor domestic-violence matters. Exact statutes and conduct matter.
Many other felony matters
Generally applies when another felony—or specified assaultive or threatening conduct—falls within the five-year measurement period.
Unfinished or continuing disabilities
Includes serving any part of a sentence, diversion, fugitive status, certain immigration and domestic-violence-order bars, and other current conditions identified in the rule.
Prepare before the portal opens
The application is a documented public-safety case—not a short form.
DOJ may examine arrests, charges, dismissals, convictions, underlying conduct, sentence performance, substance history, protective orders, mental-health history, threats, rehabilitation, local law-enforcement input, and the reason relief is requested.
Readiness file
- Judgments and charging documents for every disabling matter
- Official disposition and complete sentence records
- Proof that custody, supervision, financial obligations, treatment, and other sentence components were completed
- Residence, arrest, and criminal-history information covering 25 years or the period since age 18
- Rehabilitation, employment, family, community, and public-safety evidence
- Three qualified character references who meet DOJ requirements
- State-law analysis for the state of residence and any anticipated possession or carry question
- Electronic fingerprints submitted only after DOJ issues the required case instructions
PCRA application service
$4,000 fixed-fee preparation and filing support
The engagement begins only after preliminary screening confirms that the matter is appropriate for preparation. The fee does not include unrelated state pardon, expungement, litigation, judicial review, or separate licensed-counsel work unless expressly added in writing.
Request Preliminary ScreeningThreshold review
Identify the federal disability, conviction source, final-rule presumption, timing measurement, and current-status concerns.
Federal/state map
Separate what a federal grant can remove from any state possession, ownership, transport, licensing, or carry restriction.
Records and evidence
Build the court, correctional, rehabilitation, employment, reference, and public-safety file the rule requires.
Application preparation
Prepare the form responses, factual chronology, supporting narrative, exhibits, reference instructions, and completeness review.
Submission support
Coordinate the application sequence, Pay.gov fee when applicable, DOJ-directed electronic fingerprints, and filing record.
Ordinary follow-up
Organize routine restoration-specialist requests and maintain the application record through grant, denial, or indeterminate decision.
Why specialized preparation matters
Trial defense and post-conviction administrative restoration are different assignments.
The applicant carries every burden.
That includes identifying the correct disability and presumption, locating a decades-long record, addressing adverse conduct, selecting qualified references, analyzing state law, and following DOJ’s submission sequence.
Prior knowledge may help—but practice focus matters.
Trial and plea counsel may know the underlying case well. The § 925(c) process adds administrative-rule analysis, rehabilitation development, federal/state consequences, and a public-safety presentation that may fall outside the lawyer’s ordinary practice.
A post-conviction-centered readiness file.
PCRA organizes the historical record, actual conduct, timing, rehabilitation, state-law question, references, narrative, exhibits, and procedural steps into one reviewable application package.
Possible decisions
Grant, denial, or indeterminate decision.
Grant: DOJ directs the federal record update, but the individual must still confirm state law before possession or carrying.
Denial: The applicant may seek judicial review in the federal district of residence, subject to the governing law and deadlines.
Indeterminate: DOJ could not decide on the information supplied; a later application may be possible with additional evidence.
Confidentiality-conscious intake
Request a preliminary § 925(c) readiness review.
Complete the general screening questions first. Do not submit Social Security numbers, complete dates of birth, court records, or confidential documents through this form.
Primary authority
Verify the process at DOJ.
PCRA will update this page as DOJ publishes the rule, activates the application, and releases additional implementation instructions.
Begin before the public window opens