How to Renew Your Kansas Concealed Carry License

Renewing your Kansas concealed carry license costs nothing, requires no new firearms training, and takes you through the Attorney General’s office rather than your county sheriff. The renewed license is valid for four years from your previous expiration date. The Attorney General mails a yellow renewal application to each licensee three to four months before the concealed carry handgun license (CCHL) expires; you complete it, have it notarized, and return it with a photo and a copy of your driver’s license.¹

Why Renew Under Permitless Carry

Kansas allows anyone 21 or older who can lawfully possess a firearm to carry concealed without a license inside the state.¹ Two things a valid license still gets you:

Reciprocity. Thirty-nine states recognize the Kansas CCHL, but only if it’s valid and unexpired. The day your license lapses, every reciprocity agreement stops working.²
The school-zone exemption. The federal Gun Free School Zone Act bars carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of a K–12 school, and CCHL holders are exempt. Kansas permitless carry does not shield you from that federal restriction.¹

If you’re between 18 and 20, the license is not optional. Permitless carry begins at 21, so a provisional licensee who lets a CCHL lapse loses the right to carry concealed in Kansas at all until a new license is in hand.¹

How the Renewal Works

The Attorney General’s Concealed Carry Licensing Unit (CCLU) mails the yellow renewal form to your address on file three to four months before expiration. It’s not downloadable. If you’re within 60 days of expiring and the form hasn’t arrived, call CCLU at (785) 291-3765. An outdated address is the usual culprit.¹

What to Submit

The completed yellow renewal form, notarized
A 2×2 inch photograph taken within the last 30 days
A copy of your Kansas driver’s license or state ID

Send the packet by certified mail to the Attorney General’s office in Topeka, or hand-deliver it. Renewals do not go through your county sheriff, do not require fingerprints, and do not require a repeat of the eight-hour firearms safety course.³ Your filing date is the postmark on your certified mailing or the date of hand delivery.⁴

Background Check and Card Pickup

The Attorney General runs a name-based criminal history check, including a NICS query, without new fingerprints.⁴ The statutory processing window is 90 days from receipt of a complete application.¹

Once approved, you’ll get a notice by mail. Take it to a Kansas driver’s license station to have the new card issued. The four-year clock runs from your prior expiration date, not from when you applied or when the card was printed.³

Provisional Licenses Turning 21

If you held a provisional license (issued at 18–20) and you’ve turned 21 before your renewal, the Attorney General automatically issues a standard license as part of the renewal. No separate application.⁴

What It Costs

As of July 1, 2023, the renewal fee is $0. House Sub. for SB 116 eliminated the $25 Attorney General renewal fee, the $15 late fee, and the $16 Department of Revenue card fee.³ The only out-of-pocket costs left are incidental: a notary, a passport-style photo, and certified mail postage if you don’t hand-deliver.

Timing, Late Renewal, and Permanent Expiration

You can file as early as six months before your expiration date, and the Attorney General’s office recommends sending the yellow form back as soon as you get it.¹

Miss the expiration date and you still have six months to file a late renewal using the same paperwork. Your license is expired during that window, though. If you’re 21 or older, you can still carry inside Kansas under permitless carry, but reciprocity is gone until the new license arrives. If you’re under 21, you cannot legally carry concealed at all.

After six months without a filing, the license permanently expires under K.S.A. 75-7c08(c).⁴ Renewal is no longer available. You’d have to start over: the eight-hour safety course, fingerprints through your sheriff, and the full initial application.

Keep Your Address Current

Kansas law requires you to notify CCLU within 30 days of any name or address change. The statutory penalty is a fine up to $100 or a suspension up to six months.¹ The bigger practical risk is simpler: the yellow renewal form goes to your old address and you never see it.

Update your information through the online form on the Attorney General’s Resources & Reference Documents page.⁵ Changing your address with the post office or the Department of Revenue does not update your concealed carry record. If you’re moving out of Kansas, contact CCLU first; they can issue a 90-day extension letter and waive penalties if you later return.¹

If Your Renewal Is Denied

The background check at renewal applies the same disqualifiers as the initial application under K.S.A. 75-7c04. In broad terms, that includes federal firearms prohibitions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) or (n) — felony convictions, domestic violence misdemeanors, active restraining orders, unlawful drug use, and adjudication as mentally defective — plus Kansas-specific weapons and criminal-possession offenses under K.S.A. 21-6301 and 21-6304, and continued Kansas residency.⁶ The notarized affidavit on your renewal form is your sworn statement that none of these apply.

If the Attorney General denies your renewal, the written denial explains the grounds and tells you how to request a hearing under the Kansas Administrative Procedure Act.⁷ From there you can appeal to district court, either in Shawnee County or in your home county. Note that the denial or revocation stays in effect while the appeal is pending; there is no stay, and you will not have a valid license during that time.

Reciprocity Cuts Off the Day You Expire

Reciprocity is the reason most Kansans still renew, so it’s worth being blunt about how it fails. The 39 states that recognize the Kansas CCHL do so only when your license is valid on its face.² An expired card is not a license. Many recognizing states have no permitless carry, so carrying there without a valid license is a criminal offense, not a paperwork problem.

Even with a valid Kansas license, you still follow the destination state’s rules on where you can carry, ammunition restrictions, and duty to inform during traffic stops. Check the specific laws of the state you’re traveling to before you go.²

1
Attorney General of KS. Concealed Carry FAQs
2
Attorney General of KS. Out-of-State License Recognition
3
Attorney General of KS. Concealed Carry Licensing
4
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 75-7c08 – Renewal of License
5
Attorney General of KS. Resources and Reference Documents
6
Kansas State Legislature. Kansas Code 75-7c04 – Disqualifications
7
Kansas Secretary of State. 2025 Session Laws of Kansas Chapter 55 – House Bill No. 2052