NJ FID Card and Handgun Purchase Permit: FARS, IdentoGO, and Fees

To get a New Jersey firearms permit, you apply online through the state’s Firearms Application and Registration System (FARS), get fingerprinted through IdentoGO within 90 days, and wait for your local police department to run background and reference checks before issuing your approved credentials as digital documents.¹ There is no paper form to pick up at the station anymore. Every step runs through the portal.

Figure Out Which Permit You Need

New Jersey issues two main purchasing credentials, and they do different things.

A Firearms Purchaser Identification Card, called an FID or E-FID in its electronic form, lets you buy rifles, shotguns, and ammunition from any licensed dealer in the state. You need only one. It is good for ten years and expires on your birthday in the tenth year, and you renew by filing a fresh FARS application before that date.²³

A Handgun Purchase Permit is a separate authorization for each handgun you want to buy. One permit, one handgun. Each permit is valid for 90 days and auto-renews once for another 90, giving you a 180-day window before it expires with no further extension.³ You are also limited to one handgun every 30 days unless you request a multiple-handgun purchase exemption inside the same FARS submission.

You can apply for the E-FID and one or more handgun purchase permits together in a single FARS application, which most first-time buyers do.

Gather Your Information Before You Log In

FARS does not let you save and come back later with easy edits, and most delays come from bad input. Three things are worth pinning down before you start.

Your Municipality’s ORI Number

Every application opens by routing to a local department using its Originating Agency Identifier (ORI), an alphanumeric code tied to the police department that covers your residence.⁴ Enter the wrong ORI and your application goes to the wrong department, and the fees you paid are not refunded.¹ Most local departments post their ORI on the firearms page of their website, or you can call the records bureau and ask.

Two Non-Family References

You need two references who are not relatives and who can speak to your character and fitness to possess a firearm.⁵ For each person you’ll enter their full name, home address, phone number, and email address. The system sends them a questionnaire by email, so tell them it’s coming and confirm their contact details are current. A reference who never answers will stall your file.

Ten Years of Addresses and Form SP-66

The application includes a Consent for Mental Health Records Search, Form SP-66. It asks for every address where you have lived in the past ten years and authorizes the State Police and your local chief of police to look for disqualifying mental health history.⁶ If you’ve been admitted to any mental health facility, you’ll need the facility name along with your admission and discharge dates. Refusing to sign SP-66 is an automatic denial.

Addresses outside New Jersey still count. List them. The records check follows every jurisdiction where you lived.

Submit the Application in FARS

Go to njportal.com and open the online firearms application.¹ The portal walks you through your personal information, your two references, your address history, and the SP-66 consent. First-time applicants also complete an online safety training module built into FARS before the application can be submitted.⁵

When you finish, FARS produces a confirmation page with your confirmation number, contributor’s case number, and ORI. Save it. The same information comes to you by email, along with the service code you’ll need to book your fingerprinting appointment.³

Get Fingerprinted Through IdentoGO

New Jersey uses IdentoGO for applicant fingerprinting. Once FARS gives you a service code, schedule an appointment on the IdentoGO site. You have 90 days from the date of your FARS submission to be printed. Miss it and your application is cancelled automatically, with no refund.³

Give it about ten days after your appointment before calling your local police department to confirm your prints arrived. Electronic transmission is usually quick, but checking the next day won’t move anything along.

What It Costs

Fees are split across the police department, the state, and IdentoGO:

Initial E-FID card: $50, paid to the police department handling your application. An additional background check fee also applies to initial applications.
Handgun purchase permit: $25 per permit, paid to your local police department.²
Online background check on subsequent applications: $21, paid by credit or debit card at the end of your FARS submission ($18 statutory fee plus a $3 service fee).³
Fingerprinting: approximately $66, paid to IdentoGO at your appointment.

None of these are refundable. Routing an application to the wrong department or missing the fingerprinting window means paying again from the start.

How Long It Takes and How You’ll Hear

By statute, local police have 30 days to process a completed application from a New Jersey resident, and 45 days for a nonresident.² Real-world timelines vary. Slow reference responses and background check hiccups push some files past the deadline.

FARS sends automated email updates: confirmation of your submission, notice when each reference finishes the questionnaire, a warning if you haven’t been fingerprinted inside the 90-day window, and the final approval or denial.³ There is no live status page. If you need an update beyond the automatic emails, contact the department handling your application. If you applied through a New Jersey State Police station, use email; station personnel stopped handling FARS applications in person as of March 2025.

Receiving and Using Your Credentials

When your E-FID is approved, you’ll get an email with a link and an access key to download your Electronic Firearms Purchaser Identification Card.³ It’s a digital document with a color photo. Save it to your phone, back it up, or print a copy for your wallet. It expires in the tenth calendar year after issuance, on your birthday.² An older yellow cardstock FID issued before the electronic rollout is still valid until it expires or your information changes.

Handgun purchase permits don’t come as paper slips anymore either. They live as electronic entries tied to your profile. Each is good for 90 days and auto-renews once for another 90, and you’ll get an email when the renewal happens. After the 180-day window closes, the permit is gone and you’ll need to apply for a new one.³ The 30-day limit between handgun purchases still applies unless you obtained a multiple-handgun exemption in your FARS application.

At the dealer, bring a New Jersey driver’s license or state photo ID that matches the information on your application. The dealer verifies your active credential through the state’s electronic database rather than inspecting a paper permit, and activates a handgun permit in the system when the sale closes.²

If You Move

Update your E-FID through FARS using the dedicated Change of Address application type.¹ You’ll file with the department covering your new address, not your old one, so look up the new municipality’s ORI before you submit.

If You’re Denied

You have 30 days from the date of a denial notice to file a written request for a hearing in the Superior Court of your county of residence, and to serve copies on your local chief of police and the Superintendent of State Police.⁷ Nonresidents file in the county where the application was denied. At the hearing you can challenge the reasons law enforcement cited and put on your own evidence. Miss the 30 days and you lose the right to appeal that particular denial, though you can file a fresh application later.

What the Permit Does Not Cover

A valid E-FID or handgun purchase permit authorizes you to buy a firearm. It is not a carry permit, and it does not override New Jersey’s long list of locations where carrying a firearm is a third-degree crime punishable by three to five years in prison and fines up to $15,000.⁸ Those prohibited places include schools, government buildings, courts, parks, polling places, shelters, and the area within 100 feet of a permitted public demonstration, among others. Private property owners can also post their premises as gun-free.

1
State of New Jersey. Firearms Application and Registration System
2
Justia. New Jersey Code 2C-58-3 – Permit to Purchase a Handgun
3
New Jersey State Police. FARS Instructions for NJ Residents and Dual Residents of New Jersey
4
New Jersey State Police. New Jersey State Police Firearms Application and Registration System
5
New Jersey State Police. Firearms Application and Registration System – Help Section
6
New Jersey State Police. Consent for Mental Health Records Search – Form SP-66
7
Cornell Law. NJ Admin Code 13-54-1.12 – Appeal
8
Justia. New Jersey Code 2C-58-4.6 – Prohibited Places for Carrying Firearms