I totally screwed it up (first one), and put a picture of the pistol in the box where I should have put my passport photo. It is submitted. I got an email with only a draft copy "pending research". I think that is because it is not a listed model (PSA stripped lower).

No idea what to do. I don't have a number so I read I can't cancel. Do I just wait for it to be rejected? What if that happens after 5/31, can I still redo it? Should I submit another eform on the same pistol at this time? Just wait until the "research" is done, get the number and cancel (what if that is after 5/31)?

Any help from those with experience would be hugely appreciated.

My PSA lower spent 60 days in pending research. If you submitted it recently it’ll most likely be after 5/31 before it goes to submitted status. Refiling after then requires doing it on paper.

You can cancel it then and refile on paper.

Or you can edit the eform then and upload your passport picture as an additional attachment. Hopefully the examiner sees it. If they don’t approve it, you’ll have to refile on paper anyways.

Thanks for the feedback. Apparently because it is pending research, I don't have the reference number and I can't see anything listed on their site to edit or cancel it at this time.

I guess my biggest concern is if it is rejected after 5/31, can I correct it and refile it. Are you saying I would be able to resubmit it on paper then and it will still count as filed before the deadline?

You should be able to re-submit on a paper F1. Personally, I would withdraw it and submit a corrected form.

Thanks, that is very good to know. Withdrawing it would be ideal though - do you know of a way to go about withdrawing it without the control number due to the pending research? I did see a site (text and link below) that implied I could submit another one on top of it and the original could be cancelled later or something, with the issue being the $200 which isn't relevant here. However the context was to replace an unresearched item with a researched one which makes no sense to me as I would have put that in the first time if there was one.

I am planning to call them tomorrow as well unless people have other suggestions.  


https://www.nationalguntrusts.com/blogs/nfa-gun-trust-atf-information-database-blog/how-to-withdraw-your-eform-1-application-in-the-pending-research-phase

How to Withdraw your eForm 1 Application in the Pending Research Phase
by National Gun Trusts December 30, 2020
If you have applied for a tax stamp using the ATF's eForm website for your eForm 1 tax stamp application, your application might be in the pending research phase.  As of writing this blog article, December 30, 2020, the pending research phase is currently at 5 weeks.  This means that, you will be waiting 5 weeks after you submit your eForm 1 application before you receive your cover sheet from the ATF.  The cover sheet is used to submit your fingerprint cards to the ATF and is specific to application that you submitted.  The pending research phase is triggered by choosing, "My item description is not in the list, create new item", (see below).  If you want to withdraw your application that is pending research and choose an already researched item, you can do that.  However, there is a caveat. You can't withdraw an eForm 1 tax stamp application until your application has been issued a control number.  If you view the cover letter that is sent to you when you are in the pending research phase or view your submitted application on the ATF eForm's website, you will see that there is no control number.  The control number that is needed to withdraw your ATF eForm 1 application is not issued until your tax stamp application has cleared the pending research phase.  In summation, you can't withdraw your eForm 1 application until your pending research phase has cleared that phase.  The pending research phase is currently, at the time of writing, 5 weeks.  This means, you won't be able to withdraw your application and receive the $200 refund from the ATF for 5 weeks or more.  While your current pending research application is in the pending research phase, you can however, apply for a new tax stamp for an already researched item.  The ATF will be able to cancel and refund your previous application after it has cleared the pending research phase, but the $200 payment will be tied up during that timeframe.

On the left side of the page after you log in, click Pending Research. Once the page loads again, click Form 1 (5320.1) underneath Pending Research. You should now see a table which shows any Form 1s that you have in Pending Research status. Since you only have one, it should be easy to find the one you're looking for. On the right side of the row, you should see a document icon with a red x on it. Click that to withdraw the Form 1.

Holy shit, you rock! I was about to give up again as I still wasn't seeing any forms or any of that stuff on the side menu, but apparently I just had to log out from the pistol rule site and log back in to get in the standard eform site. This worked!

Going to have a drink and try again tomorrow. Thanks!

You don't have to withdraw!! Just open the submitted form1 a nd select the electronic document section. Then just upload the passport photo , save and exit.

Awesome; glad you found it! I didn't think to mention that you have to go into the regular eForms site. I don't think that you can do anything on the other site except submit.

In trying to triage this, I did see a post from someone that had submitted the photo in that section and gotten rejected for not uploading it in the dialog box in the personal information section. No idea if that is common or current, but it will only take a little while to do it over.

Does it actually work though? Last time I tried to edit/delete one in pending research. The icons were there, but they didn’t actually work.

Yes, in my experience. I withdrew an application a few weeks ago. It disappeared from the Pending Research section, and now appears under Withdrawn. When I view the PDF, it has a WITHDRAWN watermark on it.