What can be done or who can I talk to if I believe my form has been lost or misplaced? Am I just doomed to wait forever? Hoping my form eventually makes it through? All of my SOT buddies are telling me forms are coming back right around the 150 day mark. I think the NFA tracker and F4 tracker thread here will show about the same. I’m currently at 250 days and the ATF says my form 4 is still “pending.” There’s gotta be something I can do right?

Nope. Nothing you can do. If it is pending, that means that they got it and it is sitting in a pile waiting to either be looked at by an examiner or waiting on something else. When you called, they only said pending and not waiting on a background check or anything else like that?

Just said “it’s pending.” Which is what they said last time. So basically they have no accountability and can just sit on your shit for as long as they’d like and don’t have to give a single fuck. Yay government.

It happens. Looking at the NFA tracker, while the trend is that wait times are getting shorter, there are still outliers that are taking 6+ months for approval. Granted, this is all self reported, so there are probably more than what NFA tracker is reporting.

Unfortunately 250 days is not considered a particularly long wait for this. It's not right but it's the way it is. I have waited longer than 400 days from check cashed for some.

The operator can only see very little. Couple of things you can try on the phone:

1.) Ask if it's been assigned to an examiner. If not, there's not much you can do at this point. It means it's in a pile and it hasn't been looked at. There is no real rhyme or reason what order the ATF goes in, because it does not see to be FIFO.
2.) If it has been assigned to an examiner, ask to speak to the examiner. The examiner can tell you if there is any way you can help, because if its been assigned an examiner but not approved, it's most likely because they're waiting on a background check from the FBI. Other possibility is "research," either into your trust or corp instrument, or into the thing you're trying to make if it's a Form 1.

The key issue is the FBI does not guarantee a level of service when conducting NFA applicant background checks for the ATF (e.g., there is no 3 day max wait). I believe this is illegal, but it is how it is.

250 days...LOL

I have one that was approved after 8 months pending.