This is a common question, and based on forum members who've reported their own experiences, I've taken a stab at tracking the BCI's performance over the last couple of years, and estimating the current delay. See the numbers on the charts below to get an idea how long yours will take.
One thing that you can do to help your permit arrive faster is to hand-deliver your application to the BCI, and pay your fees in cash. Since the BCI counts the time they took your money as the time they "received" your permit, this may cut out a significant amount of waiting time.
Below are three charts, showing the delays for all permits, mailed permits only and hand-delivered permits only. These charts are kept up to date! If you revisit this topic, you'll see the latest information! These charts are based on self-reported information so please, please give us your application, payment and permit receipt dates. You do that by sending a Private Message to me with the date you sent (or delivered) your application, the date the BCI received it, the date the BCI processed your payment and the date you received your permit. I summarize the information in this spreadsheet, which is used to generate the charts below. You may have to guess at when the BCI received your application, based on how long you think it takes mail to get from you to Salt Lake City.
Each of the charts below is linked to a larger version, if you want to see more detail, just click on the chart.
To read the chart:
CHARTS ARE BROKEN. I don't think it matters now so I won't bother to fix them. If the BCI gets slow again, I'll start updating the spreadsheet and fix the charts.
These charts will be updated DAILY. It's an automated process, but it can break if someone puts crud into the spreadsheet. In that case, the charts will stop changing, which will be easy to notice because of the dates at the top.
Oh, one more chart that shows more history. Hopefully we'll fill in some older data and make this view more useful.
One thing that you can do to help your permit arrive faster is to hand-deliver your application to the BCI, and pay your fees in cash. Since the BCI counts the time they took your money as the time they "received" your permit, this may cut out a significant amount of waiting time.
Below are three charts, showing the delays for all permits, mailed permits only and hand-delivered permits only. These charts are kept up to date! If you revisit this topic, you'll see the latest information! These charts are based on self-reported information so please, please give us your application, payment and permit receipt dates. You do that by sending a Private Message to me with the date you sent (or delivered) your application, the date the BCI received it, the date the BCI processed your payment and the date you received your permit. I summarize the information in this spreadsheet, which is used to generate the charts below. You may have to guess at when the BCI received your application, based on how long you think it takes mail to get from you to Salt Lake City.
Each of the charts below is linked to a larger version, if you want to see more detail, just click on the chart.
To read the chart:
- Each applicant's experience is shown as follows:
- The purple dot indicates how many days elapsed before the permit was received by the applicant.[/*]
- The blue dot indicates how many days elapsed before payment (check cashed, credit card charged).[/*]
- The dotted orange line between the blue and purple dots shows the length of time the BCI considers themselves to have "received" the application. There's a smaller brown dot that tracks this, showing what the BCI believes their performance to be.[/*]
- Applicants that haven't yet received their permit have a dotted red line instead of an orange line. Its length shows what the BCI's performance would be if that applicant received their permit TODAY. When they receive their permit, the line will turn orange and acquire a purple dot at the top.[/*]
- The blue horizontal line shows the 63-day mark. The law allows the BCI 60 days to issue the permit, and I arbitrarily add three days to account for mail delivery time.[/*]
- The purple, brown and blue lines show an exponential moving average of the BCI's performance. From those averages, I extrapolate current expected wait times, which are shown numerically on the right.[/*]
- The vertical green line designates the "half-received mark". Of permits applied for after this date, less than half of the recipients have gotten their permit.[/*]
CHARTS ARE BROKEN. I don't think it matters now so I won't bother to fix them. If the BCI gets slow again, I'll start updating the spreadsheet and fix the charts.
These charts will be updated DAILY. It's an automated process, but it can break if someone puts crud into the spreadsheet. In that case, the charts will stop changing, which will be easy to notice because of the dates at the top.
Oh, one more chart that shows more history. Hopefully we'll fill in some older data and make this view more useful.