Florida CCW license nonresident

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ilv2hunt

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I am from Ohio and have an Ohio CCW license. It is reciprocated in every state that I visit except for Georgia and Pennsylavania. After doing some research, I have found that Florida does give ccw's to non-residents and they ARE recognized in Ga and Pa. I have looked on the net to try to figure out how to proceed with getting a Florida license but am not having any luck on a clear course of action. Does anybody have any "simple" info on this subject matter? Any info would be GREATLY appreciated and thanks in advance, Chris.
 
Florida permits are issued by the Department of Agriculture (go figure). Look up their web site and see if there's a link to the application process. IIRC, they send you a bunch of forms, including a fingerprint card that you have to have run at your local police department. Pay attention, because there are specific instructions on filling out the card. When I renewed, the officer at my local PD filled out the card as he normally would have, and that was wrong ... so I had to have him do it over.
 
Find a class by you that also teaches the Florida course. I live in Iowa and took the CCW class for Iowa, Florida and Utah all at once. Florida required a shooting qualification but being prior military I did not have to do that part.

When all was said and done they gave me the packet for each state. All I had to do was get the finger print cards done (they took pictures there for utah) and mail that in along with a copy of my dd-214 and the course completion certificate. As previously posted Florida is high strung about how you fill out their paperwork (you know your in trouble when the application comes with an instruction booklet) just pay attention and fill it out right the first time and shouldn't have any probs.

If I remember correctly the Utah course also covers Pen and GA. they are alot cheaper than the Florida permit. Only real difference is Florida itself, the Utah permit does not cover them.

$65.25 Utah
$117.00 Florida
 
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You can also look into the AZ permit. There is no non-resident permit, they give the same one for both. If you have a permit from another state that requires training that will satisfy their requirements. AZ's permit is good in PA and GA and a good amount of other states as well.

It is also a very quick processing time and an easy application. I believe it may also be less expensive than FL.
 
The PA nonresident permit is ridiculously easy to get. Centre Co. PA will issue a nonresident permit through the mail- they are the only county that does so. It costs about $26 and will come in less than 2 weeks. It is good throughout the state, the only exception may be Philly, I'm not sure. I assume Philly is the 5th ring of hell and avoid it.
 
Unless the laws/rules have changed, there is no "Florida course." Florida requires proof of having taken a course in firearms safety. I don't know if it even requires live fire. I think any NRA basic pistol or handgun safety course will suffice. Again, unless the laws/rules have changed, Florida accepts a DD-214 from veterans as proof of the required firearms safety training. Doesn't matter how old the DD-214 is ... I'm an early Vietnam veteran (ETS in the 60s). I applied for a Florida non-resident permit about six years ago, which made my DD-214 approximately 40 years old. They accepted it without question.
 
It's confusing because the actual FL statute requires an NRA instructor's signature on your training certificate and by signing he is attesting that he actually watched you fire the weapon. The problem is no where on the FL Dept. of Agric. site is this mentioned. Some of the instructors giving the UT CCW class which doesn't require live fire will tell you the UT training certificate will work in FL and it does. I guess the D of A accepts the UT certificate and assumes your NRA instructor is aware of the live fire requirement.

I took the UT class from a professional training company out of Richmond and their owner/instructor was not even aware of it. He now tells his students that they must let him witness live fire before applying to FL. Problem is some folks get the certificate from UT and then send it in as proof of training without the UT NRA certified instructor's knowledge.

This could create a liability issue for an instructor who signs the UT certificate but doesn't know the student will then send it to FL who accepts it because I guess they assume the NRA instructor is aware of the statute.

I'm guessing in many instances they don't. This could be a real liability in the event of a shooting in FL. Would the NRA instructor be liable? Who knows. It's a mess IMO.
 
Actually, proper completion of the NRA pistol class requires actual shooting of a pistol. Instructors who sign off the course without shooting can and will be disqualified by the NRA.
 
No what I mean is that UT allows more than NRA Instructors to teach the UT permit class. They allow several certifications, but the majority of the UT instructors are NRA certified and their NRA instructor number is on the UT certificate. What is occurring is that the UT instructors who are NRA certified are signing the UT certificate don't know that FL applicants who have not live fired are using the UT certificate as proof of training. Why FL accepts this is beyond me, in light of the live fire requirement in the FL statute.

There was concern that in the event of a shooting, the FL CCW who did not live fire qualify is in technical violation of the statute. So is the NRA instructor or FL liable? It needs to be fixed.
 
@AH-74: You were right. Arizona is easy. I called them today and they are sending 2 packets right away(1 for me and 1 for my wife). Our Ohio certificate for completion of the Ohio class is all we need. Have to send copies of those, get finger printed to send cards in and a mo for $60 per person and you now have an AZ ccw which DOES cover both Pa and Ga. I think it is good for 6yrs also.

Thanks for the great info everybody! Hope everyone has a great New Year.
 
Glad to help, I love AZ's permit process compared to my own state's (NM) horrible procedure. AZ is good for 5 years, not 6.
 
I didn't have any major issues with acquiring my FL permit, aside from the time it took to get the card in my hand. The FL non-resident permit is one of the most popular in the country- keep that in mind if you apply for it, because the number of warm bodies in their Dept. of Agriculture licensing division is actually quite small. It may take longer than advertised to be issued to you- it took mine a solid three months to arrive.

FL permits are good for 7 years now.
 
My AZ permit was issued and mailed 10 business days after I sent the paperwork in. That included a State furlough day during which the offices were closed on a Friday.

I had the permit in hand in 17 days, including mail transit each way. A very far cry from the 120 days it took NM to process my application.
 
I realize that this is an old thread but I have some information that may be useful to someone finding it since there is some misinformation here.

Florida does NOT accept non-resident CCW permits from other states. That may seem odd since Florida started the non-resident CCW thing and probably issues more non-resident permits than any other states but they do not accept non-resident permits from other states.

Florida does require live fire training even though it isn't listed in the application. (At least they did when I first got my Florida non-resident CCW.)

Arizona DOES issue non-resident CCW permits.
 
bmannon: I'm sure you found your answer but you do not have to go to Arizona to get a non-resident permit. I went to your link but the last sentence said nothing of relevance so I assume that that page has changed since you posted the link. You can print out the form from the Arizona website or just email them as I did and they will send the application package right out to you.
 
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