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New Jersey Concealed Carry Permit

New Jersey requires a Permit to Carry a Handgun to carry. It is shall-issue, the minimum age is 21, and training is required.

Requirements at a glance

Permit name Permit to Carry a Handgun
Issuing authority Chief police officer of the municipality where the applicant resides; the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police instead where the applicant is an armored car employee, there is no chief police officer in the municipality, the applicant does not reside in New Jersey, or the applicant is a mayor or elected member of the municipal governing body (N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(c))
System shall-issue
Minimum age 21 — INFERRED, NOT STATED VERBATIM. N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4 itself sets no age. It requires (subsection d(1)) that the applicant 'is not subject to any of the disabilities set forth in subsection c. of N.J.S.2C:58-3.' N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(c)(4) bars issuance 'To any person under the age of 18 years for a firearms purchaser identification card and to any person under the age of 21 years for a permit to purchase a handgun.' In practice 21 is also a hard floor because NJSP requires applicants to already own the handgun(s) they intend to carry ('If you do not own a handgun yet, do not apply'), and no one under 21 can lawfully acquire a handgun in New Jersey (a Permit to Purchase a Handgun is required for every handgun transfer and is unavailable under 21). Neither NJSP's concealed-carry instructions (rev. 03/03/2026) nor its FAQ states a minimum age in so many words; treat 21 as the operative figure but verify with the issuing police department for an 18-20 year old edge case (e.g., inherited handgun). Re-verified 2026-09-15: N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4 was re-read in full from the official statute text and still contains no age, and N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(c)(4) still reads verbatim "To any person under the age of 18 years for a firearms purchaser identification card and to any person under the age of 21 years for a permit to purchase a handgun." On 2026-09-15 I did reach a full copy of N.J.A.C. Title 13, Chapter 54 (Firearms and Weapons) hosted by NJSP itself, and subchapter 13:54-2 (Permit to carry a handgun, rules 13:54-2.1 through 13:54-2.10) contains NO minimum-age rule. There is also no rule 13:54-5.8 in that text at all (subchapter 5 ends at 13:54-5.7 and concerns assault firearms and machine guns), so commercial pages citing "N.J.A.C. 13:54-5.8" for a minimum age of 18 are citing a rule that is not in the chapter. Caution: that NJSP-hosted copy is badly stale. It carries a chapter expiration date of May 17, 2007 and still describes application form SP 642 endorsed by "three reputable persons", both superseded by P.L.2022, c.131 (four endorsers, online application). The currently codified N.J.A.C. is published only through LexisNexis, so an age rule adopted after 2007 would not appear in the copy I read.
Training required Yes, live fire required
State fee $226 initial / $226 renewal — the state's own charge, not the total
Valid for 2 years
Processing time Statutory: once the application is deemed complete, if the chief police officer or Superintendent does not approve or deny within 90 days it is deemed approved; the agency may extend by up to 30 more days for good cause with written notice, and the applicant may agree in writing to extensions past the 120-day statutory frame (N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(c)). Actual times vary widely by police department; NJSP attributes backlogs to department workload, agency response times, and reference responsiveness. Non-residents have 90 days from submission to be fingerprinted at IdentoGO or the application is cancelled without refund, and the background investigation does not begin until the applicant notifies the assigned NJSP station that prints were taken.
Fingerprints Required
Non-resident permit Available

What it actually costs

The state fee is rarely the whole bill. Fingerprinting is usually charged by a private vendor, training is bought from an instructor, and several states add photographs, notarisation or other requirements on top.

State fee $200
Fingerprinting $15–$45 — our estimate; no vendor publishes a rate
Training course $75–$250 (private instructor)
'212A' background fee $18
Service fee $8
Realistic total $316–$521 — includes an estimated component

N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(c). The commonly quoted $226 is the $200 statutory fee plus $18 and $8 in add-ons, and applies only to someone already fingerprinted for a New Jersey firearms application. The IdentoGO capture itself is extra and NJSP publishes no amount, so it is estimated here. New Jersey has both the highest state fee in the country and a two-year term, so the per-year cost is far above anywhere else.

$226 total for an applicant who has already been fingerprinted for a New Jersey firearms application = $200 statutory application fee (N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(c)) + $18 '212A' background fee + $8 service fee. $205 for an applicant who still must be fingerprinted ($200 statutory + $5 service); the fingerprint capture itself is paid separately to IdentoGO, the outside vendor, and NJSP does not publish that amount. Payment split for municipal applicants: $76 of the $226 is paid online at submission and the remaining $150 is paid directly to the municipal police department, which will not process or approve the application until paid in full. If the applicant's residence is served by an NJSP station (or the applicant is a non-resident), the full amount is paid online. Renewals cost the same as initial applications except that fingerprinting is not repeated. All fees are non-refundable, including for applications cancelled for applying to the wrong ORI/department. Statutory split: of the $200, $150 is retained by the municipality and $50 goes to the Superintendent (or to the Victims of Crime Compensation Office account for applications made to the Superintendent).

How to apply

  1. Confirm you already own the handgun(s) you intend to carry — NJSP: 'If you do not own a handgun yet, do not apply.' You will list make, model, caliber and serial number for every handgun to be carried.
  2. Complete the required training with a certified firearms instructor: in-person Use of Force classroom instruction plus the CCARE live-fire qualification (50 rounds, FBI Q target, 80% minimum, from a concealed holster at 3/5/7/10/15 yards). Obtain the completed S.P. 182 (Rev. 9/23) certificate and a copy of the instructor's certification.
  3. Identify the correct ORI: NJ residents and dual residents must apply to the municipal police department or NJSP station that provides police service to their residence - applying to the wrong ORI means cancellation with no refund. NJSP publishes the department ORI numbers and NJSP station email addresses at https://njsp.njoag.gov/firearms-investigation-licensing-bureau/emails-ori-list/. Out-of-state residents answer 'No' to the NJ-residency question and are auto-assigned to an NJSP ORI, which is shown on the confirmation page after payment.
  4. Gather documents: recent color headshot on a light background (taken within 6 months, no hat or glasses), SBI number if previously fingerprinted, SSN, driver's license/state ID, employment history, 10 years of addresses, alien registration number if applicable.
  5. Line up four (4) references who are not related to you by blood or law and whom you have known at least three years; you need each one's name, address, phone and a correct email address (they receive an automated questionnaire).
  6. Complete form S.P. 066 (Consent for Mental Health Records) if you have lived outside New Jersey in the last 10 years; add the separate New York State or City of Philadelphia mental health forms if you lived in those jurisdictions.
  7. Apply online at https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/ - the address NJSP's rev. 03/03/2026 instructions give - using 'Start Initial Application' for first-time online applicants (including anyone renewing a permit that was originally issued on paper) or 'Renewal' if your current permit came through the online system and expires within 4 months. An unauthenticated visit to the portal may bounce to the myNewJersey sign-in at https://my.nj.gov/, so expect to need a myNewJersey account.
  8. Review the Firearms Safety & Awareness presentation integrated into the online application.
  9. Pay by credit or debit card: $226 if already fingerprinted, $205 if you still need prints. Municipal applicants pay $76 online and owe the remaining $150 directly to the municipal police department before processing begins.
  10. If you have never been fingerprinted for a New Jersey firearms application, schedule and complete fingerprinting at IdentoGO within 90 days of submission, then notify the assigned NJSP station or police department that prints were taken (the investigation does not start until you do).
  11. Undergo the background investigation: fingerprint comparison against municipal, county, SBI and FBI records; mental health records check; reference interviews; and an interview of the applicant and endorsers (note: the in-person endorser-interview requirement of 2C:58-4(c) is currently enjoined).
  12. Before you carry, re-read NJSP's sensitive-places document and FAQ item 11: as of 2026-09-15 the enforceable/unenforceable split is still the one NJSP published on 12/11/2025 and restated unchanged in its 03/03/2026 instructions, because the en banc Third Circuit has not yet decided Koons/Siegel (Nos. 23-1900 and 23-2043). The list can change without notice and NJSP states it is not obligated to notify you.
  13. On approval, the permit is issued electronically — download or print the ID card from the link in the approval email (the link stays live for two years). Denials may be appealed by requesting a hearing in the Superior Court of the county under N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(e).
  14. To add a handgun acquired after approval, submit form S.P. 182a (PTC Additional Handguns Intended to be Carried) to the department that processed your application.
  15. Renew every two years; file up to four months before expiration to avoid a lapse (you may not carry during any gap).

Apply on the official New Jersey site

What disqualifies you

Where to get the required training

New Jersey does not publish a central list of certified instructors. Confirm directly with Chief police officer of the municipality where the applicant resides; the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police instead where the applicant is an armored car employee, there is no chief police officer in the municipality, the applicant does not reside in New Jersey, or the applicant is a mayor or elected member of the municipal governing body (N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(c)) that a course will be accepted before you pay for it.

Training providers in New Jersey

Businesses in our directory that offer firearms training. These are not state-verified as certified permit instructors — check against the official list above, or ask the provider directly.

All firearms training in New Jersey →

Reciprocity

Carrying into New Jersey

New Jersey recognizes no out-of-state carry permits. A permit from another state does not authorize you to carry here. New Jersey does, however, issue its own license to non-residents — see the application details above.

23 jurisdictions honor a New Jersey permit

Derived from what each of those states officially publishes.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia

Official New Jersey reciprocity page Full reciprocity matrix →

Building your own in New Jersey

Build for personal use
Prohibited
Serial number required
Yes

New Jersey effectively prohibits building a firearm for personal use. Four independent bars, all from the official statute text: (1) 2C:39-9(d) — any person who manufactures or causes to be manufactured a firearm 'if he is not licensed or registered to do so as provided in chapter 58 of Title 2C' is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree. There is no personal-use exception. (2) 2C:39-9(k) — 'Purchasing firearm parts to manufacture a firearm without a serial number': a person who, with purpose to manufacture or assemble a firearm and without being registered or licensed to do so, obtains (separately or as a kit) a frame or receiver not imprinted with a serial number registered with a federally licensed manufacturer, or any combination of parts from which an unserialized firearm may readily be assembled, is guilty of a crime of the SECOND degree, and that conviction does not merge with any other offense. 'Firearm frame or receiver' expressly includes unfinished blanks 'which may readily be made into a firearm frame or receiver through milling or other means' (80% receivers). (3) 2C:39-9(l) — using a 3D printer or similar device to manufacture a firearm, receiver, magazine or component without being a licensed manufacturer is a second-degree crime, as is distributing CAD files or digital instructions for doing so to an unlicensed person in New Jersey. (4) 2C:39-9(n) — transporting, shipping, selling or disposing of a firearm assembled from such an unserialized frame/receiver is a second-degree crime. Note the penalty escalation: subsections k, l, m and n were third-degree crimes as enacted by P.L.2018, c.138 and are second-degree crimes in the current statute (amendment history: 2018, c.138; 2019, c.165; 2022, c.53; 2025, c.363). Separately, 2C:39-9(e) makes defacing a firearm (removing/altering the serial number) a third-degree crime. There is no state registry or serialization procedure by which a private individual can lawfully serialize and register a self-made firearm — the lawful path requires becoming a licensed/registered manufacturer under N.J.S.A. 2C:58-1 et seq.

N.J.S.A. 2C:39-9(d), (k), (l), (m), (n) (last amended by L.2025, c.363)

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

Statutes

What we could not confirm

  • MINIMUM AGE is still not stated verbatim by any primary source. N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4 contains no age at all (read in full from the official statute text on 2026-09-15); NJSP's instruction sheets rev. 03/03/2026, the Concealed Carry Facts & FAQ, form S.P. 182 and the online portal all omit it. The 21 figure is derived from the incorporated disability at N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3(c)(4) - quoted verbatim from the official text: "To any person under the age of 18 years for a firearms purchaser identification card and to any person under the age of 21 years for a permit to purchase a handgun" - plus NJSP's rule that you must already own the handgun you intend to carry. New this pass: I read NJSP's hosted copy of N.J.A.C. Title 13 Ch. 54 and subchapter 13:54-2 (permit to carry) sets no age; but that copy is stale (chapter expiration May 17, 2007, still form SP 642 and three endorsers) and the current N.J.A.C. is published only through LexisNexis, so a post-2007 administrative age rule cannot be ruled out. An 18-20 year old with, for example, an inherited handgun should confirm with the issuing police department.
  • TRAINING HOURS: New Jersey specifies no number of hours anywhere. Re-confirmed on 2026-09-15 by reading N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(g) in the official statute text, the CCARE protocol PDF, and both rev. 03/03/2026 instruction sheets - none contains an hour figure. The requirement is defined by components (online course, in-person Use of Force classroom instruction, live-fire target training) and by round count (50). training.hours is deliberately an empty string; any source quoting an hour figure for New Jersey is inventing it.
  • FINGERPRINT VENDOR COST is still unpublished. The out-of-state instruction sheet rev. 03/03/2026 states verbatim that "The fingerprint cost is not included in your background fee. Fingerprints are processed by an outside vendor and any fee associated with your fingerprint submission is paid directly to them," and gives no amount. I found no nj.gov or NJSP page publishing the IdentoGO charge. A first-time applicant's out-of-pocket total is therefore $205 plus an unpublished IdentoGO fee, not $205 flat, and costs.fingerprintsEstimate remains an estimate rather than a published figure.
  • IN-STATE FEE FOR A FIRST-TIME FINGERPRINT APPLICANT is still ambiguous. The out-of-state sheet rev. 03/03/2026 gives both figures ($226 if already fingerprinted, $205 if not). The NJ-resident sheet rev. 03/03/2026 gives only $226, and the string "205" does not appear anywhere in it (I extracted the text and grepped). Whether an NJ resident who has never been fingerprinted pays $205 or $226 online is not stated in the resident instructions; confirm with the municipal police department, which also collects the $150 balance before it will process the application.
  • SENSITIVE PLACES REMAIN THE MOST VOLATILE PART OF NJ CARRY LAW AND A DECISION COULD LAND ANY DAY. Status as of 2026-09-15 from primary sources. (a) The enforceable/unenforceable split is still the one NJSP published on 12/11/2025, restated unchanged in its rev. 03/03/2026 instruction sheets and in FAQ item 11 (stamped updated 03/03/2026). Enforceable: N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4.6(a)(1) through (a)(22), and (a)(24) only as to private property NOT held open to the public. Not enforceable: (a)(23); (a)(24) as to private property held open to the public; (b)(1) (functional firearms in vehicles); 2C:58-4(c)'s in-person interview of the applicant's character endorsers; 2C:58-4(d)(4) and 2C:58-4.3 (the $300,000 liability insurance mandate); and N.J.A.C. 7:25-5.23(f)(5). (b) The Third Circuit's 12/11/2025 order granting rehearing en banc and vacating the 09/10/2025 panel opinion and 09/17/2025 amendment is still the newest document for Nos. 23-1900 and 23-2043 in the court's own opinion archive (I probed 231900p.pdf, 231900pa.pdf, 231900po1.pdf, 231900p1.pdf, 231900p2.pdf and 231900po2.pdf, and checked the weekly precedential-opinion list), so no en banc opinion has issued and the district court's 05/16/2023 preliminary injunction as narrowed by the 06/20/2023 stay order is what governs. (c) The Supreme Court decided Wolford v. Lopez, No. 24-1046, on 06/25/2026, holding that barring licensed carriers from private property open to the public without the owner's express consent violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments - the same direction as the existing New Jersey injunction on 2C:58-4.6(a)(24), but I found no court order applying Wolford to New Jersey. Anyone carrying in New Jersey must re-check NJSP's sensitive-places document before relying on any of this.
  • RECIPROCITY DIRECTION: the FAQ statement is unambiguous and was re-read verbatim on 2026-09-15 ("No. New Jersey does not have reciprocity with any other state. You must obtain a New Jersey Concealed Carry Permit if you wish to carry a handgun in New Jersey."), and that FAQ item is stamped updated 12/17/2025. Note that NJSP publishes no standalone reciprocity page, so the finding rests on FAQ question 2 plus the absence of any recognition provision in the statute - I re-read N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4, 2C:58-4.5 and 2C:58-4.6 in full from the official text and none contains one, which is consistent.
  • STATUTE CURRENCY - THE LEGISLATURE'S TWO OFFICIAL FILES DISAGREE, AND I RELIED ON THE NEWER ONE. STATUTES-TEXT.zip at https://pub.njleg.gov/Statutes/ is regenerated every weekday (the copy I pulled is dated 2026-09-15 06:00) but its own header still reads "UPDATED THROUGH P.L.2025, c.405, and J.R.22", so the full section text I quoted may not reflect any 2026 enactment. LCTOC-TEXT.zip from the same directory and the same timestamp is the Legislative Counsel's per-code-section amendment index; its header reads "UPDATED to P.L.2026, c.30 and JR 1" and it in fact carries entries as high as P.L.2026, c.89. I used LCTOC to close the gap: it shows NO 2026 amendment anywhere in Title 2C chapter 39 or chapter 58, with 2C:58-4 still at 2022, c.131, s.3; 2C:58-4.2 through 2C:58-4.9 never amended; 2C:39-5 at 2025, c.363, s.4; 2C:39-9 at 2025, c.363, s.3; 2C:58-3 at 2023, c.177, s.11; and 2C:39-10 at 2025, c.203. Residual risk: a 2026 public law numbered above c.89 would appear in neither file, and directory browsing of https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2026/PL26/ returns 403 (and 74_.PDF returns 404), so I could not enumerate 2026 chapters independently.
  • NO APPROVED-RANGE LIST AND NO INSTRUCTOR REGISTRY EXIST, AND THE STATUTE'S PROMISE OF A LIST APPEARS NEVER TO HAVE BEEN KEPT. N.J.S.A. 2C:58-4(g)(1) requires target training "on a firing range approved by the superintendent and on the list of approved ranges published on the State Police website." On 2026-09-15 I checked the Firearms Investigation & Licensing Bureau page, the Firearms Investigation Unit page, the concealed-carry-permit page and the FAQ, and found no such list. Instead the Firearms Investigation Unit page says a certified firearms instructor can conduct the training at any shooting range. No list of certified instructors is published either, so instructorRegistryUrl stays null. The gap between the statutory text and NJSP's practice is unresolved.
  • STATUTE URLs: New Jersey still offers no stable per-section permalinks. The Legislature distributes the code only as bulk downloads at https://pub.njleg.gov/Statutes/ (STATUTES-TEXT.zip for full text, LCTOC-TEXT.zip for per-section amendment history). Section-level citations in this record therefore point to that bulk source or to the relevant session-law PDF; the section text quoted here was extracted from STATUTES.TXT inside the 2026-09-15 06:00 build of STATUTES-TEXT.zip.
  • APPLICATION PORTAL SIGN-IN: https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/ is the address NJSP's rev. 03/03/2026 instructions give, and a direct GET of it returns the "Concealed Carry Permits" page, but a redirect-following request from an unauthenticated client landed on the myNewJersey sign-in at https://my.nj.gov/. I could not determine from NJSP's published documents whether a myNewJersey account is now a prerequisite to starting an application - neither instruction sheet mentions one.

Sources