I submitted my renewal for my LTC. Should be here in about 10 days they said. Bucks County seems to have slightly different procedures than Chester County. For one, they take your picture for you. They wouldn’t take my passport photos from Eckerd. I wish I had known that before I paid for them. For two, it’s local county government clerks that process the application rather than the sheriff’s deputies.
Pennsylvania requires photocopies of any out of state licenses. I think this is mostly for people who are applying from out of state, but it seemed to thoroughly confuse the person processing my application. I have licenses from Florida, New Hampshire, and Washington. I photocopied both front and back, but Washington has nothing on the back, so it wasn’t clear to the person what was going on.
Because they only accept cash, I asked for a reciept, which seemed to put off the clerk, who explained to me that they have to account for the money regardless. Hello! You people are the government! The minute I say “OK, I’ll trust these people. They seem honest and competent.” is the minute I end up on the phone saying “No, I submitted that application to you a month ago, and paid forty six dollars. What do you mean you have no record of it?” Of course, the LTC is only supposed to cost 19 dollars, but most of the sheriff’s figured out people would pay extra for credit card sized licenses rather than the large pieces of papers spelled out by state law. I don’t have a problem with this.
I don’t know, on one hand, it’s nice that I didn’t have to go to Doylestown to submit an application. On the other hand, the Sheriff’s deputies in Chester County took my application, said “Looks good to me, if all goes well you should have your LTC in a few weeks.” and that was that. It arrived in the mail a few days later. Once my application is approved here, I have to pick it up. Another trip.
Not sure which I prefer.
Wow, what a pita. Maybe I should be happy that I live in Allegheny County… walked in, gave them my paperwork, paid, got my picture taken, and walked out with my permit (there is a computerized background check for those curious). Took a little over an hour… including the drive time to downtown Pittsburgh.
Yep – Allegheny has it nailed – took my 15 minutes from walking in the door to walking out with a permit. Second best part – $19 for the plastic, credit card size permit.
All they asked to see was my Pennsylvania DL. I had my Indiana CHL if they’d asked to see it (think I still do), but they didn’t. No picture. I walked out fifteen minutes later with my license.
Allegheny County processes more licenses to carry than any other jurisdiction in the state, and, as I understand, the country as well. It’s good to see they have it down to clockwork efficiency. Bucks County I think is in the top five jurisdictions in the state, in terms of the numbers they process.
I wouldn’t call the process for Bucks bad, but it’s different than Chester, and I found the Chester County process a bit easier. I do wish they mailed me the license, rather than having to go pick it up, and be a bit more clear in their instructions what exactly is required. I expect a bit of dysfunction when it comes to the government though, and I wouldn’t say the process was any worse than dealing with, say, PennDOT.