Licence Application Guide
Updated: September 2025
—
Here are a few helpful tips to help you through filling it out your Canada Firearms Program (RCMP) licence application.
We recommend getting started with this guide right after your course. The process of licence application can take several months up to the better part of a year to complete, depending on your situation, and you’re most likely to follow through and complete it if you start chipping away at the work as soon as possible.
Let’s get started!
1) Wait for your certificate(s) from FSESO before you send your application to the RCMP.
Please Note: As of September 2025 we are currently on-boarding into the new digital course report / certificate system, which will reduce course report turn-around times to about one week. The following Information refers to the mail course report system we are phasing out:
Certificates can take up to 2 months from completing your course to show up in your mail. If you moved or you think your certificates might be lost in the mail, and it has been 2 months, please contact us.
If you completed two courses more than a week apart, your certificates will show up separately. They might even show up in the wrong order. This is normal. Keep waiting until it’s 2 months past your course and if they still haven’t arrived please contact us so we can help.
2) Collect the items you need for your application. Download the application or start it online and take a look at what it requires, pieces of photo ID, and signatures of references, among others. If you plan to mail your application, download the application form and start working on it. If you plan to apply online (best and fastest for most people) you can start working through the steps - the system will save your progress.
OR
3) Licence Information and Personal Information
You’ll be used to these types of questions on other bureaucratic paperwork. Read and answer carefully throughout.
4) Personal History, Conjugal Status…
These sections get a little personal. They asks you if you have ever committed a criminal offence, have anyone in your household who is prohibited from being around firearms, about your mental health, and if you’ve experienced the breakdown of any important relationships.
Some of these questions might seem daunting to you… we regularly receive questions from clients debating how to answer some of them. Our suggestion is always the same: answer everything honestly, the RCMP will find out anyway. If you’d like to explain the circumstances surrounding one of your answers you can add a written explanation.
You can also call the RCMP Firearms Program to ask questions about this section if you need to at 1-800-731-4000.
5) Safety Training Certification
If you have completed the Canadian Firearms Safety course with Range Arts then check “Yes” in 20A and 20B for each of the courses you completed.
For 20C, typically your answer will be “No”. The training you have received via Range Arts is not the same as receiving certification directly from the Chief Firearms Officer or completing a course in Quebec prior to 1995.
6) References
You need 2 references to sign your application. Your references can be anyone over the age of 18 that you’ve known for at least 3 years.
Sometimes we get asked if that can be your mom. Yes, moms qualify!
We also tend to recommend you pick someone with a professional demeanour with a voicemail message which identifies them. The RCMP might also send your reference a letter in a plain envelope, with a code inside and a phone number to call. Choose someone who is willing to check their mail and is likely to answer their phone. Absentee references can slow down your application.
Remember, your references actually need to sign your application.
7) Photo
The online application guides you through the steps of taking and uploading a digital photo of yourself.
For the mail application, the photo guarantor: On information sheet 4 at the top of your application there is a whole section on how to take your photo. We find it’s easiest is to get a passport photo taken at your drugstore or corner store, but if you’re tech savvy and have a decent printer take a selfie and set you margins to 45mm by 57mm and you’re sorted.
For your photo guarantor’s signature: Print your name and your guarantor's name on the label found on page 4 of the application’s info sheet, under “Label Instructions”. Have your guarantor sign it and complete the Photo Guarantor section of your application. Then cut and affix the label to the back of your photograph, and enclose the signed photograph with your application. We recommend taping it or using a paperclip. Don’t do anything that permanently damages the photo itself. We don’t know how the RCMP handles these photos on their end, so best to keep things easy for them.
8) Payment
The online application makes this a breeze, but if you’re mailing do not forget to complete the payment information section. Credit card is usually easiest.
9) Don’t forget to Sign
For the mail in application, don’t forget to sign… they’ll send it back to you. Double and triple check your signature lines are all signed.
10) Reminder to Enclose your FSESO Certificates
In the mail, you’ll receive 2 copies of each certificate for each course you completed.
Online: take a clear digital photo of the course report and upload it. As this system becomes digitizes you will be given digital copies of your course reports.
For mail applications: You can send one to the RCMP and keep one for yourself for your records. We recommend sending them the one that is most legible. Sometimes the information doesn’t transfer well through the carbon copies but don’t worry because the RCMP has processed all the information and it’s “in the system”. It’s very unlikely they’ll send your application back because they have trouble reading a certificate.
11) If applying by mail…
Mail your completed application form and all attachments to:
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
P.O. Box 1200
Miramichi NB E1N 5Z3
We recommend sending it using Canada Post and make sure you get a tracking number so it is guaranteed to arrive. You don’t want to have to do this all over again!
12) Congratulations on making your application! It can take between 4-9 months for the RCMP to process your application. We don’t recommend calling them to check status unless you think there is a problem.
If you need to learn more about the Canadian Firearms Safety Courses:
Vintage European style deer head framed illustration from The Queen's Jubilee and Toronto "Called Back" from 1887 to 1847. This Revised Edition Contains the Progress of the City from 1886 to 1887, Etc by Conyngham Crawford Taylor (1887).