New York requires a License to Carry a Pistol or Revolver Concealed (Pistol/Revolver License, carry-concealed class) to carry. It is shall-issue, the minimum age is 21, and 18 (16 classroom + 2 live fire) hours of training is required.
Requirements at a glance
Permit name
License to Carry a Pistol or Revolver Concealed (Pistol/Revolver License, carry-concealed class)
Issuing authority
County/city licensing officer (a county judge or justice of a court of record in most counties; the sheriff in Nassau and Suffolk; the Police Commissioner in New York City; the Commissioner of Public Safety in Westchester). The NY State Police administer statewide recertification and the license database.
System
shall-issue
Minimum age
21 — Penal Law § 400.00(1)(a): no license shall be issued except to an applicant "twenty-one years of age or older, provided, however, that where such applicant has been honorably discharged from the United States army, navy, marine corps, air force or coast guard, or the national guard of the state of New York, no such age restriction shall apply." So honorably discharged veterans/NY National Guard members are exempt from the 21-year minimum. Federal handgun-purchase age rules apply independently.
Training required
Yes — 18 (16 classroom + 2 live fire) hours, live fire required
State fee
Not published
Valid for
3 years
Processing time
Statutory maximum six months. Penal Law § 400.00(4-b): "the licensing officer shall act upon any application for a license pursuant to this section within six months of the date of presentment of such an application to the appropriate authority." Actual county-by-county times vary widely and frequently approach or exceed the statutory limit.
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.
Training course
$150–$350 (private instructor)
County licence fee
varies — $3 to $10 outside New York City and Nassau, set by the county legislature
New York City and Nassau County
varies — set their own by local law, in the hundreds; not verifiable from a primary source
Fingerprint processing
varies — state and FBI charge under § 400.00(4); amount not confirmable
New York has no statewide fee to publish. Penal Law § 400.00(14) caps the county licence fee between three and ten dollars upstate, while New York City and Nassau set theirs by local law at figures two orders of magnitude higher — so the same licence costs a few dollars in one county and several hundred in another. The 2022 Concealed Carry Improvement Act then added the largest training requirement in the country under § 400.00(19): sixteen hours of in-person curriculum plus two of live fire, required at renewal as well as issue. Recertification itself is free.
There is no single statewide fee. Penal Law § 400.00(14) caps the license fee outside New York City and Nassau County at 'not less than three dollars nor more than ten dollars as may be determined by the legislative body of the county'; the amendment fee is three dollars ($5 in Suffolk County). New York City and Nassau County set their own fees by local law, dramatically higher than the upstate statutory cap (NYC's carry-license fee is set in the NYC Administrative Code and runs in the hundreds of dollars) — the NYPD fee page returned HTTP 403 and could not be verified from the official source, so no NYC figure is asserted. On top of the county license fee, applicants pay a separate state/FBI fingerprint processing fee (Penal Law § 400.00(4)); the exact current amount was not confirmable from a primary source. State Police recertification is free: 'there are no fees associated with recertification; however, existing county fees associated with new applications and amendments still apply.' Retired law enforcement officers are exempt from the license fee statewide.
How to apply
Confirm you are 21 or older (or an honorably discharged veteran/NY National Guard member) and not disqualified under Penal Law § 400.00(1).
Complete the mandatory 16-hour in-person classroom course plus 2-hour live-fire range course from a DCJS-approved instructor, scoring at least 80% on the written test and demonstrating live-fire proficiency (Penal Law § 400.00(19)). Keep the certificate of completion.
Obtain form PPB-3 (Pistol/Revolver/Semi-Automatic Rifle License Application), plus PPB-3A continuation sheet and PPB-3B fingerprint form, from your county licensing officer or the State Police forms page. Many counties add a local supplement and require in-person pickup.
Assemble the required disclosures: names and contact information for no fewer than four character references; a list of your former and current social media accounts from the past three years; and disclosure of your spouse or domestic partner and any other adults residing in your home, including adult children.
Be fingerprinted (Penal Law § 400.00(4)) and pay the fingerprint processing fee for the state and FBI criminal history check.
Submit the completed application with the county license fee to the licensing officer for the city or county where you reside, are principally employed, or have your principal place of business (Penal Law § 400.00(3)).
Attend the mandatory in-person interview with the licensing officer (Penal Law § 400.00(1)(o)).
Wait for the investigation and determination; the licensing officer must act within six months (Penal Law § 400.00(4-b)). If denied, you may request a hearing before the DCJS firearm license appeals board within ninety days.
After issuance, amend the license to add each individual handgun you acquire (form PPB-5) — in New York each pistol is listed on the license.
Recertify with the State Police every three years for a concealed-carry license (electronically only; paper forms no longer accepted). Licensees in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester do not recertify with the State Police and instead renew through their local licensing authority.
Under 21 years of age (unless honorably discharged from the U.S. armed forces or the NY National Guard)
Lack of 'good moral character,' defined in Penal Law § 400.00(1)(b) as not possessing 'the essential character, temperament and judgement necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself or others'
Conviction of a felony or a 'serious offense' as defined in Penal Law § 265.00(17)
Being a fugitive from justice
Being an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance
Not being a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted alien; unlawful or nonimmigrant status
Dishonorable discharge from the armed forces
Having renounced U.S. citizenship
Having been involuntarily committed to a mental institution, or adjudicated mentally incompetent / a mental defective
Having had a firearms license revoked, or being under a suspension or ineligibility order
Being the subject of a qualifying order of protection or an extreme risk protection order (red flag order)
Recent conviction of assault in the third degree, misdemeanor driving while intoxicated, or menacing
Failure to complete the required 16+2 hour firearm safety training
Refusal or failure to appear for the mandatory in-person interview, or failure to supply four character references, the social media disclosure, or household member disclosure
Any other good cause found by the licensing officer for the denial of the license
Where to get the required training
New York does not publish a central list of certified instructors. Confirm directly
with County/city licensing officer (a county judge or justice of a court of record in most counties; the sheriff in Nassau and Suffolk; the Police Commissioner in New York City; the Commissioner of Public Safety in Westchester). The NY State Police administer statewide recertification and the license database. that a course will be accepted before you pay for it.
Training providers in New York
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.
New York effectively prohibits building a firearm for personal use. Penal Law § 265.10(1) makes it a CLASS D FELONY for 'any person who manufactures or causes to be manufactured any machine-gun, ghost gun, unfinished frame or receiver, firearm silencer, major component of a firearm, assault weapon, large capacity ammunition feeding device or disguised gun' — the subdivision contains no exemption for personal or non-commercial manufacture; Article 265's exemptions run to licensed gunsmiths and dealers. A 'ghost gun' is defined in § 265.00 as 'a firearm, rifle or shotgun that does not comply with the provisions of section 265.07 of this article and is not serialized,' and an 'unfinished frame or receiver' is 'any unserialized material that does not constitute the frame or receiver of a firearm ... but that has been shaped or formed in any way for the purpose of becoming the frame or receiver ... and which may readily be made into a functional frame or receiver through milling, drilling or other means.' Mere POSSESSION is also criminal: § 265.01(9-B) (possession of a ghost gun) and § 265.01(10) (possession of an unserialized frame or receiver) are class A misdemeanors for anyone who is not a licensed gunsmith or dealer. Selling escalates sharply — §§ 265.60/265.61 (ghost guns) and §§ 265.63/265.64 (frames/receivers) are class E and class D felonies. Serialization is mandatory and CANNOT be done by the builder: § 265.07 requires a unique serial number be engraved, cast or stamped on the item, and authorizes only 'any person licensed as a gunsmith, or required to be, or a dealer in firearms pursuant to section 400.00' to do it; violation is a class E felony. Separately, any handgun a New Yorker lawfully possesses must be listed on their § 400.00 pistol license via amendment, so even a hypothetically serialized self-built handgun could not be lawfully possessed without adding it to the license. Bottom line: home-building a firearm in New York is a felony, not a regulated-but-legal activity — do not rely on federal 'personal use' manufacture allowances here. Note § 265.10 was amended effective August 25, 2026; the prohibition exists in both versions but verify the operative enumerated list for conduct near that date.
N.Y. Penal Law §§ 265.10(1), 265.07, 265.01(9-B) and (10), 265.00 (definitions of 'ghost gun' and 'unfinished frame or receiver'); § 400.00
Exact dollar fees could not be confirmed from a primary source. Penal Law § 400.00(14) only sets a $3–$10 range for the license fee outside NYC and Nassau, delegated to each county legislature, so there is no single statewide number. fees.initial and fees.renewal are null rather than a guess.
The New York City fee schedule could not be verified — nyc.gov/NYPD licensing pages returned HTTP 403 to automated fetches. NYC carry-license fees are set by the NYC Administrative Code and are far above the upstate statutory cap, but no figure is asserted.
The separate state/FBI fingerprint processing fee amount (Penal Law § 400.00(4)) could not be confirmed from an official DCJS or State Police page.
nonResidentPermitAvailable is true based on the state's official FAQ, which states 'New York law does not require residency or in-state employment to apply for a firearm license' and that non-residents are 'evaluated under the same standards as all others.' This sits in tension with Penal Law § 400.00(3), which requires application to the licensing officer where the applicant 'resides, is principally employed or has his or her principal place of business' — a person with no New York nexus may have no licensing officer with jurisdiction. Treat non-resident licensing as legally available but practically dependent on a NY residence, employment or business nexus; confirm with the specific county licensing officer.
permitSystem is recorded as shall-issue because the 2022 Concealed Carry Improvement Act removed the 'proper cause' discretionary standard struck down in NYSRPA v. Bruen. However, § 400.00(1)(b) retains a 'good moral character' standard vesting substantial discretion in the licensing officer, and CCIA litigation has been ongoing. New York is arguably shall-issue in form but discretionary in practice; county-to-county variation is large.
validityYears is set to 3, reflecting the concealed-carry recertification/renewal cycle, but the structure genuinely differs by region: outside NYC/Nassau/Suffolk/Westchester the license itself does not expire but must be recertified with the State Police every 3 years for concealed carry (5 years for premises-only); in NYC (3 years) and Nassau/Suffolk/Westchester (up to 5 years) the license itself expires and is renewed locally. One number cannot capture this.
New York publishes no statewide registry of approved concealed-carry training instructors that I could locate on an official site; the state FAQ directs applicants to their county licensing officer. instructorRegistryUrl is null. A DCJS 'Minimum Standards for Firearm Safety Training' document is referenced on criminaljustice.ny.gov but its direct URL could not be resolved.
Penal Law § 265.10 was retrieved in a version marked effective August 25, 2026 — about two weeks after this research date. The prohibition on manufacturing ghost guns and unfinished frames/receivers exists in both current and amended versions, but the precise enumerated list should be re-verified for conduct near that effective date.
The full statutory list of 'sensitive locations' (§ 265.01-e) and the 'restricted locations' private-property default (§ 265.01-d) has been subject to continuing federal litigation (the Antonyuk line), with some provisions enjoined at various times. The state's own page notes the private-property provision's enforcement is 'currently limited due to court ruling.' Current injunction status was not verified.
WebSearch was unavailable this session (budget exhausted), so all sourcing was done by fetching known official URLs directly. A more recent official announcement or 2025–2026 amendment may exist that was not surfaced. The core conclusions — no permitless carry, no reciprocity, age 21, 16+2 hours training — were each confirmed against statutory text or the state's own pages.