The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sent the following notice to industry members and federal firearm licensees regarding much-needed technology upgrades to the eForms verification form for ATF Form 4.

ATF announced it is providing advance notice to current eForms users about the upcoming launch of the new version of ATF eForms. No action is needed at this time; however, there are some required new security steps you'll need to complete after the upgrade is finished. More details are provided from ATF below, or by clicking here.

From ATF:

This is an advance notice to current eForms users about the upcoming launch of a new version of ATF eForms.

The goal of this “modernized eForms” is to provide ATF with an infusion of technology to provide better services to our industry members and the public. This much needed modernization will reduce the effort and time required to review and process ATF applications by incorporating online validations and other enhancements.

No action is needed at this time. However, there are some required steps you'll need to complete after the upgrade is finished (details below).

Outage period

In order to facilitate this upgrade, eForms will be offline during the following time frame:

Upgrade Start: Friday, December 17 at 9 p.m.

Tentative Finish: Tuesday, December 21 at 6 a.m.

You can continue to use the existing eForms until the upgrade starts at 9 p.m. next Friday. During the upgrade time frame, however, eForms will be unavailable.

What you need to know

The web address of eForms is not changing. If you have bookmarked eForms in your browser, it will automatically access the new eForms.

Your eForms User ID is not changing. All your previous submissions will transfer to the new system.

Required steps after upgrade

We're updating the eForms login process to provide enhanced security and establish a trusted relationship between the user and ATF. Here's what you'll need to do after Dec. 21:

1. After the upgrade, you'll need to manually reset your password before you can log in for the first time.
2. Once you log in with your new password, the system will ask you to update your user profile information and create a security PIN.

Please review our step-by-step guide with screenshots, but do not complete these steps until the upgrade is complete on Dec. 21:

• Existing Users
• First Time Login Steps

What to expect

Once the upgrade is finished, you may notice a few changes in the eForms interface. Here's what to expect:

• ATF eForm 4 is coming back. After the upgrade, you will be able to submit the ATF Form 4 electronically through eForms.
• Electronic submission of ATF Forms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6A, 9, 10 and 5300.11 with the required electronic documents.
• Electronic submission of fingerprint cards for ATF Form 4. You will be able to attach your “digital fingerprint cards” to your submission.
• Support for larger file attachments. The updated eForms will accept electronic documents up to 30 MB in size.
• Enhanced validations to ensure that the upfront validations of your data occur prior to submission.
• User PIN for validating the submission of all forms as part of the submission process.
• Self-service support for forgotten passwords and PINs.
• Rules of behavior that must be accepted to proceed with the use of eForms.
• “Ask the Expert” to send your questions to our subject matter experts.
• Use of smarter technology to improve customer service and build a foundation for future enhancements such as an Application Programming Interface (API) and Captcha.

Contact us

In our efforts to provide you continuous support through this transition, we have created five temporary email mailboxes to help us assist you:

• Registration issues
• AFMER questions
• NFA questions
• NSOT questions
• Import questions

It is our goal to have ATF personnel monitor these mailboxes to assist you with a response within 3 business days.