PAL Firearms Licence in Canada: Requirements, Application, and Renewal

A Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) is the only firearms licence Canada issues to new applicants, and getting one requires passing a safety course, waiting at least 28 days for a first time application, and clearing a background screening that can be triggered at any point by police, a court, or a chief firearms officer.

Information last verified on 2026-09-25. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This article covers the federal licensing law under the Firearms Act, SC 1995, c 39, and its regulations, which apply the same way across Canada's criminal law framework in every province and territory. Chief firearms officers are designated for each province or territory, but the licence types, forms, fees, and eligibility rules they administer are set by federal law, not by the province. This article does not cover what counts as a prohibited weapon or device, addressed in Prohibited Weapons in Canada; the separate law governing knives and other weapons, covered in Knife and Weapons Laws in Canada and Is Pepper Spray Legal in Canada; or when force, including a firearm, can lawfully be used in self defence, covered in Self-Defence Laws in Canada.

Who Needs a Licence: PAL, RPAL, and the Retired POL

A Possession and Acquisition Licence is the only firearms licence RCMP issues to new applicants in Canada. Anyone who possesses a firearm generally needs a licence, even someone who does not own it and never fires it.

"The Possession and Acquisition Licence is the only licence currently available to new applicants. It is renewable every five years. As a general rule, applicants must have passed the Canadian Firearms Safety Course." (RCMP, Licensing Information)

A Possession Only Licence, or POL, still exists, but only for people who already held one before the current law took effect in 1998. Nobody applies for a new POL today. Older Firearms Acquisition Certificates issued under the prior law have expired outright and cannot substitute for a PAL either. A person who wants to newly hold restricted firearms, including most handguns, needs an RPAL, which is a PAL issued with restricted privileges rather than a separate licence form.

Some items do not need a firearms licence at all. Ordinary bows do not require one, and crossbows longer than 500 millimetres that need two hands to fire fall outside the Firearms Act's licensing requirement, though crossbows 500 millimetres or shorter, or that can be aimed and fired with one hand, are prohibited and cannot lawfully be possessed.

The Canadian Firearms Safety Course: No Challenge Test Exists Today

Every first time applicant must pass the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, known as the CFSC, before applying for a PAL covering non restricted firearms. Someone applying for restricted privileges must also pass the Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course, the CRFSC. Both courses end in a written and a practical test.

Commercial firearms training sites and online forums sometimes describe a way to write the test without taking the course, often called a challenge or test out option. That option does not exist for an ordinary applicant today. Firearms Act s.7(4)(c) once allowed it, but Parliament repealed that provision in 2015. The only remaining paths around the course itself are narrow: a chief firearms officer may certify someone who has continuously owned a firearm since January 1, 1979; anyone who passed the CFSC before February 1, 1999 is deemed to have also passed the CRFSC; and a small pre-1995 provincial hunter safety course equivalency applies in Manitoba and Quebec.

Applying for a PAL: Form 5592, the 28 Day Wait, and Notification

A first time adult applicant uses RCMP form 5592, the Application for a Possession and Acquisition Licence Under the Firearms Act. The renewal form, RCMP form 5614, is a different document, and several older sources online mislabel 5614 as the new applicant form.

Firearms Licences Regulations s.5 sets a minimum 28 day wait between filing a first time application and its issuance. That wait applies only to first time applicants. Section 8.5 of the same regulations disapplies it, along with the rest of ss.3 to 5, to renewals.

The application requires two references who have known the applicant for at least three years, and a photo guarantor who has known the applicant for at least one year. It also requires the name, date of birth, address, and phone number of every current spouse, common law partner, or other conjugal partner, and of any such partner from the two years before the application. If that person does not sign the application, Firearms Licences Regulations s.4 requires the chief firearms officer to notify them so they can raise a public safety concern before the licence issues. The same notification duty applies again, separately, at renewal.

Someone who already lawfully possesses a prohibited firearm can seek to keep that specific class of licence, but form 5592 states plainly that an applicant generally cannot request possession and acquisition of a prohibited firearm unless they already lawfully possess one. A person who sustains themselves or their family by hunting or trapping may qualify for a fee waiver on a non restricted licence, though the waiver does not extend to restricted or prohibited firearms.

Fees

The government sets PAL fees under its changes to service fees schedule and adjusts them each March 31 for inflation, based on the annual change in the Consumer Price Index. As of this article's verification date, a non restricted licence costs 70.38 Canadian dollars, a restricted or prohibited licence costs 93.84 dollars, and upgrading an existing licence to add privileges costs 46.92 dollars. Those figures are set to rise to 72.35, 96.47, and 48.24 dollars on March 31, 2027.

The PDF version of form 5592 lists fees by effective date. The form says the fee depends on the date the Canadian Firearms Program receives the application, so use the row that applies on that date and confirm it against the current fees page.

Screening: Who Cannot Hold a Licence

Firearms Act s.5 sets the core eligibility standard. A person is not eligible for a licence if it is desirable, for that person's safety or anyone else's, that they not possess a firearm. A chief firearms officer or provincial court judge weighs specific factors, including a past conviction for a violent offence, a Firearms Act or weapons offence, criminal harassment, certain drug offences, treatment for a mental illness associated with violence, a documented history of violence or threatening conduct, and a prior protection order where the person poses a continuing threat. Threats made over the internet count the same as threats made in person.

Firearms Act s.6.1 adds a specific bar tied to intimate partner and family violence. A person subject to a protection order, convicted of using or threatening violence against an intimate partner or family member, or reasonably suspected by a chief firearms officer of an act of domestic violence or stalking, is not eligible to hold a licence, apart from a narrow conditional licence a chief firearms officer may issue under s.70.3 to someone who needs a firearm to hunt or trap to sustain themselves or their family.

Two additional measures, sometimes called red flag and yellow flag in government communications, work differently and are not interchangeable. Neither term is defined in the statutes themselves.

A firearms eligibility screening is a distinct process from an employment or volunteer criminal record check, which serves a different purpose and is governed by different rules entirely.

Licence Term and What Happens If It Lapses

RCMP describes a PAL as renewed every five years, and that is a close approximation of the real rule. Firearms Act s.64 sets the actual formula: an adult licence expires on the fifth anniversary of the holder's first birthday after the licence is issued. Depending on when in the year the licence issues relative to the holder's birthday, the real term can run anywhere from just over five years to just under six.

The Canadian Firearms Program sends a renewal notice three months ahead of expiry as a matter of practice, not law. If an adult licence is not renewed before it expires, Firearms Act s.64(1.1) automatically extends it for six months from the day it would have expired, and the chief firearms officer must notify the holder of the extension under s.64(7). The extension is limited. Under s.64(1.2) the holder must not use their firearms or acquire any firearms, ammunition or cartridge magazines until the licence is renewed, and under s.64(1.3) any authorization to transport or authorization to carry is not extended past the original expiry date. RCMP also states that an expired licence cannot be renewed online.

Once the six month extension ends without a renewal, the licence is no longer in force. Possessing a firearm without a valid licence is an offence under Criminal Code s.91, punishable as an indictable offence by up to five years in prison or as a summary offence. The only exceptions are supervised use under a licensed adult and a limited window for a firearm someone acquires by operation of law, such as inheritance, while they arrange to dispose of it or get licensed themselves.

Renewal uses RCMP form 5614 or the online Individual Web Services portal, and it requires the same current and former conjugal partner information as a first time application, again subject to the notification duty described above.

Minors' Licence

Someone between 12 and 17 years old can hold a Minor's Licence after passing the CFSC and its tests, with a parent or guardian's consent and, potentially, a firearms officer interview. A Minor's Licence only covers non restricted rifles and shotguns; a licensed minor can use a handgun only under the direct and immediate supervision of an adult licensed for that class of firearm. It allows borrowing a non restricted firearm and buying ammunition, but not acquiring a firearm, even as a gift, and not bringing a firearm into Canada. A narrow sustenance hunter exception allows a younger child, including an Indigenous minor, to hunt to sustain their family without a minimum age or the course requirement, arranged through a chief firearms officer. Separately, a minor of any age can use a firearm without any licence at all under the direct and immediate supervision of a licensed adult. At 18, a Minor's Licence holder must apply for an adult PAL.

Non-Residents

A visitor bringing a firearm into Canada generally has three distinct options, and they are not interchangeable.

A visitor does not need any licence to borrow a firearm in Canada while under the direct and immediate supervision of a licensed adult. Someone moving to Canada permanently must obtain a PAL like any other resident, including meeting the safety training requirement first.

Storage and Transport Basics

The Storage, Display, Transportation and Handling of Firearms by Individuals Regulations set day to day obligations once someone is licensed. A non restricted firearm must be unloaded and either fitted with a secure locking device, missing its bolt or bolt carrier, or kept in a securely locked container, and it cannot be readily accessible to its ammunition unless the ammunition is locked up, together with or apart from the firearm. Restricted and prohibited firearms face a stricter, combined standard: they must be locked with a secure locking device and kept in a securely locked container or room, or else stored in a locked vault, safe or room built or modified for the secure storage of restricted firearms. Displaying a firearm follows a similar approach, and transporting a non restricted firearm in an unattended vehicle generally means locking it in the trunk, or, if there is no secure trunk, keeping it out of sight in a locked vehicle. Antique firearms are exempt from most of these requirements. This section summarizes the framework rather than covering every scenario the regulations address.

Prohibited Firearms, the Handgun Freeze, and the 2020 Orders

Someone with a new, first time licence generally cannot acquire a prohibited firearm at all. Form 5592 states that an applicant cannot request possession and acquisition of a prohibited firearm unless they already lawfully possess one. That gate matters because Canada has prohibited a wide range of firearms by order in council since 2020, and separately frozen the transfer of handguns to individuals since October 21, 2022.

The handgun freeze does not prevent a chief firearms officer from approving restricted privileges on a new RPAL. What it blocks is an ordinary new RPAL holder buying or otherwise acquiring a newly transferred handgun while the freeze is in force. A person can still keep a handgun they lawfully owned before the freeze, and restricted long guns, such as many semi automatic centre fire rifles and folding stock long guns that meet the restricted definition, remain fully usable under an RPAL's non handgun privileges.

The amnesty orders covering the 2020 and later prohibited firearms (the 2020, 2024 and 2025 orders) have no fixed calendar end date. As of June 2026, Public Safety Canada said they are set to expire 90 days after the Supreme Court of Canada decides the appeal challenging the 2020 prohibition. The individual declaration period under the related buyback program has already ended, and Public Safety Canada expected collection, deactivation and compensation to run from spring to early fall 2026. Anyone relying on a specific end date for the amnesty should check the government's own buyback page directly rather than a commercial or advocacy site.

Quebec and Manitoba

The federal licensing framework applies the same way in every province, but one provincial wrinkle is worth knowing. Manitoba and Quebec both recognize a pre-1995 provincial hunter safety course as equivalent to the Canadian Firearms Safety Course for licensing purposes. Chief firearms officers themselves, designated for each province or territory, exercise judgment on eligibility, suspension, and sustenance hunter questions, but the forms, fees, and legal standards they apply come from the same federal Firearms Act and regulations everywhere in Canada.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about the federal Possession and Acquisition Licence framework under the Firearms Act, SC 1995, c 39, and its regulations, current as of September 2026. It is not legal advice. It does not cover the full handgun freeze exemption list, the Criminal Code s.86 careless storage penalty range, or every provincial administrative detail. Consult the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Canadian Firearms Program or a lawyer licensed in your province for advice on your specific situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a PAL and an RPAL?

A PAL and an RPAL are the same licence document. Firearms Act licensing calls it a Possession and Acquisition Licence either way; RPAL is a shorthand for a PAL issued with restricted privileges, which covers most handguns and certain restricted long guns, in addition to the non restricted privileges every PAL carries.

Can I still write a challenge test instead of taking the Canadian Firearms Safety Course?

No. Firearms Act s.7(4)(c) once allowed a test only option, but Parliament repealed it in 2015. The remaining exceptions are narrow: continuous ownership of a firearm since January 1, 1979 with chief firearms officer certification, a CFSC pass before February 1, 1999, which is deemed to also cover the restricted course, and a pre-1995 provincial hunter safety course equivalency recognized in Manitoba and Quebec.

Does the 28 day waiting period apply when I renew my licence?

No. Firearms Licences Regulations s.5 sets the 28 day wait for first time applicants, and s.8.5 of the same regulations specifically excludes renewals from it.

Is there a grace period if my licence expires before I renew it?

Yes, but a limited one. Firearms Act s.64(1.1) automatically extends an adult licence that is not renewed in time for six months. During that period you must not use your firearms or acquire firearms, ammunition or cartridge magazines until you renew, and any authorization to transport or carry is not extended. Once the six months end without renewal, possessing a firearm without a valid licence is an offence under Criminal Code s.91.

Can a new RPAL holder buy a handgun?

Generally no. The national handgun transfer freeze in force since October 21, 2022 blocks the transfer of a handgun to an ordinary individual, including a new RPAL holder, though it does not prevent the licence itself from being approved and does not affect a handgun someone already lawfully owned before the freeze.

What is the difference between the red flag and yellow flag firearms measures?

They are different mechanisms with different triggers. The red flag process under Criminal Code ss.110.1 to 110.2 lets any person apply to a court for an emergency order removing firearms from someone believed to be dangerous. The yellow flag process under Firearms Act s.69.1 lets a chief firearms officer alone suspend an existing licence holder's authority to use, acquire, or import firearms for up to 30 days, without itself requiring the firearms to be surrendered.