The application itself is ATF Form 7, filed in duplicate with ATF in accordance with the instructions on the form. Three things about how it is executed matter more than the boxes it contains. It must be executed under the penalties of perjury and the penalties imposed by 18 U.S.C. 924 — the same statement that makes a false answer on the form a separate offense from whatever it concealed. It must include a photograph and fingerprints. And it is filed by anyone intending to engage in business as an importer, manufacturer, or dealer who has not previously been licensed, or who has not timely submitted a renewal of a previous license — which is why a lapsed renewal does not merely cost time, it puts the licensee back at the original-application door.

The fee is not one number. It is charged per business or collecting activity at each place of business, and it varies by what is being licensed rather than by how large the operation is. A dealer in anything other than destructive devices pays $200 for 3 years, and $90 for 3 years on renewal of a valid license — the only place in the schedule where renewing is cheaper than starting. A dealer in destructive devices pays $1,000 per year. Manufacturers and importers of ordinary firearms pay $50 per year; manufacturers of ordinary ammunition pay $10 per year; manufacturers or importers of destructive devices, ammunition for them, or armor piercing ammunition pay $1,000 per year. A collector of curios and relics pays $10 per year.

Two failure modes attach to the money and the paperwork, and they are not the same. File with an insufficient fee and the application and the fee come back to you — nothing is held, nothing is pending, and the calendar simply restarts. File an incomplete or improperly executed form and something different happens: you are notified of the deficiency, and you then have 30 days from the date of that notification to correct and return it. Miss that window and the application is treated as abandoned and the fee is returned. The fee is otherwise not refundable if operations stop during the licensed period, but it is refunded if the application is denied, or if you withdraw it before it has been acted on.