TexasCHLforum.com

I currently hold a Missouri CCW license that will expire in June. I probably won't be able to sell my house immediately so I guess I still will be considered a resident of Missouri till my house sells and I purchase one in Texas. Will my CCW still be OK in Texas I realize that when I get there I will have to take a concealed carry class in Texas. Do I have to an official resident by owning a house or something before I take a class? Do you have to shoot and show proficiency in both revolvers and semi auto handguns like I did in MO? How long does it take to get once you take the class? I will be staying with my son until I can get settled. I am really looking forward to coming down to Texas to live and be close to my grandkids. Just a little about us. I am an Air Force Veteran from 1966 -1978 and left the AF with a hearing disability. I am a 70% disabled vet and I hope their is a good VA clinic or hospital in the area. My wife and I are retired civil service and live in a rural area in MO, Knob Noster whose only claim to fame is the B2 bomber and Whiteman AFB. Hope to meet some of you in the near future. Thanks for any information.

Welcome to Texas (almost). I am a USAF vet too, retired, and can't hear real well either.

Texas does recognize Missouri concealed handgun licenses, or permits, or whatever the Show-me state calls them. As long as your license is current and you are a Missouri resident you should be good to carry on it.

You can get a Texas non-resident concealed handgun license for people who reside outside of Texas, and for people who intend to make Texas their residence, but you have to take the class in Texas. I don't believe it is a big deal to then change that to a resident license once you move here, a few bucks for an address change I think, and I believe you will need a Texas DL, but I am not familiar with that process. Your CHL instructor will be able to help and I put a link at the bottom to the DPS website for CHL stuff.

You do have to shoot for the initial issue (a couple exceptions), but you can shoot revolver or semi-auto, doesn't matter. Currently the smallest caliber you can qualify with is .32, but that may change to .22 later this year.

You generally establish residency by intending to make some place your residence. You can document that by having an address there, registering to vote, establishing bank account, i.e. doing things that a normal resident would do. To make it clear, you should probably notify Missouri in some fashion that you are not longer a resident, e.g. by cancelling your voter registration there, if there's income tax in MO then there might be a form to file with your final income tax return. (That's important - Indiana used to try to tax people who moved away and didn't make any formal declaration of changing their residency, a fellow USAF officer once found he had a warrant for his arrest in Indiana for failure to pay income tax for a few years after he moved to Texas. Don't know if Missouri is that greedy or not, but wouldn't surprise me).

For a resident license, when I first moved here, I had to have residency for six months, but I believe that has long been done away with. But in any case you can get a non-resident one through the same process. For a resident license I do believe you have to have a Texas drivers license, and you are supposed to get one of those within 30 days of making Texas your residence.

There are a number of CHL instructors on this board, I am sure they can help more with specifics, and with any luck maybe some of them are close to where you intend to reside.

Judging by the comments on this board, licenses are moving pretty fast once all the correct paperwork is turned in. DPS has 60 days to get your license to you once they receive all the required paperwork (and assuming you are eligible). If your package is missing something, the clock resets until you get it to them. Seems like it's been going faster than that tho. There was a problem with backlog a couple years ago, but seems to be fixed now.

Here is the Texas DPS page on CHLs, lots of good stuff here: http://dps.texas.gov/rsd/chl/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Again, welcome!

1. Take the Texas class
2a. If you still maintain your primary residence in MO, apply online for a Texas Non-Resident CHL. Submit forms and fingerprints as instructed after submitting the application online.
2b. If you have moved your residence to TX, apply for a TX resident CHL. Follow same steps as 2a.
*Note: if you are living in TX in a temporary residence (rented house, apartment, etc.) but you are receiving all your mail (bills, etc) at that temporary address, you should go ahead and change your DL to Texas and apply as a resident for CHL. There is no waiting period, you can apply immediately.
*Note2: If at some later date your residence address changes, all you need to do is submit a change of address notice and your license will be updated. if you hold a non-resident TX CHL, it will be updated to resident with your new address. If you hold a TX resident CHL, it will just update the address.

Easy.

Regarding shooting qualification.... You can qualify with any gun you like, .32 caliber or bigger. Wheel gun or SA. The law changed in 2013 and there is no longer any license distinction between those that qualified with semi auto or otherwise. This year they are trying to reduce the caliber to .22, but that's not a done deal yet.

WELCOME!

RoyGBiv wrote:1. Take the Texas class
2a. If you still maintain your primary residence in MO, apply online for a Texas Non-Resident CHL. Submit forms and fingerprints as instructed after submitting the application online.
2b. If you have moved your residence to TX, apply for a TX resident CHL. Follow same steps as 2a.
*Note: if you are living in TX in a temporary residence (rented house, apartment, etc.) but you are receiving all your mail (bills, etc) at that temporary address, you should go ahead and change your DL to Texas and apply as a resident for CHL. There is no waiting period, you can apply immediately.
*Note2: If at some later date your residence address changes, all you need to do is submit a change of address notice and your license will be updated. if you hold a non-resident TX CHL, it will be updated to resident with your new address. If you hold a TX resident CHL, it will just update the address.

Easy.

Regarding shooting qualification.... You can qualify with any gun you like, .32 caliber or bigger. Wheel gun or SA. The law changed in 2013 and there is no longer any license distinction between those that qualified with semi auto or otherwise. This year they are trying to reduce the caliber to .22, but that's not a done deal yet.

WELCOME!

Welcome to the forum and to Texas.

Since you are moving to Texas and intend to make it your residence you can get a resident CHL before you sell your home in MO.

Just make sure you register your car, get auto insurance and get your Texas Driver License. You will need the DL for ID for your CHL class.

The car registration and insurance aren't necessary for a CHL, but you will need them to get your DL.

There are many veterans on the TexasCHLForum. Maybe one of them can give you some information on the various VA facilities in the area.

Good luck to you!

Welcome, there is the big VA center in Houston if you need their services. You should consider joining PSC range if they open up membership in the next couple months. Join us for breakfast the first Friday of the month when you get here: viewtopic.php?f=83&t=75803&hilit=south+quadrant" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Welcome & I also thank you for your service.

You've gotten good advice, above.

A minor clarification, if you decide to apply as a MO resident for a non-resident license, your MO driver license will suffice. The TX DPS will want a copy of the front and back of the MO license.

When I moved to Texas, that is the approach I took. I started working here 6 months before I brought the wife & kids down. So I took the class from Mr. Cotton and applied for a Texas non-resident concealed handgun license. After I moved here and established residency, I changed the automobile titles and registrations to Texas and got a Texas driver license. Next, I submitted the address change for my Texas concealed handgun license which included submitting the change in driver license information ($25 charge).

Just a warning note about changing states now. In this post-911 world, Texas (and other states) have gotten super picky about the name on your driver license (and thus your "identity") exactly matching your source identification documents. Practically speaking, if people have lived in a different state for a long time, they could have variations on their name that used to be acceptable but now are not.

For example, someone may have a driver license with a nickname ("Jack" instead of "John"), or maybe they long ago dropped using the "Jr." in their name. My wife had an issue because her birth certificate did not have a middle name, but she had used her confirmation name as her middle name for 40 years on her previous driver license, social security card, etc. I also had a name issue where my previous state driver license, car titles, bank accounts -- heck my entire life -- did not exactly match my birth certificate and passport. Since I had six months to research and prepare for the move, I was fortunate enough to change the car titles in the previous state to my exact name before I moved to Texas. Otherwise, I would have been stuck here with my car title and registration not matching the name on my new Texas driver license.

Wives who have adopted the husband's last name need to be prepared to show an original wedding license, a certified copy of the wedding license, or a court order officially changing her name.