Applying online vs. mail-in?

[UpTheIrons]

Ok, so I'm slightly confused (nothing new, my wife would say!).

We completed the class Saturday. We only have to fill out the yellow app and all the paperwork/fingerprints/photos are done.

I keep seeing posts about people who apply online and get a packet from DPS. What are the pros/cons of applying online versus just sending in my completed paperwork?

[boomerang]

Ok, so I'm slightly confused (nothing new, my wife would say!).

We completed the class Saturday. We only have to fill out the yellow app and all the paperwork/fingerprints/photos are done.

I keep seeing posts about people who apply online and get a packet from DPS. What are the pros/cons of applying online versus just sending in my completed paperwork?

If you apply online you pay DPS then have to wait for them to mail you an application printed with the information you typed online.

If you don't apply online you have to fill in the application by hand but you can send it immediately because you already took the class.

[Lobo73]

And you get your pin # when you get your printed application as opposed to waiting after you mail your application later. Which means you get to check your unmoving status quicker.

[Morgan]

The real advantage of on-line applying is doing the on-line application BEFORE you take the class. Then all the info is in type, no chance of bad handwriting causing a delay, etc, etc. If you're taken the class and you're sitting there, NOW applying on-line will cause a delay because you have to wait for them to send you stuff.

[UpTheIrons]

OK, thanks for the help. We'll just fill in the apps and wait forever like the rest of the Waiting Room folks!

[cowboymd]

When you mail it in, I suggest NOT using certified mail. I certified mailed mine a day after another guy from my class. He used normal mail. It took a week for them to even show mine received, and his went into processing 3 weeks quicker than mine. Then of course he was issued nearly a month earlier also. I don't know if they sit on the certified mailers, or if it was just a fluke. But there seems to be no advantage to it.

[KC5AV]

There is the advantage of being able to say that it was definitely received on a specific date.

[cowboymd]

There is the advantage of being able to say that it was definitely received on a specific date.

Which just adds more drama to it, knowing they physically received it 3 or 4 days prior to posting it as such.

[Morgan]

I sent mine registered overnight, and I had the plastic in my hand 39 days later. I think that the reality is that they do them in batches. A particular processor starts X number at a time, from the pile. You can get lucky and be in what they grab, or you get unlucky and shuffled badly and delayed through no malice on their part. THey claim that if you do the online, you're faster to process. But if you're sitting with paperwork to send in, it'll take a week to get stuff BACK from them to send it right back if you apply on line. It is what it is, I guess.

[KC5AV]

There is the advantage of being able to say that it was definitely received on a specific date.

Which just adds more drama to it, knowing they physically received it 3 or 4 days prior to posting it as such.

Imagine the drama if it is somehow delayed in reaching Austin.

[UpTheIrons]

Well, with the drama of waiting for it to be listed as in process, or of it being lost/damaged on the way, I may just hand-deliver the blasted things, since the DPS HQ is a little less than an hour away from my house. After all, gas is cheap again, and I'll know when they have it in hand. Right? ... Right?