Just wanted to put some random thoughts together based on some of the questions I had (and those of others that I read) as I went through this process. Hopefully it will be of some help to those that are going through it. Others please chime in if I misstate or misremember something. These statements are in no way meant to criticize the folks at the DPS. We all have quirks and I'm sure all of the companies we work for have plenty that we have to work through daily.
Application process - not much variance here. I don't really recall many posts of folks with issues on this part.
Document submission - my instructor recommended to my class that we "fax" supporting documentation in and that it would be quicker. Others mailed theirs in and it seems as if most used the electronic submission on the website. Honestly I couldn't see any correlation if one method was better than another.
Confirmation email - Some folks, myself included, never got one. Those that did, got it anywhere from the same day to several days later. Again, there was not a clear cut correlation here with total wait time.
Fingerprint and Background check - HUGE variation here. Some folks sailed right through in days and others, like myself, spent weeks on that status.
Once the above are all green, the cycle of "print pending", "mailed", etc. are anyone's guess on how long until you have plastic in hand. Some folks got their permit the same day status changed to mailed and others took a day or more for each step.
My assumption is that the system they are using has a somewhat manual status updating process. I would guess that they make updates through a "batch" method where a bunch are queued up and someone has to go in and manually update each app process. Just a guess, though.
Bottom line is that, although in general, they have done a great job in reducing the processing time, there is still a good deal of variance in the process. Mine took right at 45 days. If memory serves, I believe I remember seeing times ranging from 13 days to 115 days. I guess my point is, don't make yourself crazy, it'll get there when it gets there.
Thanks to all those that participate on this board, great community for sanity check :)
