TexasCHLforum.com

joe817 wrote:I called the DPS helpline, and spoke to an admin. specialist named Marian. She said positively that if one has an IRS tax lien,

it will NOT disqualify one from applying for and receiving a CHL. DPS does NOT query the IRS. We are only concerned with monies owed to the state, including child support

Marian was very knowledgeable and helpful She's been with DPS since 1999.

That's great.... except.... why did the rep I talked to claim that they queried the IRS???? I like the answer you got from better than the answer I got from them, but holy smokes, you'd think that the folks answering the phone would be trained out of the same manual!

There's an old movie, "The Survivors", where Walter Matthau is trying to collect unemployment from the state after his gas station blows up (or something like that). He goes through a sob story about losing his gas station and how no one in the government has done anything but give him the runaround. The state employee behind the counter says "I'm terribly, terribly, terribly unable to help you". Reminds me a lot of DPS.

I am generally very patient, probably too patient. I understand the problem DPS is having. But this thread has helped me change my mind on how to approach this. I sent DPS a check for their services, and they took that money before supplying those services. They are not meeting their statutory duties. If they were a private company, I'd be taking my business elsewhere, but I can't do that, so it's time to try to make them live up to their obligations.

I called DPS this morning and spoke with a very nice, helpful lady (apparently this is unusual). She went through the process with me - I didn't realize, for instance, that DPS queries the IRS. Why? The statute says nothing about that. Anyway - everything is done EXCEPT Harris County. I read through this thread, then through the statutes, and have come to realize that by law everything should have been completed by early June. I'm sitting at almost 90 days now.

So far today I've emailed two state representatives and two senators. I'll follow up with phone calls later.

Charles, if you need some aggravated CHL applicants to assist in whatever you have going, let me know.

On a different note - I realized while emailing my elected officials that this is not the most important thing going on in government right now. I've contacted them infrequently in the past, but from here on out I'm going to be keeping in closer touch with both my state and federal officials on a host of other issues, including Texas sovereignty, cap and trade, health care (LEAVE IT ALONE! IT'S THE BEST SYSTEM IN THE WORLD!), etc. I'd urge all here to do the same.

Thanks for that. I had been reading through the statutes, they make my engineer's head hurt.

Shortly after I joined the forum, I ran across a discussion that I can't find now about whether that initial 30 day clock started ticking at the point when the Department receives the application or when the status goes to "Processing Application". I see no reference anywhere to DPS being allowed a time for navel contemplation before starting work, so I have to believe the clock starts when the postal worker shows up in the DPS Austin mail room.

That means - let's see, I'll pick some dates at random - if someone mailed an application on 4/1, and DPS received by 4/6, the Department in Austin should have sent the application to the designee in the geographical area by 5/6, and the designee - by law - must have completed whatever investigation by 6/5. Did I get that right?

DPS decided to do background investigations in both my county of residence (Montgomery) and the county in which I'm employed (Harris). The statute specifically states that the Department will send the application to the designee in the geographical area OF RESIDENCE. Any idea under what authority they decided to involve Harris County? Is it that paragraph about how they can do additional checks if they feel so inclined? From the statute, as well as what Charles posted above, it looks like they are allowed to do that only if something crops up that raises additional questions, not just because they feel like it.

That number is probably overstated based on what people here are seeing, and in fact based on how long it took my wife's to come in. I think you are a victim of "expectation setting", also known as a blow-off. Some CHLs are taking two months, some seem to be closer to six. If your rep tells you "it's taking six months" then he doesn't have to deal with you calling him wanting to know where your CHL is.