VA Permit Renewal Timeline

Location: Fairfax County (generally anti-gun county Gov't)LAW: They have 45 calendar days to grant or denyProcess/Timeline: Submitted via certified return receipt - when they signed for it they did NOT include the date. (So I'll allow 2 days for it to make the cross-town journey, likely took only 1 but I'll give the the extra time to be generous).The background check was completed 21 days later.7 days later, according to the letter, it was "granted."However...It took another 13 days for them to put my name and address on the form letter notifying me that it was approved.Then another 3 days for it to leave their building (based on the postmark).And only 1 day for the USPS to make their appointed rounds and deliver it to my mailbox (props to the USPS).So, all told, they used 44 of the allowed 45 days (I'm not counting the USPS return time as that is outside of their control).IMPORTANT NOTE: Had I been denied, the law says I have 21 days to file an appeal. They burned 15 days of that just getting it out of their building and then one more in the USPS. Factor in the weekend, when it's not possible to file an appeal, and I'd have had a grand total of 3 days to file the appeal.Plans changed, but I had planned to be out of town for the week that would have included those 3 days, thus I wouldn't have been able to file an appeal.Given how fast other counties in VA are, including similarly situated Prince William County, one has to wonder if this isn't wholly intentional that they take the max amount of time by law and also make it so that it's difficult for anyone to file an appeal if denied.But, I'm approved for another 5 years so, for now, I'm good to go.Side note/PSA: This was a renewal, I renewed early so as to avoid any gap. They did co-term it so I didn't lose any period of validity. HOWEVER, they post-dated the "issue date" as well as the "expiration date." So technically it's not yet valid. I simply have to carry the unexpired one and this one for the next few weeks but if I hadn't checked the permit carefully I might have missed the date of issue and thus had some difficulties if stopped since the LEO might not know that the old one was still valid.YMMVEDITS: Fixed durations; Math is hard, and so is reading a calendar via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2oTkTP3