I have a friend that lost their Illinois FOID card. The only resolution was to re-apply for a new one. On January 19, 2013, they filled out a new application and mailed it in. On February 4, 2013 the check was cashed. The Illinois State Police website says the time to process is supposed to be 30 days from their receipt of the application. Repeated calls to the ISP inquiry line over the past several days resulted in a recorded message that says they are overwhelmed, and to call back later, then it hangs up! Internet searches on the subject reveal articles that indicate 60 or more days to process an application. One article says that the March 2013 application numbers were an all time monthly record of over 70K. (that's $10 per application, in one month or $8.4 million annualized if this continues) Today, the telephone call got through to a live person after being on hold for approximately 10 minutes. The person responded that the application was submitted to the "background check" on March 1, 2013 and that it would be "some time" before the FOID card would be OK'd for processing. When asked how much longer before it would be sent out, they were told that it would be hard to say exactly. When asked if another 30 days would be reasonable, the response was that it would be several more weeks for sure. This is going to mean that a FOID card application will take close to 4 months from application to receipt. How will sending out a renewal notice 60 days in advance of expiration work for someone when it takes 120 days to turn the application into a ID card? I see a lot of new criminals by no fault of their own.