My Michigan CPL Expired. What Do I Do Now?
The answer depends on one number: how long it has been expired. Under a year and you can still renew. Over a year and you start over as a new applicant. In both of those cases an expired CPL is not a license you can carry on, and only filing before your expiration date keeps you covered without a gap. Here is exactly where you stand.
The three stages, and which one you are in
Stage 1
Not expired yet
Up to 6 months before your expiration date
This is the stage you want to be in. You can file a renewal as early as 6 months before your license expires, and your county clerk mails you a renewal notice 3 to 6 months out. File before your expiration date and MCL 28.425l(6) extends your current license until the renewal license or a notice of statutory disqualification is issued. You keep carrying without a gap.
Stage 2
Expired less than 1 year
Any time within 1 year after your expiration date
You can still renew. You do not retake the 8-hour class, you do not get re-fingerprinted if your prints are on file, and you pay the same $115 renewal fee. What you lose is the extension. The State Police put it plainly: if you apply for a renewal after your license expires, you are not permitted to carry a pistol concealed until the renewal license is issued.
Stage 3
Expired more than 1 year
More than 1 year after your expiration date
This is the one that catches people. Once your CPL has been expired for more than a year you are no longer eligible to renew it. MCL 28.425l(1) limits renewal to a license that "is not expired, or expired within a 1-year period before the date of application." Past that, you file a brand-new application: the full 8-hour certified course with 3 hours on the range and at least 30 rounds fired, the $100 new-application fee, and fingerprints if yours are not on file.
Can I carry while my CPL is expired?
No. There is no grace period for carrying, and the day after expiration counts.
The Michigan State Police renewal page states it directly: "If an individual applies for a renewal license after the expiration of his or her license, the individual is not permitted to carry a pistol concealed until such time as the renewal license is issued." Michigan does not build in a buffer week or a courtesy month. Your authority to carry concealed runs until the CPL expires, and then it stops.
The exposure is not a ticket. Under MCL 750.227(2) it is an offense to carry a pistol concealed on your person, or in a vehicle you operate or occupy, without a license, outside your home, place of business, or other land you possess. MCL 750.227(3) makes a violation a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $2,500, or both. Whether any given case is charged that way is up to a prosecutor, and there are other statutes and defenses that can apply, so this is not legal advice about your situation. It is enough reason to leave the pistol home until the new license is in your hand.
The receipt rule, and the trap inside it
When you pay your renewal fee you get a receipt. Whether that receipt lets you carry depends entirely on whether you filed before or after your license expired. These are two different receipts under two different subsections of the statute.
You filed BEFORE your license expired
MCL 28.425l(3) requires the receipt to carry this statement: "this receipt shall serve as a concealed pistol license for the individual named in the receipt when carried with the expired license and is valid until a license or notice of statutory disqualification is issued by the county clerk." You may carry, as long as you have both the receipt and the expired license on you.
You filed AFTER your license expired
MCL 28.425l(4) gives you a different receipt, and it does not work right away. It says that if a license or notice of statutory disqualification "is not issued within 30 days after the date this receipt was issued," then the receipt serves as a license when carried with a state-issued driver license or ID. Until one of those two things happens, the MSP guidance stands: you are not permitted to carry. Do not treat a renewal receipt as a green light just because you have one.
Neither receipt exempts you from the license-to-purchase rules or from a dealer background check when you buy a pistol.
What renewal training you actually need
- You certify that you completed at least 3 hours reviewing the topics from the original CPL course. It is a review, not the course again.
- You certify at least 1 hour of firing range time, and it has to fall in the 6 months immediately before you file your renewal application.
- Both are self-certifications you sign on the renewal form. MCL 28.425l(9) says you are "not required to obtain a certificate or undergo training other than as required by this subsection."
- None of that is waived by being late. Whether you renew a month early or ten months expired, the review and the range hour are the same.
Get your range hour and review done
Renewal classes on this site cover the review plus the range hour you sign for. Pick a date and get it behind you. They typically run around $50.
Want to do your renewal review online?
Michigan lets you self-certify the 3-hour renewal review, so it does not have to happen in a classroom. We are building a self-paced online Michigan CPL renewal review you can work through on your own schedule, at your own pace, in as many sittings as you want. It is not open yet. Leave your email and you will be first to know when it is.
The 1-hour range requirement stays in person either way. You fire live rounds, so no online course can cover it.
Expired Michigan CPL questions
One year. MCL 28.425l(1) makes you eligible for a renewal if your license is not expired, or expired within the 1-year period before the date of application. After more than a year expired you cannot renew and must apply as a new applicant.