How to Renew Your Texas LTC

By First Shot Training Team·Reviewed by Robert Floyd

Renewal Sneaks Up on Good People

You went through the whole process once. The class, the range, the fingerprints, the waiting on DPS. Then the card showed up in the mail, you slid it into your wallet, and life moved on. Four or five years is a long stretch. Most people do not think about their Texas License to Carry again until a letter arrives or they happen to glance at the date on the front of the card.

That is usually when the questions start. Do I have to sit through the class again? Do I have to shoot again? What is it going to cost? And the question that worries folks most: what if it already expired?

The answers are better than most people expect. Renewal in Texas is far lighter than the original application. And in 2025 the Legislature added something new that takes a great deal of pressure off anyone who let the date slip past.

This page walks through how Texas LTC renewal works, what the statute requires, and where the traps are. It is general education, not legal advice about your circumstances. Only Texas DPS can act on your license, and only a Texas attorney can tell you how the law applies to your own record.

Quick Answer: How to Renew Your Texas LTC

Here is the short version, for the person who just wants to know.

• The fee is $40. That is the standard renewal fee under Texas Government Code Section 411.185(a)(2). DPS puts it plainly: "The standard fee for a renewal of a LTC is $40." It is nonrefundable.
• There is no class. No classroom hours, no online course, no instructor.
• There is no range qualification. You do not shoot again to renew.
• There is no written test. Section 411.185 contains no continuing education or proficiency requirement for renewal.
• Fingerprints are normally not required again. DPS uses the prints and photo already on file.
• You can renew online or by mail. House Bill 668 in 2025 confirmed both methods in the statute itself.
• You now have a one-year grace period. Texas law allows renewal on or before the first anniversary of the date your license expired.
• You renew through the DPS portal at https://txapps.texas.gov/txapp/txdps/ltc/.

That is the whole shape of it. The rest of this page fills in the details that matter, including one important limit on the grace period that a lot of people misunderstand.

Renewal Is a Much Smaller Job Than Your First License

If you are picturing another full weekend of training, set that picture down.

Your original application asked a lot of you. You completed the required instruction, you passed a written exam, you demonstrated proficiency at a range, you were fingerprinted, and you paid the original fee. If you want a refresher on what that first pass involves, or you are helping someone through it, our walkthrough of how to get a Texas LTC online covers the full sequence.

Renewal is not that. The Legislature wrote Section 411.185 without any training or proficiency requirement attached to it. A renewal is essentially a fresh background review and a fee. Texas checks that you are still eligible under the law, and if you are, the license continues.

That design makes sense. You already proved you know the material and can handle a handgun safely at the qualification standard. What the state re-examines at renewal is whether anything in your circumstances has changed in a way the law cares about. The same categories that govern an original application still apply, and our page on what disqualifies you from a Texas LTC walks through those categories in plain language.

What Renewal Costs

Forty dollars. Nonrefundable.

That figure comes straight from Section 411.185(a)(2), and DPS states the same number. Nonrefundable means the fee pays for the review, not for a particular outcome. If you submit and something in the review does not go your way, the fee is spent. That is true of most state licensing fees, and it is worth knowing going in.

Forty dollars is a good deal less than an original application costs, which is one reason renewal catches people by surprise in a pleasant way. Budget for it the way you would any small annual expense that happens to arrive once every five years.

Fingerprints Are Usually Already Handled

This is the second-most common renewal question, right after the class question.

You normally do not get fingerprinted again to renew. DPS keeps your prints and your photo on file and uses them for the renewal review. The exception is narrow: if your original prints no longer meet current State or FBI standards, DPS may need a new set. That is a quality issue with the old capture, not a suspicion about you.

If DPS needs new prints, it will tell you. Do not go schedule an appointment on a guess. If you want the background on how prints fit into the licensing process generally, see our page on fingerprints for a Texas LTC.

How Long Your Renewed License Lasts

Texas sets license terms in Government Code Section 411.183, and the rule is different for a first license than for a renewal.

An original license expires on your first birthday that falls after the fourth anniversary of the date it was issued. That is why first licenses run somewhere between four and five years depending on where your birthday sits.

A renewed license expires on your birthdate, five years after the expiration date of your previous license. Read that carefully, because the anchor point is the old license's expiration, not the day you renewed.

Either term can end sooner in one situation the statute names: if your lawful presence in the United States expires before the term would otherwise run out, the license expires then. For most Texas residents this never comes up, but it is in the statute and worth knowing it is there.

The One-Year Grace Period, and Why It Is a Big Deal

Here is the change that matters most, and the reason this page reads differently than it would have a couple of years ago.

Section 411.185 now allows you to renew on or before the first anniversary of the date your license expires. You get a full year after expiration to renew.

That came from House Bill 668, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature in its 2025 Regular Session, Chapter 372, effective 20 June 2025. The bill analysis describes it as "a one-year grace period following license expiration during which the license may still be renewed without restarting the entire application process."

Before HB 668, letting a license expire was expensive. An expired license meant going back to the beginning. New proficiency training. New fingerprinting. The whole original application over again, at original application prices, for the sin of missing a date.

The new grace period applies both retroactively and prospectively. It reaches licenses that expired before the effective date, on it, and after it. If you have been sitting on an expired Texas LTC and assuming you would have to start from scratch, that assumption may well be out of date. Look at the expiration date on your card and count forward twelve months.

HB 668 also wrote into the statute that a renewal may be submitted by mail or online, which settles a question people used to ask constantly.

What the Grace Period Does Not Do

This is the part to read twice, because getting it wrong can put you in a bad spot.

The grace period lets you renew. It does not keep your license valid.

Those are two different things. During the gap between your expiration date and the day a renewed license is issued, you are not a licensed carrier in Texas. The card in your wallet is expired. The grace period is a doorway back into the renewal process, not an extension of the license itself.

That distinction has real consequences. You may still be able to carry a handgun under Texas permitless carry if you are 21 or older and otherwise eligible under state and federal law, and many Texans in that gap will be. But permitless carry is not the same thing as holding a license, and during that window you lose the benefits that belong to the license alone:

• Campus carry. The LTC-based authority to carry on college campuses does not travel with permitless carry.
• The firearm purchase background-check exemption. A valid Texas LTC can stand in for the point-of-sale check at a dealer. An expired one cannot.
• Reciprocity. Other states honor a valid Texas license, not an expired one. If you cross a state line during the gap, you are not carrying on a Texas LTC, because you do not have one.

Our page on permitless carry compared with an LTC breaks down exactly what the license adds, and which states honor a Texas License to Carry covers the travel side. If you have ever wondered whether the license is still worth holding in a permitless carry state, the gap answers the question fairly well on its own.

Renewing Late Quietly Costs You Time

There is a second reason not to lean on the grace period.

Go back to Section 411.183. A renewed license expires five years after the expiration date of the previous license. Not five years from the day you renewed.

So if your license expired in March and you renew the following February, your new license is not dated from February. It runs from the old March expiration. Those eleven months you spent unlicensed come off the front of the new five-year term. You paid the same $40 and got less license for it.

Renewing early is simply better than renewing late. You keep continuous coverage, you keep the LTC-only benefits, and you get the full value of the term you paid for.

The DPS Renewal Notice, and Why Not to Rely On It

Texas requires DPS to give you a heads-up. Under Section 411.185(b), DPS must mail a renewal notice not later than the 60th day before your expiration date.

That is a real protection, and most people get their notice. But treat it as a backup, not as your primary system, for one simple reason: the notice goes to the address DPS has on file for you, and keeping that address current is your responsibility, not theirs.

Section 411.181 puts the duty on the license holder. If you moved and did not tell DPS, the notice goes to your old mailbox and you never see it. This happens more than you would think, especially to people who moved and assumed updating their driver license address handled everything. It does not. We cover that trap and how to fix it in how to update or replace a Texas LTC.

Set your own reminder. Put the expiration date in your phone calendar with an alert several months out. It costs you thirty seconds and removes the whole problem.

How to Renew Online

Renewals run through the DPS online portal at https://txapps.texas.gov/txapp/txdps/ltc/.

The portal is the same system that handles original applications, address changes, lost or stolen reports, and status checks. As a returning license holder, you log in using the phone number or email tied to your existing license or application.

Work through the renewal questions carefully and honestly. Renewal is a fresh eligibility review, so answer about your circumstances as they are today, not as they were when you first applied. If you have questions about the categories the state looks at, our page on Texas LTC eligibility lays out the general framework. If something in your history has changed since your last application, that is a conversation for a Texas attorney, not a form you should guess your way through.

Then pay the $40 and submit. Save or print the confirmation.

What Happens After You Submit

Texas gives DPS a clock, and it is written into law.

DPS issues a license within 60 days of receiving a completed application packet. If DPS requests additional information, it gets an additional 180 days to finish its review.

The word "completed" carries the weight in that sentence. The 60 days does not start counting when you hit submit. It starts when DPS has everything it needs. A missing document quietly parks your file until you supply it, and no clock is running while it sits there.

So the most useful thing you can do after submitting is watch for any request from DPS and answer it promptly. You can follow your file in the same portal, and we walk through that process step by step in how to check your Texas LTC application status.

If You Are Past the One-Year Mark

If more than a year has gone by since your license expired, the renewal path in Section 411.185 is no longer available to you. At that point you are looking at an original application again, with the full training, testing, proficiency and fingerprint requirements that come with it.

That is a real cost in time and money, but it is not a wall. People do it every day, and the process is well worn. Start with our overview of what Texas LTC requirements look like today, since the rules may have shifted since your first go-round. If you take the coursework online, the class is delivered by Texas Carry Academy, which handles registration, payment and the course itself, and the range qualification is arranged separately afterward.

A Simple Renewal Habit

Renewal only becomes a problem when it becomes a surprise. A few small habits keep it from ever being one.

1. Write the expiration date down somewhere you will see it. A calendar alert set well ahead of the date is enough.
2. Keep your address current with DPS within 30 days of any move. It is your legal duty under Section 411.181, and it is what makes the 60-day notice actually reach you.
3. Do not wait for the mail. The notice is a courtesy backstop. Your calendar is the real system.
4. Renew before the expiration date, not after. You keep continuous coverage and you keep the full five-year term you paid for.
5. Keep your card in good shape. If it is lost, stolen or destroyed, there is a separate process and a 30-day window to act.

The Honest Summary

Renewing a Texas License to Carry is a small piece of paperwork and $40. No class. No range trip. No test. Usually no new fingerprints. For most license holders it is a twenty-minute evening on the DPS portal.

The 2025 grace period is a genuine kindness in the law, and it has rescued a lot of people from starting over. But it is a safety net, not a plan. During that gap you are not licensed, you do not have campus carry authority, you do not have the purchase exemption, you do not have reciprocity, and the clock on your next term is quietly ticking against you.

Renew on time and none of that ever applies to you. Put the date on your calendar today, keep your address current with DPS, and the next five years take care of themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. First Shot Training is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. While we make every reasonable effort to ensure the information we publish is accurate and up to date at the time of publication, laws, regulations, licensing requirements, reciprocity agreements, and government policies may change without notice. You are responsible for verifying current information with official government sources before relying on any information contained in this article. If you have questions regarding how the law applies to your specific circumstances, consult a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.