Application Processing & Turnaround
Annual throughput of Amateur Radio applications through the FCC ULS processing pipeline: receipts, grants, and dismissals.
Understanding the ULS Application Processing Funnel
Amateur Radio applications (examinations submitted by Volunteer Examiner Coordinators [VECs], renewals, vanity requests, and administrative updates) flow through the FCC ULS electronic batch processing pipeline. Grants are typically issued overnight after batch validation. Dismissals primarily reflect unpaid application fees or defective vanity requests.
| Year | Received | Granted | Dismissed | Withdrawn | Dismissal Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | 96,301 | 88,847 | 5,552 | 854 | 5.8% |
| 2025 Outage* | 124,860 | 115,561 | 7,964 | 1,262 | 6.4% |
| 2024 | 136,199 | 125,607 | 9,264 | 1,245 | 6.8% |
| 2023 | 117,485 | 107,641 | 8,638 | 1,139 | 7.3% |
| 2022 | 116,295 | 107,438 | 7,558 | 1,233 | 6.5% |
| 2021 | 133,467 | 125,068 | 7,014 | 1,301 | 5.3% |
| 2020 | 132,673 | 124,922 | 6,472 | 1,245 | 4.9% |
| 2019 | 131,345 | 123,458 | 6,526 | 1,310 | 5.0% |
| 2018 | 146,354 | 136,933 | 7,940 | 1,445 | 5.4% |
* 2025 totals are depressed by an upstream gap: FCC ULS offline during the federal government shutdown beginning 2025-10-01. October has no receipts at all; November is partially recovered and is published as observed.