EIN Number for Non-US Citizens: Apply by Phone, Fax, or Mail

A non-US citizen can get an EIN number by filing IRS Form SS-4 with the IRS by phone, fax, or mail. The online EIN tool is closed to anyone without a US taxpayer identification number or a US address, so these three channels are the route for foreign applicants. The IRS charges nothing. Any site asking for a fee is a third-party service, not the government.¹

You do not need a Social Security Number. You do not need an ITIN first. Where Form SS-4 asks for the responsible party’s SSN or ITIN, you write “Foreign.”²

When a Non-US Citizen Actually Needs an EIN

An EIN is a nine-digit number the IRS assigns to a business entity for tax filing and reporting.³ As a non-US citizen, you need one if any of the following apply:

You formed a US corporation. Every US corporation needs an EIN to file Form 1120, even with no employees.⁴
You formed a multi-member LLC. LLCs taxed as partnerships or corporations file their own returns and need an EIN.
You own a single-member LLC as a foreign person. A domestically owned single-member LLC with no employees and no excise tax can skip the EIN, but foreign owners must file Form 5472, and Form 5472 requires an EIN. This catches a lot of first-time foreign LLC owners.⁵⁶
You want to open a US business bank account. Nearly every US bank requires an EIN first.
You plan to hire US employees and report employment taxes.

The EIN belongs to the entity, not to you personally. If you also have your own US tax filing obligations from things like US rental income or consulting fees, that is a separate question answered by an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), not an EIN.

Information You Need Before You File Form SS-4

Incomplete answers are the most common reason a foreign application stalls. Gather everything the form asks for before you call, fax, or mail:

The entity’s exact legal name as it appears on your state formation documents. Even small discrepancies can cause rejection.
A mailing address. A foreign address is fine. If the entity also has a US address, include both.
The entity type as classified for US tax purposes: corporation, LLC, partnership, or other.
The reason for applying: new business, banking, hiring, and so on.
The date the business started or was formed.
Expected number of employees in the next 12 months. Enter zero if you have no plans to hire.
A short description of the principal US business activity.

The Responsible Party Line

Form SS-4 requires a named “responsible party,” meaning the individual who owns or controls the entity. For a corporation, this is usually the principal officer; for a partnership, a general partner. It has to be an actual person, not another company or a nominee.

Line 7b asks for that person’s SSN, ITIN, or EIN. If you don’t have any of these, write “Foreign” in the field. You can list your home country’s tax ID number if you want, but it isn’t required.⁷

The Three Ways to Apply Without an SSN

The online application is unavailable to anyone lacking a US taxpayer ID or a US principal place of business.² That leaves phone, fax, and mail.

Phone Is the Fastest

You can walk away from a single call with your EIN. The dedicated international line for foreign applicants is 267-941-1099 (not toll-free), open Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time.⁸ Only international applicants may use this phone method.

The caller has to be the responsible party listed on the form, or a properly authorized third-party designee. Have your completed Form SS-4 in front of you. The agent walks through every line and assigns the EIN on the spot if everything checks out. Your official confirmation letter, Notice CP 575, follows by mail, which can take several weeks to reach an international address.

Call early in the Eastern Time morning. Wait times climb later in the day, and the line isn’t toll-free from overseas.

Fax Takes About Four Business Days

Complete and sign Form SS-4, then fax it to 304-707-9471, the international fax number.⁹ Put a return fax number on the form. This is the part people miss. If you give the IRS a return fax number, they fax the EIN back within about four business days.¹⁰ If you don’t, they mail it, and your four days turn into weeks.

If you’re physically in the US but applying for an entity with no US principal place of business, the domestic fax number is 855-215-1627.⁹

Mail Is the Slowest

Send the signed form to:

Internal Revenue Service
Attn: EIN International Operation
Cincinnati, OH 45999⁹

Expect about four weeks of processing, longer if the form has errors.⁸ International postal time runs on top of that in both directions. Unless phone and fax are genuinely unavailable to you, mail isn’t worth the delay.

Letting Someone Else Apply for You

You don’t have to deal with the IRS directly. Form SS-4 has a Third Party Designee section that lets a US-based attorney, accountant, or registered agent make the call, receive the EIN, and answer the agent’s questions on your behalf.² The responsible party still signs the form, and the designee’s authority ends the moment the EIN is assigned.

One restriction catches people. If the designee’s address or phone number is the same as the entity’s, the IRS will not process a phone application. You have to use fax or mail instead.² Foreign owners who use a registered agent’s address as the entity’s mailing address run into this constantly. Fax around it.

Mistakes That Delay a Foreign Application

Name mismatch. The entity name on Form SS-4 must match the state formation document exactly. “Global Tech Solutions LLC” and “Global Tech Solutions” are different names to the IRS.
Missing signature. An unsigned form is rejected. Foreign applicants may have any duly authorized person sign.²
Wrong entity type. Selecting “LLC” when the entity elected to be taxed as a corporation (or the reverse) creates problems that take time to untangle.
More than one EIN in a day. The IRS limits each responsible party to one EIN per business day across all application methods. Setting up several entities means spacing the applications across different days.¹¹
No return fax number. The single biggest reason a four-day fax turnaround becomes a multi-week wait.

After Your EIN Is Assigned

Use the EIN on every US tax form and every piece of IRS correspondence for the entity. Keep the assignment letter.

If Your Confirmation Letter Never Arrives

The IRS mails Notice CP 575 once and will not reissue it. International mail being what it is, many foreign owners never see theirs. The replacement is Letter 147C. Call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 1-800-829-4933, verify your identity as an authorized person, and ask them to fax or mail the 147C. The fax option gets it to you while you’re still on the call.

Treat your EIN as confidential. Share it only with your bank, your tax preparer, and other parties that genuinely need it.

Reporting Changes

If the responsible party changes, you must tell the IRS within 60 days on Form 8822-B.¹² The same form covers address changes, though those don’t carry the 60-day deadline.¹³ If you don’t update the address, IRS notices go to the old one, and not having received a letter isn’t a defense against the penalties attached to it.

A Note on BOI Reporting

Foreign owners often ask about Beneficial Ownership Information reporting after getting an EIN. Under the March 2025 interim final rule, all entities created in the United States are exempt from the BOI requirement, so a US LLC or corporation you formed does not need to file a BOI report with FinCEN.¹⁴

The requirement now applies only to entities formed under foreign law that have registered to do business in a US state. If a foreign-formed company of yours registered in a US state on or after March 26, 2025, you have 30 calendar days from notice of effective registration to file.¹⁴ The rules in this area have shifted repeatedly since 2024, so check FinCEN’s site for current status before you assume a deadline applies or doesn’t.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Get an Employer Identification Number
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form SS-4
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form SS-4, Application for Employer Identification Number (EIN)
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1120
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Internal Revenue Service. Single Member Limited Liability Companies
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 5472 – Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business
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Internal Revenue Service. Form SS-4 (Rev. December 2025)
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Taxpayer Advocate Service. Getting an EIN
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Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Your Taxes for Form SS-4
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Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number
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Internal Revenue Service. 21.7.13 Assigning Employer Identification Numbers (EINs)
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8822-B, Change of Address or Responsible Party – Business
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 8822-B – Change of Address or Responsible Party – Business
14
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting