Get an EIN With No SSN and No ITIN: The Fax Route

Here is the instruction, in full, because the exact condition matters and most guides paraphrase it into something slightly wrong:

"Enter 'foreign' or N/A on line 7b if the responsible party doesn't have and is ineligible to obtain an SSN or ITIN."

IRS, Instructions for Form SS-4.

Three things people get wrong about that sentence.

It says "foreign" or N/A, lowercase, and either is acceptable. Guides that insist on a specific capitalization are inventing a rule.

It says "doesn't have and is ineligible to obtain." Both halves. If you are eligible for an ITIN and simply haven't applied, you are not squarely inside this instruction. Most non-resident owners with no US filing obligation of their own are genuinely ineligible, which is why this route works for them.

It applies to the responsible party, the human being on line 7a, not the company. The company is the applicant. You are the responsible party.

The two fax numbers are the trap. Guides list "the EIN fax number" as though there were one. There are separate lines for domestic and international applicants, and a form sent to the wrong one is not routed helpfully. Send to 855-215-1627 or 304-707-9471 depending on where you're faxing from.

On timing, the IRS commits to this much and no more:

International applicants with no US residence or principal office can obtain an EIN by calling +1 267-941-1099, and the IRS assigns the EIN during the call; by fax the EIN generally arrives within 4 business days.[1]Internal Revenue Service, Instructions for Form SS-4 (12/2025)

"Generally" is carrying weight there. Four business days is the good case. One to three weeks is the ordinary case. Build your plan on the second number, because the bank account behind this cannot start until the confirmation letter arrives.

Line 7a wants the responsible party's name. That's you, the human, not the LLC.

Line 7b takes "foreign" per the instruction above.

Line 9a is the entity type. A single-member LLC with a foreign owner is treated as a disregarded entity by default, and the pro forma Form 1120 and Form 5472 that follow from that are a separate and unavoidable annual obligation. Understand it before you file, not in April.

Line 18 asks whether the business ever had an EIN before. For a newly formed LLC, no. Answering yes because you personally had one for a different company sends the application into review.

There's no status lookup, no reference number on submission, and no queue position. Silence is the normal experience for the first couple of weeks and it tells you nothing.

Under four weeks: wait. Refaxing creates a duplicate application, and duplicates are a genuine cause of delay rather than a way to jump the line.

At four weeks: call 267-941-1099 during its hours and ask whether the application is on file. Have the exact business name, the formation state, and the date you faxed.

Refaxing at all: if you do, mark it clearly as a second submission of the same application rather than sending an identical clean copy, so it isn't processed as a separate request.

The failure modes that actually cause rejection get their own page: reference numbers 101, 109, 110 and 115 each mean something specific.

The EIN is free. Form SS-4 is free. The fax costs whatever your fax service charges, which is a few dollars at most.

Services that charge for EIN acquisition are charging for the annoyance of the process rather than for access to something you cannot reach. That can be a reasonable trade if the alternative is you learning the fax routing the hard way, but you should know what you're buying. Prolify includes this. So do several competitors, and if a competitor's package is cheaper for the pieces you actually need, buy theirs.

Do I need an ITIN first? No. The SS-4 instruction covers a responsible party who does not have and cannot obtain an SSN or ITIN, and it tells you what to write instead. Applying for an ITIN before an EIN adds months and changes nothing about the outcome.

Can I use the online application? Not without a US principal office. The online tool is gated on that, which is why the fax route exists for international applicants. If a service tells you they got your EIN online in an hour, ask which address they used.

Which fax number do I send to? 855-215-1627 if you are faxing from inside the United States, 304-707-9471 if you are faxing from outside it. The number you see quoted most often online, 855-641-6935, is the domestic-applicant line and is not the one you want.

How long does it really take? The IRS says generally within four business days by fax. One to three weeks is what to plan around. The variance is not something you can influence, so start this the day your formation documents are stamped rather than the day you need a bank account.

Is the EIN confirmation letter the same as the CP 575? Yes. The CP 575 is the notice confirming your EIN, and it is the document banks ask for. Keep the original. Replacements come as a 147C letter, which most institutions accept but a few will query.