EIN Application Went Nowhere: Silence and Reference Errors

There is no acknowledgment, no ticket number, no queue position and no way to check progress on a faxed Form SS-4. You send it into a system that does not report back until it produces a result.

The IRS commits to this and nothing 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 doing real work in that sentence. Four business days is the good case. Plan for one to three weeks, and treat anything under four weeks as ordinary.

Refaxing early is the main way people make this worse. A second copy of the same application can be processed as a separate request, which produces either a duplicate EIN or a manual review, and both take longer than waiting.

The IRS does not publish what they mean. Not to you, and not on any public page. The definitions circulating on formation-service blogs have no federal source, and we checked the place they would have to come from.

The Internal Revenue Manual is the IRS's own instruction set for its staff. Section 21.7.13.3.4.1 covers the online EIN assistant, and it contains the lookup tables telephone assistors use to decode these numbers. In the public version of the manual, those tables are replaced with rows of ≡ characters, which is the IRS's redaction marker for Official Use Only material.

So the tables exist. They are simply not for you.

What the public manual does say, in full, is this:

The online message does not provide a definition of the three-digit reference number (reject code). The caller may or may not notice the three-digit reference number (reject code).

And this, which is the one operationally useful fact about the numbers:

Callers contacting the IRS regarding the message shown in paragraph 2 above are routed based on their specific reference number. Reference numbers 101 or 115 are directed to a CSR for assistance. All other reference numbers are routed to an automated message which provides instructions to correct invalid information and resubmit the application or submit Form SS-4, Application for Employer Identification Number, by mail or fax.

That routing rule is worth more than any table of meanings. If your number is 101 or 115, calling reaches a human who can look at the case. If it is anything else, calling reaches a recording that tells you to correct your information and apply by fax or mail. Knowing which call is worth making is the actual decision in front of you.

The message itself, verbatim from the manual:

We are unable to provide you with an EIN. We apologize for the inconvenience, but based on the information provided we are unable to provide you with an EIN through this online assistant. Please call 800-829-4933 for assistance. When outside the US, call 267-941-1099. TTY/TDD: 800-829-4059. Please have your information readily available and mention reference number XXX.

One more thing the manual says, which contradicts what most people assume when they call:

Taxpayers may believe IRS employees have access to the information that was previously input in the online application. Advise taxpayer IRS does not save this information and apologize for the difficulty the taxpayer experienced with the online application.

Your submitted data is gone. Whoever answers is starting from nothing, so have the entity name, the state, the formation date and your line 7b entry in front of you.

And note where this whole section does not apply to you. All of it describes the online assistant, which requires the responsible party to hold an SSN or ITIN and requires a US principal place of business. If you are faxing Form SS-4 from abroad because you have neither, you will never see a reference number at all. You will see silence, which is a different problem with a different fix, covered above.

Almost every avoidable refusal on a foreign-owned application traces to this field.

"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.

Error one: leaving it blank. A blank field is not the same as "foreign." It reads as an incomplete form and gets treated as one.

Error two: inventing a placeholder. Zeros, "N/A" written in a different field, a passport number, or a home-country tax number. The instruction names two acceptable values and neither is improvised.

There is a third, less common and worth knowing: entering the company on line 7a instead of a person. The responsible party is a human being. Your LLC is the applicant, not the responsible party.

Call 267-941-1099, the line for international applicants, open 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. It is not toll-free.

Have ready: the exact legal name of the entity as filed, the state and date of formation, the date you faxed, the fax number you sent to, and your own name as the responsible party.

Ask whether the application is on file. That is the question that gets a useful answer. Asking how long it will take does not.

If it is not on file, ask whether you should refax and say that you are checking first specifically to avoid creating a duplicate.

Worth ruling out before anything else, because it is silent and total.

International applicants: 855-215-1627 from inside the US, 304-707-9471 from outside.

Domestic: 855-641-6935. This is the number quoted most often online and it is not yours.

A form sent to the domestic line by an international applicant does not bounce back with an explanation.

The CP 575 is issued once and not reissued. What you can get instead is a 147C letter, which confirms the EIN from the IRS's own records. Request it by phone.

The Internal Revenue Manual sets out what the assistor does once your identity and authority are established:

Three things in that sentence matter to you.

Verbally is an option. You can get the number read to you on the call, which is enough if you only need the digits and not a document.

Fax is faster than mail. Ten to fourteen business days is the stated mail timeline, and mail goes to the address of record rather than wherever you are.

Mail goes to the address of record. If that is a registered agent or an old address, plan for the fax instead.

The manual is also explicit that a third-party designee cannot receive one:

Do not provide to the TPD. Their authority does not extend to receiving mail.

If someone filed your SS-4 as third-party designee, that authority has already lapsed for this purpose. You call, or someone with a Form 2848 or Form 8821 on file calls, or the manual's alternative applies: conference yourself into the call.

Most banks accept a 147C. A few insist on the CP 575, and that is worth asking before you spend two weeks obtaining the wrong document.

One caution on the phone number. 267-941-1099 is published by the IRS as the line for applicants outside the United States, and the online assistant's own error message gives it as the out-of-US number. We did not find an IRS page that names it specifically as the 147C request line. It is the number to try; we are not going to claim the IRS says something it does not say.

I faxed three weeks ago and heard nothing. Is something wrong? Probably not. One to three weeks is ordinary and there is no status lookup. Wait until four weeks, then call the international line and ask whether it is on file.

Should I refax? Not before four weeks, and not without calling first. Duplicate applications cause delay rather than curing it.

What does reference number 101 mean? The IRS does not publish the definitions. The tables its own staff use are redacted in the public Internal Revenue Manual. What the manual does say is that 101 and 115 route you to a person and every other number routes you to a recording. Any site telling you what 101 means is telling you something it cannot source.

I left line 7b blank. Is that why? Very possibly. Blank is not the same as "foreign." The instruction says to enter "foreign" or N/A where the responsible party has no SSN or ITIN and cannot obtain one.

I lost the CP 575. What now? Request a 147C letter by phone. It is not the same document but most institutions accept it.