How to Get a US Employer Identification Number (2026)

An Employer Identification Number is the nine-digit federal tax ID that stands between your US company and almost everything it needs to function — a bank account, payroll, a tax return, a line of credit, and in several cases the documentary trail behind a visa petition. For anyone holding a Social Security Number the process takes about fifteen minutes online. For founders outside the United States without one, most published guidance quietly assumes you have what you do not have, and sends you down a route that cannot work.

The short version: there are four ways to apply, only one of them needs a US tax number, and the other three are perfectly ordinary procedures that the IRS runs deliberately for people in your position. What follows is each route, the fields on Form SS-4 that cause delays, and the obligations that start the moment the number is issued.

Why the EIN carries more weight than it used to

An EIN does for a company what a Social Security Number does for a person: it is the identifier on every filing, every wage report, every bank record. Without it you cannot open a US business account, run payroll, or file most business returns.

Three things have made it more consequential for international founders.

Banks check harder than they did. Expanded anti-money-laundering and beneficial-ownership rules mean account opening now involves real scrutiny of who controls the entity. An EIN attached to a cleanly formed company with an unambiguous responsible party moves through that process. A mismatch between your formation documents and your EIN record stalls it, sometimes for weeks, and the same record gets pulled again when you later apply for credit.

The filing obligations have teeth. A foreign-owned US single-member LLC must file Form 5472 attached to a pro forma Form 1120 — even in a year with no revenue at all. The penalty for missing it is US$25,000, with a further US$25,000 per related party for every 30-day period once the IRS has issued its 90-day notice. That is not a figure that scales with the size of your business. It is why foreign-owned LLCs are one of the few cases where paying an accountant is obviously cheaper than not.

Visa petitions want documentary proof. Anyone pursuing an investor or entrepreneur route — the E-2 Treaty Investor category being the common one — has to show a real, compliant US entity exists. The EIN confirmation is usually among the first documents an immigration attorney asks for.

What an EIN actually is

Also called a Federal Tax Identification Number or FEIN. Nine digits, always formatted XX-XXXXXXX, issued by the IRS.

The word "employer" is misleading — employees are not required. Entities that typically need one:

• LLCs, including single-member LLCs owned by non-residents
• Corporations, C-Corp and S-Corp alike
• Partnerships and multi-member LLCs
• Sole proprietors who take on staff, owe excise tax, or run a retirement plan
• Trusts, estates and non-profits
• Foreign entities with US tax obligations

A single-member LLC with no staff and no revenue still generally needs one, if only to open a bank account and file the right return.

The four routes, compared

One correction worth making, because it is repeated everywhere: the online application does not require specifically an SSN or ITIN. The SS-4 instructions say the responsible party must have "a valid taxpayer identification number (SSN, EIN, or ITIN)" — an existing EIN counts. That matters if you already run one US entity and are forming another.

The harder online constraint is geographic: your principal place of business must be in the United States or a US territory. No amount of personal tax ID gets around that one.

Method 1: Online

Available on IRS.gov. Current published hours are Monday to Friday 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. the following day, Saturday 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday 6:00 p.m. to midnight, Eastern time. The widely quoted "7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays" is out of date.

1. Go to IRS.gov and find the official application. Lookalike sites charging a fee rank well on search; the IRS says plainly not to pay for an EIN.
2. Select your entity type.
3. Answer the questions on structure, state of formation and responsible party.
4. Enter the responsible party's SSN, ITIN or existing EIN.
5. Submit, and the number is issued on screen. Download the confirmation immediately — no paper copy follows automatically.

Two limits to plan around: the session expires after 15 minutes of inactivity and cannot be resumed, and the IRS issues one EIN per responsible party per day. Have every detail in front of you before you start.

Method 2: Fax — the usual route for foreign founders

Form SS-4 is a free download. Faxing it is the most practical option for most international applicants, and the IRS treats it as entirely routine.

The fields that matter:

• Line 1 — legal entity name, character for character as it appears on the formation documents. Not the trading name, not a tidied-up version.
• Lines 4a–4b — mailing address. A foreign address is fine, as is a registered agent's US address.
• Line 7a — responsible party's name. A real individual. The IRS is explicit: "the responsible party must be an individual (that is, a natural person), not an entity," unless the applicant is a government body.
• Line 7b — their tax number. If they have none and are ineligible for one, enter "foreign" or "N/A". The IRS instructions say so directly, and the EIN is still issued. This single line is what makes the whole foreign-founder route work.
• Line 9a — reason for applying. "Started a new business" or "Banking purpose" cover most cases.
• Line 12 — employees expected in the next twelve months. Enter 0 if none.

Confirm the international fax number on IRS.gov itself. It differs from the domestic one, and the December 2025 revision of the SS-4 instructions lists "new location for fax numbers and mailing addresses" as its only change — so older guides may point you at a dead number.

Roughly four business days later the IRS faxes back your stamped SS-4. You must supply a return fax number to get it. Keep that document permanently; banks, accountants and lawyers will ask for it repeatedly over the years.

Method 3: International phone — fastest if you qualify

The IRS operates a dedicated line on +1 267-941-1099, open 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday. It is not toll-free.

This route exists specifically for applicants with no legal residence or principal place of business in the United States. The SS-4 instructions are blunt about the asymmetry: "The IRS no longer issues EINs by telephone for domestic taxpayers. Only international applicants can receive an EIN by telephone."

Complete Form SS-4 fully before calling — the agent works through it with you line by line — and you will have the number before the call ends, with a faxed or posted confirmation to follow. Eastern time means an early start from Africa, the Middle East or Asia.

Method 4: Post

Approximately four weeks. Worth noting that the commonly cited "four to six weeks" overstates it; the IRS publishes about four. Use this only if fax and phone are both genuinely unavailable.

Getting an EIN with no Social Security Number

This is the question behind most searches, and the answer is simpler than the internet suggests: you do not need one.

The personal tax ID requirement belongs to the online tool alone. Fax, phone and post all accept a responsible party with no SSN and no ITIN, via that "foreign" entry on line 7b.

Do you need an ITIN first? No. The EIN can come first, and usually does. You will likely need an ITIN later, because as a foreign owner with US-source income you will have personal filing obligations — but that is a separate application on Form W-7, and the current IRS guidance is about 7 weeks, or 9 to 11 weeks during filing season or from overseas.

Sequence matters. Form the entity first. The application asks for the formation date, so the company has to legally exist before you apply. Applying first and backfilling is how people end up with an EIN attached to details that do not match their state filing.

Three worked examples

Illustrative only.

A consultant in Lagos with no US tax number. Forms a Wyoming LLC to invoice American clients. Completes Form SS-4, enters "foreign" on line 7b, faxes it to the IRS international number with her own fax number for the reply. Four business days later the stamped form comes back. She opens an online business account with it, then applies for an ITIN to report the LLC's income on her own return. Government cost: nothing.

A couple preparing an investor visa. Form a Delaware C-Corp as the investment vehicle. Their attorney needs the EIN inside a fortnight, so they use the international phone line and have the number the same day — which goes straight into the petition bundle.

A visa holder with an SSN starting a side company. Forms an LLC, uses the online tool, has the number in minutes. Whether her visa category permits that business activity at all is a question for an immigration attorney, not the IRS.

What happens next

The EIN is the start of the compliance calendar, not the end of the admin.

Open the business bank account. EIN plus formation documents is usually the minimum. Non-residents generally find online-first business banking more accessible than branch networks.

Map your filing obligations. State annual reports and franchise taxes vary enormously — Delaware, Wyoming and California behave nothing like each other.

Understand which federal return you owe. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120. A C-Corp files Form 1120 proper. Given the US$25,000 penalty attached to the first of those, this is the point to engage an accountant with genuine foreign-ownership experience rather than a general bookkeeper.

Sort insurance once you are operating. General liability for most businesses; workers' compensation wherever you have employees, which is a state-level requirement.

Register for state taxes separately. The EIN is federal only. Sales tax, state income tax and employer accounts are all separate registrations.

Seven mistakes that cause delays

1. Using the online tool without a US tax number or US place of business. Apply by fax or international phone instead.
2. Naming a company as the responsible party. It must be a natural person — normally the principal owner.
3. Getting the entity name slightly wrong. Copy it from the formation certificate exactly.
4. Applying before the entity exists. The form asks for a formation date.
5. Losing the confirmation. Scan it the day it arrives and store it in two places.
6. Paying a service that implies its fee is a government charge. It is free from the IRS by every route.
7. Applying twice for the same entity. Call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line to check status rather than reapplying.

EIN, ITIN and SSN

An EIN identifies a business for federal tax. An SSN is a personal identifier for citizens and authorised workers. An ITIN is a personal tax number for people who must file US tax but cannot get an SSN.

A foreign founder often ends up holding two of the three — EIN for the company, ITIN for personal filings — and occasionally all three if work authorisation or residency follows later.

Do you need a filing service?

For a straightforward single-member LLC with one obvious responsible party, probably not. Form SS-4 is two pages and thousands of founders file it correctly without help.

Professional help earns its fee when you have:

• Multi-tier or foreign-corporate ownership
• A trust or estate application
• No practical access to international fax
• Genuine uncertainty about entity tax classification — partnership, S-Corp or C-Corp — which should be settled with an accountant before you answer the related SS-4 questions, because the answers have consequences

If you do hire someone, use a licensed CPA, enrolled agent or attorney. An unregulated document service is the wrong tool for a matter with real tax stakes.

One note on immigration

An EIN does not authorise you to work in the United States and has no bearing on your visa status. Tax registration and immigration are separate systems that do not talk to each other.

The reverse is where the risk sits: some visa categories restrict active business management or self-employment. If the company is part of a wider immigration plan, confirm each step with a licensed immigration attorney — particularly entity formation, the timing of the EIN, and anything tied to an investment-based petition.

Edge cases that come up

Can I reuse an old EIN? No. One per entity, and they cannot be transferred or sold.

My business is changing structure. Some conversions need a new EIN, some do not. Check with the IRS or an accountant rather than guessing.

The IRS says an EIN already exists. Call the Business and Specialty Tax Line; they can look up an existing number from your entity details.

Checklist

Before applying:

• Entity legally formed in its state
• Legal name matching the formation documents exactly
• Responsible party identified, with a tax number if they have one
• Mailing address confirmed, US or foreign
• Route chosen to match your situation
• Current fax number or phone number verified on IRS.gov

After the number arrives:

• Confirmation letter saved in two places
• Business bank account opened
• State tax registrations completed
• Federal filing obligations confirmed with an accountant — 1120, 1065, 5472 or Schedule C
• Ongoing state compliance diarised

General educational information about the EIN process, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Rules and processing times change. Verify current requirements at IRS.gov and take advice from a licensed CPA, enrolled agent or attorney for your own circumstances.