How to get an EIN without an SSN by faxing Form SS-4

To get an EIN without an SSN or ITIN, fax IRS Form SS-4 to the IRS, with "foreign" on line 7b if you can't get either number. Put a fax number you can receive on the form too, since the IRS faxes your EIN back to it, generally within 4 business days.

The IRS's online application works only for a business formed and based in the US or a US territory, with a responsible party who has an SSN or ITIN.

The EIN itself is free. The IRS says you never have to pay a fee for one, and it warns about websites that charge for an EIN.

On faxfair.com you pay to send the fax and, if you need one, for a fax number that receives the IRS's reply.

Ways to apply for an EIN without an SSN

As IRS.gov listed them on November 3, 2026.

The phone line can be the quickest, since the IRS assigns the EIN during the call. It's open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday, and it isn't toll-free. The caller must be allowed to receive the EIN and answer questions about Form SS-4, so the IRS suggests filling in the form before you call.

Fax suits you if those hours fall in the middle of your night, or if you'd rather not make the call. The IRS's fax line for EIN applications, which it calls Fax-TIN, takes faxes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Choose one way and send the form once. The IRS asks you to use only one method for each entity, so you don't end up with two EINs. It also gives each responsible party no more than one EIN a day.

Which IRS fax number to use for Form SS-4

The IRS picks the number by where your company's principal business, office or agency is. If you're applying as an individual, it goes by where you legally live.

Checked on IRS.gov on November 3, 2026.

The IRS splits the last two numbers by where you fax from, and it doesn't say which one fits a fax sent through an online fax service. Both reach the same IRS office, in Cincinnati. A company based in a US territory uses them too. The IRS says these Fax-TIN numbers take only EIN applications and may change without notice, so open its page again on the day you send.

For other IRS forms, the fax numbers are in our guide to finding the right IRS fax number.

Filling in Form SS-4 without an SSN

Form your LLC or corporation with its state before you apply, because the IRS says applying first can delay the EIN. These are the lines that change when the responsible party has no SSN or the business is abroad.

• Line 1 takes the legal name exactly as it appears on your charter or other formation document. IRS systems accept only letters, numbers, hyphens and ampersands, so spell out other symbols (Jones.Com becomes Jones Dot Com).
• Lines 4a and 4b take the mailing address. For an address outside the US, give the city, the province or state, the postal code and the full country name, without abbreviating it.
• Lines 7a and 7b name the responsible party. Unless the applicant is a government entity, that must be a person, not a company. On line 7b, write their SSN or ITIN, or "foreign" or N/A if they don't have one and can't get one. The IRS says the line can't be left blank.
• Line 9a matters if a foreign person wholly owns your single-member LLC and you need the EIN to file Form 5472. In that case, check Other and write "Foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity-Form 5472".
• The applicant's fax number, near the bottom of the form, is where the IRS faxes your EIN. Write it with the area code.
• Sign and date the form. The IRS lets a foreign applicant have any duly authorized person sign, such as a division manager.
• Fill in the Third Party Designee section only if you want someone else, such as the company that formed your LLC, to receive the EIN. The IRS then gives the EIN to that person and mails the EIN notice to you. Its manual says this authorization needs a handwritten signature, not an electronic one.

Put a fax number on the form for the IRS's reply

The IRS faxes the EIN to the applicant's fax number on the form. Its manual for EIN staff says the reply is a fax cover sheet with the EIN on it.

A fax number on the form also helps when something is wrong. If information is missing, the manual tells staff to fax back a request for it, or to mail Letter 45C when there's no fax number. Without a fax number, the confirmation letter takes about two weeks by mail. If the mailing address can't be read either, the manual tells staff to destroy the form.

If you don't have a fax number, you can get a US fax number on faxfair.com with a card, with no account and no app. As of November 2026, it costs $4.99 for 7 days, $9.99 for 30 days or $59.99 for a year, and none of them renews. We email each fax sent to it to you as a PDF, and a private inbox page lists them too. We only charge your card when your number is set up, which usually takes about a minute.

A 7-day number covers the IRS's 4 business days with little or no time to spare if you fax late in the week. If the number ends before the reply comes, we keep it 3 more days and hold faxes sent to it, and you add days to open them. We'd pick 30 days, which leaves room for a late reply or a question from the IRS. With one fax, that's $12.48 in all as of November 2026.

Fax Form SS-4 to the IRS

Fax the signed form to the number from the table above. You can fill in the PDF from IRS.gov on a computer. If you sign it on paper, scan the page or take a clear photo of it. For a cover sheet, you can fill in our free IRS fax cover sheet online.

On faxfair.com, you send it in five steps.

1. If you have an active fax number from faxfair.com, open your inbox page from the link in your email and choose "Send a fax from this number". The fax then goes out from your number, which prints at the top of each page and on the cover sheet's Fax line.
2. Upload the form. We take PDF, JPG, PNG, WEBP and TIFF files. iPhone photos in HEIC can't be uploaded, so save them as JPG first.
3. Type the IRS fax number, and add a free cover sheet if you want one. It doesn't count as a page.
4. Type your name and phone number. We print them at the bottom of every page, as US law requires.
5. Check every page in the preview, then pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay on Stripe's checkout page.

A private status page shows the fax's progress until it's delivered or fails. When it says delivered, take a screenshot and keep it with the receipt Stripe emails you. The page shows our delivery status, not a receipt from the IRS.

Send Form SS-4 from this website, and get the reply on your own fax number. As of November 2026, a fax of up to 40 pages costs $2.49. We only charge your card when the fax is delivered. If the fax fails, we cancel the payment and you aren't charged.

Send a fax online

What happens after you fax Form SS-4

The IRS processes a faxed Form SS-4 4 business days after receipt, its processing status page said on October 30, 2026. Its manual adds that a fax arriving after 1 p.m. Eastern time counts as received the next business day.

A weekend fax likely counts from Monday, and a federal holiday would push each date back a day. The IRS says "generally", so don't count on the earliest date.

If no fax has come after the fourth business day, call the IRS rather than faxing the form again. Its manual says that from then on you can call to have the EIN read to you, once the IRS checks you're allowed to receive it. From outside the US, we'd call the IRS's international EIN line, 267-941-1099, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday.

You can use the EIN right away to open a bank account, apply for business licenses or file a tax return by mail. The IRS asks you to wait up to 2 weeks before you e-file a return, pay taxes electronically or use its TIN Matching Program.

If the IRS faxes your faxfair.com number, save the PDF from your email. We delete a received fax from our servers when you delete it, after 7 days, or when the number is released, whichever comes first. The PDF in your email is yours to keep.

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