Short answer: you do not need an SSN or an ITIN to get an EIN for your US LLC. You file Form SS-4, you write FOREIGN where a US person would put a taxpayer number, and you send it to the IRS by fax (roughly four business days) or by phone. What turns this into a two-month ordeal is a form filled in wrong, not the IRS.
This is a spoke of how to form a US LLC as a non-resident, and the EIN is the pivot point of the whole process: no EIN, no bank account, no payment processor, and no way to file Form 5472 later.
What an EIN is, and what it is not
An EIN is a federal tax identification number for your company. It is not a licence, it does not register you for any tax, and it says nothing about whether your LLC owes US tax: that is decided by whether you have effectively connected income, covered in US tax for non-resident owners.
Practically, it is the number every bank, processor and platform asks for. It is also free. The IRS charges nothing for it.
The three routes
| Route | Who it is for | Realistic time |
|---|---|---|
| Online | Only if the responsible party has an SSN or ITIN | Immediate |
| Fax | The standard route for non-residents | About 4 business days |
| Phone (+1 267-941-1099) | International applicants, Mon–Fri 6:00–23:00 ET | Same call, if you get through |
| Mail (Cincinnati, OH 45999) | Fallback | 4–5 weeks |
The online assistant validates the responsible party’s SSN or ITIN, which is why it is closed to you if you have neither. Fax is the workhorse: SS-4 to 855-641-6935, and the EIN letter comes back the same way. The international phone line issues the number during the call, which is faster when you can get through and frustrating when you cannot.
Filling in Form SS-4 without the mistakes
The form is one page. Four lines cause almost every rejection.
Line 7a and 7b: the responsible party. 7a is your name as an individual, not the company’s. 7b is where a US person writes an SSN or ITIN and where you write FOREIGN. Leaving 7b blank gets the application kicked back; writing a passport number gets it kicked back too.
Line 8a: LLC. Answer yes, state the number of members, and be consistent with what your operating agreement says. A single-member LLC that claims two members here creates a mismatch that will follow you into the bank application.
Line 9a: type of entity. For a single-member LLC owned by a non-resident individual, the usual answer is “Other” with a description such as “Foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity”. This is where people tick “Corporation” by accident and give themselves an entity classification they did not want.
Line 10: reason for applying. “Started new business” for a new LLC, “Banking purpose” if the entity already exists and you need the number for an account.
Sign it, date it, and use a fax service that gives you a transmission receipt. That receipt is your evidence of the filing date if anything goes missing.
The myth that costs the most time
Somewhere in every forum thread, someone says you need an ITIN first. You do not, and the two numbers serve different purposes. An EIN identifies your company. An ITIN identifies you as an individual for US tax purposes, and you need one only in specific situations: filing a personal US return, certain treaty claims, some withholding scenarios.
Pursuing an ITIN before an EIN can add months, because the ITIN process is genuinely slow and often involves certified copies of your passport. Get the EIN, open the bank account, run the business. Deal with an ITIN if and when a filing obligation actually requires one.
What actually causes the delays
Most of the waiting people complain about is self-inflicted, and the causes are boringly consistent.
The entity does not exist yet, or not in the way the form says. The EIN application asks about a legal entity, and the details must match the state filing exactly. A name with a different suffix, a different punctuation, or an LLC whose formation is still processing produces a rejection that arrives weeks later with no explanation of what was wrong.
The responsible party field is filled in wrongly. This is the single most common error. It must be a natural person with control over the entity (you), with their own identifying details, not the company, not a nominee, not a formation agent. Getting this wrong is not a technicality; it is the field the IRS uses to know who is behind the entity.
The address is one the IRS cannot process. International addresses are accepted, but they need to be formatted in a way the system handles, and a mailbox service in a format that does not parse causes silent failure.
A resubmission was sent while the original was still in the queue. Understandable and counterproductive. Duplicate applications for the same entity land behind the original and can create a second EIN, which is a worse problem than waiting. If you have not heard back, chase rather than resend.
The application was sent on a channel with a longer queue. Processing times differ by route and by IRS workload, and neither is under your control or your provider’s.
The practical implication: an “expedited EIN” sold as a feature is expedited handling of your paperwork, not a faster IRS. It can genuinely help by getting the form right first time, which is where the weeks are actually lost. It cannot move you up a queue.
The order this fits into
The EIN sits in the middle of a sequence, and doing it out of order is what causes most of the frustration.
Formation first. The entity must exist and be findable in the state’s records. Applying before the filing is complete produces a rejection.
EIN second. With the exact registered name, the correct responsible party, and an address that works. This is the step with unpredictable timing, which means it should start as early as possible and nothing downstream should be scheduled against a promised date.
Banking third. Every account application will want the EIN confirmation. This is the practical reason the EIN is on the critical path: nothing about the business can operate until it exists.
Everything else after. Payment processors, marketplaces, supplier accounts: all of them want the EIN, and several want it to match the entity name and the bank account precisely.
The mistake to avoid is committing to a client, a launch or a supplier on the assumption that the EIN will arrive by a particular date. It usually does. Building a plan that fails if it does not is unnecessary risk for no gain.
ITIN is a different thing, and you may not need it
Frequently conflated, so it is worth separating clearly.
The EIN belongs to the entity. It is the company’s federal tax number and it is what you need for banking, for the annual filings and for most business relationships.
The ITIN belongs to a person. It is a personal taxpayer identification number for individuals who are not eligible for an SSN and who have a US filing or reporting requirement.
For a straightforward non-resident-owned LLC with no US-connected activity, the EIN is generally what you need and the ITIN is not required for the business to function. Where an ITIN becomes relevant is a personal US filing obligation, certain treaty claims, and, for a different reason entirely, building personal US credit, where it is what opens most consumer products.
The reason this matters practically: providers sometimes bundle an ITIN into a package on the assumption you need one. Ask what it is for in your specific case. If the answer is vague, you may be paying for something with no purpose in your situation.
Whether your circumstances create a personal US filing requirement, and therefore an ITIN requirement, depends on your facts and should be confirmed with a US tax adviser rather than assumed either way.
After the EIN letter arrives
Keep the CP 575 notice. It is the only original confirmation the IRS issues, banks ask for it, and replacing it means requesting a 147C letter by phone.
Then check that everything agrees. Your EIN letter, your operating agreement, your formation certificate and your bank application should tell one story about who owns the company, where it is, and what it does. Mismatched documents are one of the most common reasons a bank application gets declined: the full list is in what to do after a bank rejection.
If you would rather have this handled end to end (formation, EIN, banking file and the first year of compliance), that is what we do. And if you are not yet sure a US LLC is the right structure for where you live, take the assessment first: it is eleven questions, and one of the possible answers is that you should not form one.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an ITIN before applying for an EIN?
No. This is the single most expensive myth in the process. Line 7b of Form SS-4 accepts the word FOREIGN where a US taxpayer would put an SSN or ITIN, and the IRS issues the EIN on that basis. Chasing an ITIN first can add months for no reason.
Can I apply online?
Only if the responsible party has an SSN or ITIN. The IRS online assistant validates that number, so as a non-resident without one you use fax, phone or mail instead.
How long does it really take?
By fax, about four business days when the form is right. By phone, the same call, if you get through. By mail, four to five weeks. Rejections and resubmissions are what stretch it, not the IRS queue.
Should I pay a service to get my EIN?
You are paying for the form being right the first time and for someone to handle the resubmission if it is not. The EIN itself is free from the IRS, and anyone charging you on the basis that it is hard to obtain is selling the difficulty, not the service.