How to check your ITIN status — application and expiration

There is no online tool to check the status of an ITIN application. The IRS does not offer a “Where’s My ITIN” tracker the way it offers Where’s My Refund — its ITIN pages list exactly two ways to learn your status: wait for a notice in the mail, or call. The IRS tells applicants to allow 7 weeks for notification about the application, stretching to 9-11 weeks if you applied during tax season (January 15 to April 30) or from overseas. Inside that window, calling rarely helps, because the application may simply not be in the system yet. Outside it, the phone is your tool. Here is the full sequence — the timeline, the numbers to call, what each IRS notice means, and how to check whether an ITIN you already have is still active.

The timeline: 7 weeks, or 9-11 in peak season

The clock starts when the IRS receives your Form W-7 packet at the Austin ITIN Operation (P.O. Box 149342, Austin, TX 78714-9342), or when a Taxpayer Assistance Center or Certifying Acceptance Agent forwards it. The IRS’s published windows:

  • 7 weeks — standard processing, outside tax season, filed from inside the United States.
  • 9-11 weeks — if you applied between January 15 and April 30, or applied from abroad.

Most applicants file the W-7 attached to a tax return, which means the return does not begin processing until the ITIN is assigned — so a peak-season ITIN application effectively adds those 9-11 weeks to the front of your refund timeline. If you are preparing a first-time application, start with how to apply for an ITIN and the required documents, because document problems are the most common reason the timeline blows past these windows.

How to check by phone once the window passes

If the published window has passed and nothing has arrived in the mail, call:

  • 800-829-1040 — from inside the United States, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.
  • 267-941-1000 — from outside the United States (not toll-free).
  • 800-829-4059 — TTY/TDD.

Have on hand: a copy of your Form W-7, the date you mailed it (or the date your acceptance agent submitted it), your full name and date of birth exactly as written on the application, and your mailing address from line 2 of the W-7. The representative can tell you whether the application is in process, whether a notice was issued, and what was decided. If you used a Certifying Acceptance Agent, they can also follow up on the application they submitted.

The three answers you can get: CP565, CP566, CP567

Every ITIN application resolves into one of three notices. Knowing which one you are holding tells you exactly what to do next (for other IRS letters, see our IRS notice code guide):

CP565 — ITIN assigned. This is approval. The notice shows your new ITIN for use on federal tax documents. Check that the name and date of birth on the notice are correct; if they are, no response is required — keep the notice permanently, since it is your proof of assignment. If anything is wrong, call the number on the notice (or 267-941-1000 from abroad). And if you ever become eligible for and receive a Social Security number, stop using the ITIN and notify the IRS so the records are merged — see the ITIN-to-SSN guide.

CP566 — more information needed. The application is stalled, not rejected: you may have sent an incomplete form or the wrong documents. You have 45 days from the date of the notice to respond with the response form and the corrected or missing items — including certified English translations where requested. Miss the 45 days and the IRS rejects the application, and you start over with a new W-7.

CP567 — application rejected. The IRS rejected the application because you may not be eligible, your documents were invalid, or you never replied to a request for more information. The fix is a complete reapplication: a new Form W-7, correct supporting documents, and a copy of your tax return attached. If the return was filed with the rejected application and a refund is due, the refund waits until a new application succeeds. A Taxpayer Assistance Center or Certifying Acceptance Agent can review the packet before you resubmit.

Your original documents: the 60-day rule

If you mailed original documents — a passport, birth certificate — the IRS returns them to the mailing address on line 2 of your Form W-7 within 60 days. If 60 days pass without them, call the numbers above and ask for a trace. This is a separate clock from the application decision: documents can come back before or after the CP565/CP567 arrives. Applicants who cannot part with a passport for two months should use a Certifying Acceptance Agent or a Taxpayer Assistance Center, which verify originals on the spot so nothing is mailed.

Checking whether an existing ITIN is still active

There is also no online tool for this — but there is a rule you can apply yourself. An ITIN expires when it is not used on a US federal tax return for any 3 consecutive tax years, and the expiration takes effect on December 31 after the third year of non-use. So if your ITIN last appeared on a return for tax year 2022 and was not used for 2023, 2024, or 2025, it expired on December 31, 2025. If you have filed with it in the last three years, it is active.

The IRS also mails Notice CP48 to taxpayers whose ITIN is expiring but was used on a return within the past three years — treat it as your renewal trigger. (An older notice, Letter 5821, served the same purpose during the 2016-2020 middle-digit expiration program under the PATH Act; that program is finished, so today expiration is driven by the three-year non-use rule.) If you cannot reconstruct your filing history, call 800-829-1040 and ask whether the ITIN is active.

Filing with an expired ITIN does not bounce the return, but it slows processing, and you may not be able to claim certain credits until the ITIN is renewed — which can mean a reduced refund or penalties and interest. An expired ITIN may still be used on information returns such as Forms 1099, so renewal is only required when the number will go on a federal tax return. To renew, file Form W-7 with the “Renew an existing ITIN” box checked — the steps are in our ITIN renewal guide. Renewal runs on the same 7-week / 9-11-week clock as a new application, so renew before tax season, not during it.

Last verified: 2026-06-11. Sources: IRS — ITIN overview, IRS — how to apply for an ITIN, IRS — how to renew an ITIN, IRS — CP566 notice.

General information — not tax advice. Processing windows are IRS-published figures and can stretch during peak season; for case-specific help, a Certifying Acceptance Agent or VITA site can follow up on applications they submitted.