ITINs are trickier. They come on a CP 565 Notice from the IRS, which looks like a form letter from a robot who’s mildly annoyed at you. If you lost it, you can’t just waltz into a bank and ask. You have to fill out Form W-7 and mail it with your passport, which means trusting the postal service with your identity. I once mailed my passport and spent three weeks imagining it being used as a coaster in a foreign post office. Spoiler: it arrived fine.
4 Ways to Find a Federal Tax ID Number - wikiHow
You can also get help from a Certified Acceptance Agent—basically a tax pro who’s been vetted by the IRS. They’ll verify your documents in person, which beats sending your birth certificate to a PO Box in Kansas. The whole process takes about seven weeks, which is exactly long enough to forget why you needed the number in the first place.
