How long an EIN really takes without an SSN.

Search for how long an EIN takes as a foreign founder and the published numbers will not agree with each other. One source says a matter of days, another says weeks, another says months. None of them are necessarily wrong; they are describing different routes through the same process.

Why the estimates contradict each other

A US applicant with an SSN can get an EIN online, instantly, through the IRS's own assistant. That is the fast case almost every generic article about EINs is actually describing, and it is not available to you as a foreign founder with no SSN or ITIN. Once that route is off the table, you are choosing between phone and fax, and each behaves differently.

The single biggest variable is not the route

It is whether the SS-4 is correct the first time. A rejected or incomplete fax does not join a queue for a fast retry; it goes back to the end of the line, often as a new submission days or weeks later. Line 7b, the entity type on line 9a, and the reason for applying on line 10 are the three fields most likely to cause a rejection when filled out by someone unfamiliar with the foreign-applicant version of this form.

A realistic range to actually plan around

For a correctly completed fax submission, a few business days to roughly two weeks is a reasonable expectation in a normal processing period. Build in slack rather than planning around the fastest number you have seen quoted, and treat the EIN as the thing that has to arrive before banking, Stripe, or anything money-related can move forward.