1040-NR refund not received? What to do, step by step

What do you enter in Where's My Refund?

Enter your SSN or ITIN, your filing status, the tax year and the whole-dollar refund on line 35a of Form 1040-NR (2025 form and 2026 draft). The 2025 Form 1040 instructions ask for "the exact whole dollar amount of your refund."

1. Tax year: 2026 for a 2026 return, not the year you mail it.
2. Filing status: Single, or Married filing separately if you checked that box.

The tool updates once a day (usually at night) and shows three stages: Return Received, Refund Approved and Refund Sent. The 2025 Form 1040-NR instructions point to it (IRS.gov/Refunds) and to the automated line 800-829-1954.

What does the tracker's answer tell you to do?

Each answer points to a next step, and the IRS says it normally writes first by US mail.

Did the IRS ask you to verify your identity?

A CP5071 or CP5447 series notice or a 4883C or 5747C letter means the IRS holds your return until you prove who you are and that you filed it. Until it hears from you, the IRS says it cannot "process your tax return, issue refunds, or credit any overpayments".

1. Check that the letter is real: the IRS says to search its notices and letters page for the number.
2. Use irs.gov/verifyreturn only for a CP5071 series notice or Letter 5447C, and type it yourself: a misspelled link can take you to a harmful site.
3. Have the letter, the Form 1040-NR it names, any earlier return and your W-2s ready.
4. For a 5747C visit, bring a "valid federal or state government-issued picture identification" and a second document from the IRS list, such as current school records. The IRS does not say whether a foreign passport counts or how to verify from abroad, so ask when you book.
5. Once you verify, you need not file Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, unless the IRS asks; for a 4883C or 5747C, it says not to file it.
6. After you verify online, wait 2 to 3 weeks to check the tracker; processing can take up to 9 weeks.

The IRS pages for these letters do not say whether ITIN holders or filers abroad can pass the online sign-in. If you cannot, use the notice's other route or call its number.

Did an IRS letter ask for bank details or more information?

A CP53E notice means the IRS is holding your refund until it has a bank account to pay it into. Other letters ask for a missing form or explain a changed amount.

A CP53E gives you one chance, and IRS staff cannot take bank details by phone. For trouble with the Online Account, the IRS points to IRS.help.id.me.

Was the refund sent to a closed or wrong account?

Ask your bank first: a deposit it rejects goes back to the IRS, which mails a CP53E notice. If the refund cannot be found, ask the IRS to trace it.

1. Ask your bank whether an IRS deposit arrived or was returned. If returned, answer the CP53E (step 5).
2. To learn where a deposit went, start a trace in Where's My Refund? or on the automated line 800-829-1954. If your numbers were right but the deposit failed, call an agent at 800-829-1040.
3. If a wrong number sent it to someone else's account, contact that bank. If 5 calendar days pass with no deposit, file Form 3911. Banks have up to 90 days to answer the IRS, a trace can take up to 120 days, and the IRS "cannot compel the bank" to return it.

Mail or fax it to the Refund Inquiry Unit for your current state, listed on About Form 3911. If you live abroad: Austin Refund Inquiry Unit, 3651 S Interregional Hwy 35, Mail Stop 6542 AUSC, Austin, TX 78741 (fax 855-203-7538).

A paper check still missing 4 weeks after its issue date can be traced in Where's My Refund?

Have you moved or left the US?

Send the IRS your new address on Form 8822: IRS Topic 157 says to notify it "to ensure you receive any tax refunds or IRS correspondence".

1. On Form 8822 (Rev. February 2021), check line 1, which names Form 1040-NR.
2. Lines 3a and 3b take your name and SSN. With only an ITIN, Topic 157 lists two other ways: a phone call, or a signed letter (to an address in the 1040-NR instructions) with your name, ITIN and both addresses.
3. Line 6a is your old address, line 7 the new one (with country and postal code if abroad). Sign Part II; do not attach it to a return.
4. Mail it to the address on page 2 for your old address, for example: Illinois, Massachusetts or New York to Kansas City, MO 64999-0023; California to Ogden, UT 84201-0023; Florida or Texas (or a foreign country) to Austin, TX 73301-0023. Topic 157 says a change generally takes 45 days.

Line 35e of the 2026 draft Form 1040-NR takes a foreign address for a check. But the IRS generally stopped paper refund checks after September 30, 2025. It has not said it will mail one abroad (leaving the US checklist).

When should you call the IRS or the Taxpayer Advocate?

Call the IRS once more than 6 weeks have passed since you mailed the return, when its staff can research a paper return's refund (2025 Form 1040 instructions). Ask the Taxpayer Advocate Service for help if the delay causes you financial hardship.

1. In the US, call 800-829-1040. From abroad, call 267-941-1000 (not toll-free), Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time; this international line handles "overpayment status".
2. Have your Form 1040-NR and mailing receipt ready, plus any IRS letter.
3. Do not mail another copy unless the IRS asks (2025 Form 1040 instructions).

The Taxpayer Advocate Service is free, but its procedures (IRM 13.1.7, effective March 9, 2026) generally exclude a paper-return delay alone. With financial hardship, it takes the case 60 days after the IRS received your return. If the IRS has no record of it 6 months after mailing, TAS staff are told to recommend filing again and keeping proof of mailing.

1. On Form 911 (Rev. June 2026), write 1040-NR on line 10 and 2026 on line 11. On line 12a describe the problem and the date you first contacted the IRS; on line 12b, the help you want. Sign line 13a.
2. Send it a way page 3 lists (email is not encrypted, the form warns).

3. Send one Form 911 only. With no reply in 30 days, email "No Response" as the subject line.

Is your state refund late too?

Each state tracks its own refunds: use its tool with the refund from your state return, not your federal one. New York's 2025 IT-203 instructions call line 68 "the amount you will need to enter when you check the status of your refund."

Each state's boxes and waits are on its own page: Illinois, California, New York, Massachusetts.

F1TaxReturn's dashboard tracker fills in each agency's boxes from your return (all but your SSN) and can email you when to check. We never see your status.

What to do next

1. Enter your mailing date in the refund tracker.
2. Four weeks after mailing, check Where's My Refund? with line 35a; once more than 6 weeks have passed, call 800-829-1040 (267-941-1000 from abroad).
3. Answer every IRS letter by its deadline: 30 days for a CP53E, 20 days for a Letter 12C.
4. If you moved, mail Form 8822. Keep your US bank account open until the refund arrives.
5. If your return was due Thursday, April 15, 2027 and you filed on time, the IRS owes interest on a refund of W-2 withholding not issued by Sunday, May 30, 2027.