# Checking Processing Status of filed US Taxes



## JpnExpat (May 6, 2020)

Greetings! Long time reader but first time posting to this excellent forum. 

I am a US expat living in Japan for many years. I have filed US taxes every year. I never owe anything thanks to foreign income exclusion and likewise do not get a refund. I cannot e-file because I have an NRA spouse (I file as married filing separately) with no US source income & no SSN or ITIN. Thus, I always paper file each year by snail mail. Have not filed 2019 yet (will do soon) but it is the same situation.

I wonder, what is the best method to verify after filing that the return was fully processed? 

My browsing of the forum has shown suggestions to check your IRS transcript online after some time has passed after postal mailing as a way to verify. However I was not able to actually sign up for online transcript access.

Checking the IRS site help regarding signing up for the tool, I found this notice about foreign addresses:



> Enter your city, county, province or other jurisdiction in the ‘City’ field. There’s no field for Zip/Postal code. If you have an international mailing address, the only IRS.gov tool for which you can register is the Online Payment Agreement and you must request an activation code by postal mail. Generally, taxpayers or tax professionals with international addresses will be unable to register for Get Transcript Online, View Your Tax Account, Get an Identity Protection PIN or e-Services tools for tax professionals.


So it seems I am out of luck? Is there any other way to check transcripts rather than just sending in a postal request for them? Or perhaps some way to actually sign up for the online tool despite it being "generally" unavailable for sign up with international addresses? Or some other method to verify the return was actually processed?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

If you aren't getting a refund and don't owe any tax I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not your return has been processed. Apparently, there is a hold on processing all incoming returns, given the big "economic impact" payments going out. But the only tool I know of that is actually available to overseas taxpayers is the "Where's my refund?" tool. I suppose you could try that one, indicating that the amount of refund you're expecting is $0 and see if it will at least show you that your return has been received.


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## JpnExpat (May 6, 2020)

Bevdeforges said:


> If you aren't getting a refund and don't owe any tax I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not your return has been processed. Apparently, there is a hold on processing all incoming returns, given the big "economic impact" payments going out. But the only tool I know of that is actually available to overseas taxpayers is the "Where's my refund?" tool. I suppose you could try that one, indicating that the amount of refund you're expecting is $0 and see if it will at least show you that your return has been received.


Thank you for your advice! I gave it a try. The tool would not accept zero for a refund amount and instructed me if the refund was less than 1$ to enter 1$ as the refund amount. So I tried that, but in the end the tool couldn't succeed in identifying me. 

I suppose I will just have to settle with sending via a postal method that allows me to get confirmation of receipt. That way I can at least know the return arrived to the IRS. 

Thanks again!


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