I'm a Canadian who had a J1 Intern visa in the USA in 2019 . I mailed my 1040NR forms in mid-March (7 weeks ago) but the IRS Refund Tracker has no record of my filing and still returns the message, "We cannot provide any information about your refund". The help lines are all shut down due to coronavirus.
Is it risky to paper file a second return (this time with a tracked envelope) or is this a common experience for taxpayers right now? Any recommendations on what to do here?
The IRS has not been processing any paper returns for the last 6 weeks ... your return is probably sitting in a truck somewhere with millions of other unopened envelopes ... so all you can do is wait until they finally catch up.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/irs-mail-trailers-covid/index.html
Do not mail a second return. The IRS is currently not processing any mailed returns so it would just be put in a pile unopened and then slow things does down when the IRS starts processing mailed returns again because they now have to look at both of your returns and figure out why they have two of them. The IRS is also not taking any phone calls. There is nothing you can do right now but wait.
When the IRS does start processing mailed returns, you can track the status of your refund using the IRS tracking web site:
| https://www.irs.gov/refunds |