Mailed in tax returns typically take 8-12 weeks to process Nothing about this tax season is typical, however, so you can expect a much longer process. Also, the child tax credit is not yet approved. The president still has to sign it before it is the law. We all expect he will, but it isn't law just yet. It will take a few weeks for the IRS to go through the law and implement policies and procedures and get payments set up. It is likely they will go with the most current data they have on file for you at that time - it really could go either way if you recently filed by mail
