Be patient - ITINs are usually issued within 7 weeks of receiving your application, but this is hardly a "usual" time at the IRS.
From the IRS article How do I apply for an ITIN?: "You will receive a letter from the IRS assigning your tax identification number usually within seven weeks if you qualify for an ITIN and your application is complete".
This tax season, the IRS has been running behind on practically everything they do - processing returns, sending out refunds, processing payments and, it appears, issuing ITINs.
Why is this happening? Tax season (normally Jan 1 - Apr 15) is the busiest time of the year for the IRS. This year, they have also had to deal with major changes in the tax law, including ones that were passed retroactively in the past two weeks. They are also struggling with the same COVID workplace and workforce issues the rest of the country has encountered.
According to the Washington Post (Mar 12, 2021):
Nearly 7 million tax filers are in limbo and facing substantial delays in getting refunds so far this tax filing season, as the Internal Revenue Service struggles to keep up with the demands of issuing stimulus checks and implementing myriad tax code changes from coronavirus relief packages, including the one President Biden signed this week.
There are 6.7 million returns that have not yet been processed, more than three times the number in the same period last year, when fewer than 2 million returns faced delayed processing, IRS data shows.
The delays are largely a result of a year’s worth of extraordinary stimulus measures that have created more complicated tax returns for millions of Americans. The IRS was already straining to adjust after the December stimulus package. The newest package, the American Rescue Plan, adds even more tasks for the agency, including sending out another round of one-time payments, making changes to tax rules to help unemployed workers and paying out a new child tax benefit.
