After what felt like forever, I just got the certificate in the Mail today April 5th, 2026🥳 here are the dates, as I know the waiting can be nerve wrecking.

I submitted form 23 back in February 4th.

2-3 weeks later I started checking the website everyday to see if my name showed up. No luck. 

Started seeing people on Reddit receive theirs extremely fast. Didnt want to call the IRS number as it hadn’t been 60 days yet. Also, I was scared to get a mean employee that might push my application longer out of spite😅.

March 4 I had my wife email the IRS to verify my EA status to see if it’s been approved.

March 17, status granted - unbeknownst to me.  

March 18 Decided to call them. Was extremely pleasant-sounding. Was told to wait on-hold while he did more research. 3 minutes later he tells me my application got approved. Got my EA # and expiration date and to wait 12-20 days for the Mail certificate.

March 19, IRS replied back to my wife via email confirming that I was an active enrolled agent.

March 26, my name shows up on the downloadable excel list of Active Enrolled Agents. However, I didn’t check this list until April 4th. 

April 5th. 📬 certificate in the Mail. However my name still does not show up in the directory. It does say it may take up to 4 weeks so maybe next week or 2. 

Looks like it took almost exactly 60 days from application. 41 days for the application to get approved. And 19 days to get it in the Mail. Hang in there if you’re still waiting on yours and best of luck 👍🏼

Form 23 - Certificate in the Mail timeline.