Quick answer
Keep the Pay.gov payment confirmation, uploaded copy record, complete Form 8802 application copy, mail or fax proof if required, and any IRS correspondence. Tax Paperwork does not pay, upload, mail, fax, submit, or monitor Form 8802.
Source and advice boundary
Use the linked IRS Form 8802, Form 6166, instructions, and Pay.gov pages as official source starting points. This guide is education-only and does not provide tax, legal, treaty, residency, certification, payment-channel, or filing-channel advice.
Proof to keep
- Pay.gov payment confirmation or receipt number.
- The copy of Form 8802 uploaded during the Pay.gov payment flow, if the current IRS instructions require it.
- The complete Form 8802 application packet sent to the IRS residency certification function by the required channel.
- Mailing or fax proof when the application must be sent outside the Pay.gov payment flow.
- Any later IRS questions, Form 6166 correspondence, rejection, or correction request.
Payment is not the same as certification
The IRS Form 6166 and Form 8802 materials describe application, payment, and processing steps. A payment confirmation is not itself Form 6166 and does not prove the IRS accepted every application fact.
Applicants should keep the payment and application records together because later questions may require both.
When to stop
- Treaty-residency uncertainty, business entity applicants, fiscal-year facts, prior-year certification questions, or foreign withholding disputes.
- Any question about eligibility for U.S. residency certification or whether Form 6166 will satisfy a foreign requester.
Current Tax Paperwork boundary
Tax Paperwork is not tax, legal, accounting, entity-structuring, treaty, fiduciary, valuation, or filing-channel advice. It is not IRS.gov and does not submit, transmit, fax, mail, upload, pay, or monitor IRS paperwork.