VRN Certificate Not Received After 60 Days – Need Assistance

Dear HMRC Community, I hope someone here can guide me with this situation. I applied for VAT registration for my business under the Non-Established Taxable Persons (NETP) scheme as we are based in Dubai. My application was approved by HMRC, but I have not yet received my VAT Registration Number (VRN) certificate. Despite contacting the VAT Registration team at vrs.newregistrations@hmrc.gov.uk, they confirmed that the VRN certificate was sent to my address on August 22, 2024. When I informed them that it had not arrived, they resent the certificate, but unfortunately, it has still not reached my office. It has now been over 40 days since the initial confirmation, and I urgently need the certificate for my business operations. Here’s what I’ve already done: 1. Confirmed and provided my correct address in Dubai to HMRC. 2. Reached out to vrs.newregistrations@hmrc.gov.uk, who confirmed the certificate was resent (email correspondence attached). As an NETP, I understand there might be postal challenges, but this delay is significantly affecting my ability to operate. Can I access my VRN certificate online, or is there another way to resolve this issue? Any advice or guidance would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

It is not clear from your post, have you got your VAT number but you are wanting a hardcopy of the VAT certificate or do you not know your VAT number and do not have a hardcopy VAT certificate either? The issue seems to be with the postal address in Dubai. Are you sure it is capable of receiving post and if it is, are there are any reasons why post is not being passed onto you? HMRC do not give VAT numbers over the telephone, HMRC will always send the VAT certificate in the post as this "confirms" the address is genuine, these methods are part of HMRC's security tests. so HMRC are unlikely to bypass these security tests by sending you an email with your VAT number on. If you do know your VAT number (but not got a VAT certificate), you can access the VAT certificate via your government gateway/portal, you will have set this gateway up when registering for VAT and you need the gateway in order to file VAT returns, but if you don't have your VAT number at all, then you can't use the gateway to access your VAT certificate. Not sure what else HMRC can do here, for one letter to be lost in the post in unfortunate, to lose two letters indicates either bad luck or something wrong with the postal address.

Hi,
Sorry you are having this issue with your VAT registration Certificate.
If the business has only an address overseas then this address is the only address where we can send this and unfortunately you will be unable to see it online.
Please contact our VAT team so that we can liaise with our Registration Team to resolve this for you as quickly as possible.
Please see below:
VAT: general enquiries
Thank you.