A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus initiates a call attempt in an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) based on a dialed number, the dialed number including an emergency number. The apparatus receives a session initiation protocol (SIP) message in response to the call attempt. The apparatus determines in response to the SIP message whether to retry the call attempt as a normal call in a circuit-switched (CS) domain for an operator or as an emergency call in the CS domain for the operator. In an aspect, the determining is based at least in part on either an indication in the SIP message or on a characteristic of the operator.