U.S. Passport Attestation for Obtaining an ITIN

What is ITIN?

It is a term for individuals staying as a resident in the USA. Immigrants in the USA are obliged to pay a certain amount of tax too. Regardless of the status of the immigration, documented or undocumented immigrants have to get their ITIN issued.

ITIN stands for Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. This number is useful for tax-processing purposes and it is issued by the IRS i.e. Internal Revenue Service. It ensures that people including unofficial immigrants pay taxes irrespective of they do not have SSN i.e. Social Security Number.

This ITIN allows the IRS to get money in the form of these taxes to the federal government which may not be possible for the government.

ITIN was created for tax purposes by the IRS in July 1996. It allows foreign nationals, immigrants (documented and undocumented) to comply with the U.S tax laws and for those who are not qualified for the Social Security Number.

Also, understand that the Individual Tax Identification Number is different from Social Security Number. This ITIN number is a 9 digit number. It starts with the number 9 and generally has a 7 or 8 number in the fourth digit.

The example can be like this- 9XX-7X-XXXX.

Almost all immigrants have this number. Even those who do not stay as lawful immigrants can also obtain an ITIN.

Following is the list of eligible people who should take ITIN as per the U.S Tax law-

1. A Businessperson in the U.S who is a non-resident national and is receiving the taxable amount of profit from the U.S business and is living in another country.
2. ITIN must be issued to a foreign national student who is a resident of the United States based on the number of days stayed in the U.S.
3. A dependent or spouse of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
4. A dependent or spouse of a foreign national on a temporary visa.
5. One needs to know that ITIN does not provide work authorization and legal status.
6. Also, it does not provide legal immigration status and it is not an authorization to be used to prove that you are a legal resident of the country.
7. The ITIN cannot give work authorization and cannot be used to prove work authorization on an I-19 Form.
8. Payment of tax as p[er the U.S tax law is mandatory for the ITIN holders.

Why ITIN?

ITIN builds the tax base and lets more people contribute to the tax system. Also, ITIN holders are not eligible for all the taxpayer’s benefits. Such as they are not eligible for things like Social Security Benefits or the Earned Income Tax Credits(EITC).

But there are exclusions as well. If in case the same person becomes a permanent resident that person becomes eligible to get Social Security in the future.

However, it all depended on the amount he or she is eligible to receive the other financial benefits. ITIN allows some holders to get the benefits from Child Tax Credit

What Purposes Does the ITIN Serve?

1. Interest-bearing Bank Account- Any ITIN holder who does not have SSN can open an interest-bearing bank account.
2. Driving License Issuance- Instead of SSN, some states allowed to use of the ITIN number for the driving license purpose (driving license and driver’s permit and state identification card)
3. Considered as Residency Proof- In some scenarios an immigrant needs to show how long he/she has been staying in the U.S to get the tax return filed. ITIN can help in such cases.

Does ITIN Is Used to Monitor the Undocumented Immigrants in the Country?

No. The ITIN is not a tool for immigration enforcement. This process is designed only for tax payment.

Also, the private information of the applicant is not shared with the immigration enforcement agencies by the IRS. U.S tax system assures the taxpayer’s privacy because taxpayers have to provide a lot of private information to the IRS and maintaining the privacy of it is crucial for the successful implementation of the program.

According to section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, the IRS is not authorized to disclose the taxpayers’ information to government agencies.

Only the departments such as Treasury departments are excluded as the information need to be provided for the investigations pertaining to tax administrations or in case of the court order

The Process to Apply for ITIN

1) Filling the form of W-7 and submitting it to the IRS with the complete tax return documents.

2)When the application is approved ITIN is shared through an email. The applicant need not go in person to collect it.

3) Applicants need to submit some documents they are as follows-

• Passport of the Applicant (stand-alone document) *
• National Identification Card (must show photo, name, current address, date of birth, and expiration date)
• U.S. Driver's License
• Civil Birth Certificate (required for dependents under 18 years of age)
• Foreign Driver's License
• U.S. State Identification Card
• Foreign Voter's Registration Card
• U.S. Military Identification Card
• Foreign Military Identification Card
• Visa
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) photo identification
• Medical Records (dependents only - under 6)
• School Records (dependents only - under 14, under 18 if a student)

These documents are reverted to the applicant in the span of 60 days of receipt and are processing the W7 form.

Various agents from IRS acceptance and taxpayer Assistance carters help the applicants in the process.

According to the 2015’s rule and the amendment in the rule of 2012 guidance from the IRS, all the ITINs issued before December 31, 2012, need to be revalidated every five years.

In case another person possesses the ITIN but does not use it for three consecutive years, it will automatically expire and revalidation is required in such cases.

Passport Attestation to Get ITIN From USA

It is necessary to get your passport copy attested from the Ministry of External Affairs of the country. It proves that the copy is authentic in adherence to the original document. It is the most important document in processing the ITIN application.

And passport attestation is one of the significant procedures of legalization in which an attestation stamp from the designated authority is acquired. It needs to be done from the certificate-issued country i.e. India.

The act of attestation is accepted to declare the genuineness of a document which is performed by the issuing authority first and then other authorities. Passport copies attestation is asked for multiple purposes and it is not particular, it will be changing from a need to need and country to country.

Getting an ITIN in the US is one of the most common reasons for passport attestation. Another example is that in a few countries it is asked to issue attested copies of passport along with a valid driving license to drive in a foreign country.

PEC attestation services have 6+ years of experience in getting quick apostille and attestation services for passports and many other commercials, personal and educational documents too.