ITIN for Foreign Spouse?

[Sam Wilson]

Hi LiCR,

[Note: I planned to post something about this when it was all much fresher in my mind from endlessly studying the IRS rules.a couple of months ago, but I got distracted by life and am just now returning to this subject.  I reserve the right to amend my remarks if I misspeak or do a poor job of recalling details about some of these issues!]

As the income tax filing deadline approaches in los EE.UU, this year I am planning to file jointly with my Tica wife and claim a deduction for my Tica kid.  I don't know why I've never done this before.  I actually did try one year, but got foiled by stupid online tax software that wouldn't let me do it so I gave up.  This year I'm working more valiente about actually trying to file a US tax return as: Married Couple Filing Jointly.  The key to filing with a foreign spouse who does not have a US Social Security # is to obtain an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.)  One can file as Married Filing Separately with a foreign spouse who has neither Social Security # nor ITIN in which case where one puts the spouse's SS# on the forms, one simply writes "NRA" (Non-resident Alien.)  But in our case, we are gearing up for trying to get Lawful Permanent Residency for my Tica spouse (aka "Green Card") and for that we need all the documentary evidence of matrimonial bonafides we can get -- Married Filing Jointly is great evidence for this. (More on this journey in a later post!)

So... to obtain an ITIN, you must complete IRS Form W-7, IRS Application for Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The Form W-7 requires documentation substantiating foreign/alien status and true identity for each individual. You may either mail the documentation, along with the Form W-7 to the IRS, present it at IRS walk-in offices, or process your application through an Acceptance Agent authorized by the IRS.  BTW, Form W-7(SP), Solicitud de Número de Identificación Personal del Contribuyente del Servicio de Impuestos Internos is available for use by Spanish speakers.

When applying for an ITIN, one must provide documentation to establish your identity and your connection to a foreign country (“foreign status”.)  You must submit original documents, or certified copies of these documents from the issuing agency, that support the information provided on Form W-7. A certified copy of a document is one that the original issuing agency provides and certifies as an exact copy of the original document and contains an official stamped seal from the agency.  There are 13 possible documents that can be used for this:

If you submit an original valid passport or a certified copy from the issuing agency, you don’t need to submit any other documents from the table, unless the passport is for a dependent and it doesn’t include a date of entry into the United States.  Of course, I expect getting official certified copies of documents with an official seal in Costa Rica to be very problematic and perhaps damn near impossible. So we really, really want to try to use our Tica passports which do show valid entry into the USA on tourist visas years ago.  If you don't want to mail your original documents (like a passport) to the IRS, you can either apply in person at an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center or with a CAA (Certified Acceptance Agent.)  Acceptance Agents are entities who are authorized by the IRS to assist applicants in obtaining ITINs. They review the applicant's documentation and forward the completed Form W-7 to the IRS for processing.  IRS pub 4393 for tax preparers says:

Un CAA puede verificar las copias originales y certificadas de los documentos de identificación de la agencia emisora para los solicitantes primarios y secundarios de los ITIN, a excepción de la tarjeta de identificación militar extranjera, y ahora puede certificar los pasaportes y certificados de nacimiento de los dependientes. 

As luck would have it, there is actually an Acceptance Agent in Costa Rica listed on the IRS website.  I don't know yet if they are a "Certified" Acceptance Agency or not.  I'll probably call them next week and ask.  It they are, that may be easy ticket...

IRS :: Acceptance Agents - Costa Rica

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/acceptance-agents-costa-rica

US Tax Group Inc

2 Blocks North of the US Embassy

San Jose, Costa Rica 10109

786 206-9473

  

So, my question to the group is...  Have any of you ever tried filing as Married Filing Jointly with your foreign spouse or with foreign dependents who do not have a Social Security #?  Have any of you ever helped a non-(US)-resident alien obtain an ITIN?

Any of you know anything about the above listed US Tax Group Inc folks?

The USA bureaucracies make Tico agencies seem like child's play!

--

Sam, trying to digest volumes of USA bureaucratic rules AND maintain my Pura Vida...

[gene french]

no...thank god...or karma...

still trying to decide which bathroom i need to use...

ahhh...to heck with it...i will just tinkle outside under the guanacaste tree...

good luck with that mister wilson...

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--
Pura Vida
Gene French

Virus-free.www.avg.com

[Sam Wilson]

Good morning, Mr. French!

> no...thank god...or karma...

Oooh!  That would be a great discussion... I love a good discussion about Intelligent Design.

> no

Well, I'm trying not to be a tax cheat scofflaw.  Plus did I mention saving money with deductions?

However in my case, it is entirely driven by my desire to obtain US citizenship for my youngest Tica daughter.  She will soon be 12 years old and I need to do this before she turns 18.  The US immigration system is SO broken that even the most basic easiest thing to do (getting Legal Permanent Residency for foreign spouse of US citizen or foreign minor child of US citizen) is now taking 14 months for 80% of the cases.  Often much, much longer for the rest.  If we don't get this done before she turns 18, it becomes a waiting line nightmare that I suspect most have no idea about... I was stunned when I learned how far behind USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Services) actually is in processing cases.  Every month they send out a "Visa Bulletin" (easy to google) which shows the application dates of the cases they are currently processing for any given visa category.

Categories:

    F1 - Unmarried Sons & Daughters (21 or older) of US Citizens
    F2A - Spouses & Children (under 21) of Permanent Residents
    F2B - Unmarried Sons & Daughters (21 or older) of Permanent Residents
    F3 - Married Sons & Daughters of US Citizens
    F4 - Brothers & Sisters of Adult US Citizens

Immigrant visas for foreign spouses and foreign minor (under 21) children of US citizens are not capped by law like the above categories and so there is only processing time (currently 80% of the cases are handled in 14 months.)  If we don't get our daughter in before she turns 18, she will be category F1, or if married, category F3.  Just now in March of 2024, USCIS is processing cases in category F1 that were filed and paid for in February of 2015... over 9 years ago!  F3 category cases that were filed in October of 2009 are just now being processed... 14+ years ago!  Immigration from the 4 countries listed above (China, India, Mexico, Philippines) is so overwhelming that they've got special per-category dates.  For example, the cases for Mexican brothers or sisters of US citizens that were filed in October of 2000 are just now being processed this month of March, 2024.  Over 23+ years AFTER their applications were filed and paid for. 

Of course more resources could be put into USCIS and the State Dept. to process applications faster and more efficiently, but the main cause of the long waits described above are law mandated caps on the different categories of visa applications.  This is something that Congress must address in order to fix the brokeness.  For example, the legal cap for F1 category visas (unmarried children of US citizens) and also for F3 category visas (married children of US citizens) is currently set at 23,400 per year.

I keep wondering how many people die while waiting for their visa applications to be processed...  The DMV sloth in Zootopia is a speed daemon compared to USCIS processing.  The worry about "chain migration" is a totally unfounded myth.  Here is an example of how it actually works:

1. Foreigner marries US citizen
2. That foreign spouse can become a Legal Permanent Resident (1.5-2+ years)
3. Foreign spouse can petition for minor children (F2A) or unmarried 21+ year old children (F2B) (4 or 9 years)

So that means that after marriage to a US citizen, it will take the foreign spouse 5+ years to get minor kids in and 10+ years to get unmarried olders kids in.  Legal Permanent Residents cannot petition for other family members (like uncles, brothers or sisters, or parents, etc.)  For a Legal Permanent Resident to get US citizenship it will take almost 5 years for a spouse of a US citizen or about 7 years otherwise.  Then that person as a US citizen has a few more options to bring in foreign family members (parents, children, or siblings... that's it!)  "Chain Migration" is more like "Trickle Migration."

If one doesn't roll the dice by petitioning for a foreign relative without an experienced lawyer, expect to spend $3000-$5000 per family member on top of around $1400 filing fees for out-of-country family member and $2000+ in filing fees if family member is already in the US with good "status" (good visa.)  A US citizen Tica I spoke with last month told me she paid $7000 for getting Legal Permanent Residency for her foreign spouse.

It has been a real eye-opener for me while I've been studying this process the past few months...

--

Sam, who will likely spend $10+ grand and 2 years to get US citizenship for our little girl.

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[gene french]

got your work cut out for you...

good luck!!!

thanks for the school project you are constructing for the kids...

good thing to do charlie brown!!!!

its all about the kids!!!

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[Don Hickman]

Hello guys!  Good to hear from you both.  Glad to know you´re still around.  We just returned from a month in the States. Froze my butt off!  But had to go watch the grandson play ball.  Good times.

I have nothing on  the subject at hand.  And I used to be an expert on tax law!!  That was then.  Today I know nothing.

Don

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[gene french]

good to see you can still sit up and eat oatmeal!!!

a visit here to see me and sam would be quite awakening for you!!!

lololol

hotel french is open for buzziness!!!

take care don...

gene

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[Sam Wilson]

Hi Don!

> I have nothing on  the subject at hand.  And I used to be an expert on tax law!!  That was then.  Today I know nothing.

Don't feel too bad about that... I've been studying US immigration and tax law like crazy for months now (sometimes hours/day) and today I still feel like I know nothing.  ;-)  So much of this stuff has been so piece-mealed together by special interests over decades that it seems to rarely makes any logical sense.  Too many of these immigration cases are denied for Arbitrary and Capricious reasons or sit unprocessed for years and that usually just results in more lawyer fees as appeals or Writs of Mandamus are filed in Federal Court.

I don't buy that legalese needs to be complex in order to unambiguously convey the meaning of complicated concepts.  Didn't Joe's old boss actually declare, some 50 odd years ago, that federal regulations should be written in “layman’s terms.”  What happened?!  Did job security for lawyers/politicians get in the way??  Sure it takes more talent to convey concepts in a straightforward way, but we have plenty of good examples of those who can do it with teachers and professors AND lawyers who are really good at their job versus those horrible communicators who perhaps know their stuff but are disadvantaged by not being able to communicate it effectively.

Okay... rant over.  As Gene regularly tells me, "It is what it is."  I certainly must work with the system as it currently is.  I have no intention of going Don Quixote on this...  jajaja.

--

Sam

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[Joe Harrison]

While I was debating with myself whether or not to offer a political response, Sam opened the door wide enough for me to sneak into the room with this:  Yes, for sure the entire system of immigration law is broken.  A bi-partisan attempt was almost ready for enactment (I don't know if this exact matter was addressed or not) but just before the House of Reps scheduled it for a vote, Trump made it abundantly clear that he wanted no action on immigration at this time so that he could make the broken system a major issue against Biden.  The House GOP majority has of course bowed to his demand, and in all probability there will be no legislation this year.  Biden will make every effort to counter this insanity by pointing to the now-dead bi-partisan deal, but Trump has a louder voice and no respect for facts.   (Unrelated factoid for any Hoosiers out there --Hi, Don! -- Former VP Mike Pence has just announced that he will NOT endorse or vote for his former boss!)

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[Sam Wilson]

Hi Joe,

I think you are talking about the appropriations bill out of the Senate in early February, right?  The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024.  I started reading the text of that bill after it was released, but I never finished all 370 pages... Here's a link to the text of the bill:

Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/emergency_national_security_supplemental_bill_text.pdf

The bill did address some illegal border crossing issues, but mostly was $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, and $10 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza.  Immigration-wise, it did have $2.3 billion allocated for refugee and entrant assistance and $440 million available for Immigration Judge Teams and $30 million for "necessary expenses relating to monitoring, recording, analyzing, public reporting on, and projecting migration flows [...]"  There was $6 billion for CBP operations and support which included $1.4 billion for FEMA to provide shelter and services.  CBP was also to get $758 million for procurement and improvements -- mostly for  acquisition and deployment of non-intrusive inspection technology.  ICE was to get $7.6 billion of which half was for increasing detention capacity and $2.5 billion was for increased removal flights.  USCIS (which is pertinent for our immigration matters) was to get almost $4 billion -- mostly for hiring.  I quit reading after around 100 pages... jajaja.

I believe this was the bill that had some sort of provisioning for closing the border whenever illegal crossings exceeded 5000 / day.  If that could be done, why wait for 5000?  That's what I wondered.  I believe there was also some question about Mexico cooperating in a "remain in Mexico" sort of deal.  It would be great to see some real immigration reform in the USA, but that bill didn't really sound like it.

That being said, my intention for US immigration purposes is to plan on filing before Jan 20th, 2025, assuming that Trump gets re-elected.  He definitely made immigration of all sorts tougher right off the bat the last time he got elected.  In the meantime my Ticas are approaching the 48 month mark of when their tourist visas to the USA expired.  We are rushing to get our act together in order to renew those visas under the 48-month "no interview" plan.  Otherwise the current wait time for a visa interview in the San Jose consulate for a tourist visa is 444 days.  Completely ridiculous!

Visa Appointment Wait Times

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/wait-times.html

No ITIN for your beloved?  ;-)  Perhaps you can get a tax refund or two?

Jejeje... I guess we can cross Pence off the potential VP list?  ;-)

--

Sam

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[Joe Harrison]

Dam Sam, you made me do a lot of research, not what I had in mind for Saturday night.  Yes, that's the bill.  It's extremely complex and lengthy.  I was partly wrong in that actually it didn't even get a vote in the full Senate, much less the House.  It's dead in the water until after the election (if Biden wins and D's control Congress).  Just plain dead under any alternative scenario.  It would improve the immigration process and border security, at least in part.  But Trump wants to make the current situation a major issue.  And that's the way it's going to be....

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