I have been living outside of the US for the past 10 yearrs illegally, having overstayed my visa. I wish to return to the US and want to know if I might face any difficulties in this.

I also do not have a Social Security card, having lost it ages ago. The problem is that I have since been both married and divorced in another country and have no documentation other than my passport which is now in my married name (no I don't have the old passport anymore with my maiden name on it), and a copy of my birth certificate which is in my maiden name, and an out of date driver's license, which has my SS number (which is still under my maiden name) with my married name on it, though my name was never officially changed!

When I return to the US, I will need to apply for both a new SS card, and Driver's License and have no idea how to get the information I need to prove my ID. I'm not going back to the State of my old driver's license, so I imagine in another State they won't accept this for ID purposes, since it's 10 years old.

To sum this up and try to make sense of it for you, I have;

1) A passport with my married name in it, but can be used for proof of my birthplace in the US.
2) A copy of my birth certificate in my maiden name
3)An out of date driver's license with my SS number (under my maiden name) in my married name, along with birthdate info.

After 10 years out of the country, I need to establish residency, get an ID card, and eventually a driver's license.

How do I do this? Yes I do realize this is a mess.

Any help would be gratefully received

-maggie

Maggie:

I am not a lawyer, but rather a tax professional. However, I can say that your SSN is probably still valid. The Social Security Administration does not normally revoke SSNs without some positive proof that the owner is deceased.

I suggest your first step should be to visit the U.S. Embassy or consulate office in the country you are currently located. Since you have a birth certificate and an old driver's license, it should not be too hard for the embassy/consulate personnel to confirm your identity via the Internet. While you may have broken the host country's law by overstaying your visa, I doubt if it is too serious. You might be surprised on how fast you can get a new passport from the embassy/consulate. Once you have the passport, getting home is a simple (though not necessarily easy) matter of paying for the transportation. Upon return, the passport and birth certificate should be enough to get a replacement SSN card and a driver's license (though you may have to take the driving test) in any state.

Now, once you get back to the U.S. you may have to file some back tax returns to get caught up. I suspect that you were paying taxes in the host country, and, in most cases, the U.S. government will give you a dollar-for-dollar credit for any taxes paid, in addition to a $70K-$80K tax exemption for income earned while working in a foreign country. For these reasons, no taxes will be due, but the IRS will probably insist on you filing all ten years of tax returns to properly account for your income. You should seek professional tax help to do this.

Hope This Helps!

Atlanta Tax Expert