I'm helping a friend to get Itin numbers for his parents in Mexico to claim as his dependents in his tax forms. He has all the information he needs, my questions is, since the ITIN's are for his parents and they live in Mexico, who needs to sign the W-7 form? Would it be my friend here in the States or will the form need to be sent back to Mexico for his parents to sign and then mail back?

Thanks for the help!

You need to mail the W-7s to them to get their signatures, then have them mail them back.

It may take a while, but you need to stay legal here.

Thanks for your response. I have heard that many professional tax preparers are Certifying Agents with the IRS and they can just verify that all the documentation is correct and sign the forms acknowledging to that. So in that case, the form would not need to be sent back to Mexico. Is this correct?

I do not think so, but I am NOT a Certifying Agent. All the W-7s I prepared I have the applicant SIGN it.