Hi,
I am Raghu and my family came to US in May 2008 on H4 my spouse and 2 kids.

I am aware of the fact that I can claim Child tax credit if I have ITIN for my child. But since there is change is process that we can't apply for ITIN separately and the same has to be applied along with Tax filing.

Myself and my family are US resident aliens as they are in US for more than half year in 2008 (from May 2008) and I am in US from last 2 years.

My question is

1. How do I claim for child tax credit for the first year with ITIN being applied for child and spouse.

Thanks in advance.

File as married filing jointly. Claim your kids as dependents. Attach W7 (ITIN applications) with your tax return.

Many thanks for the advice.

For quick clarification,

In the W7 form, which will be correct option to select under the reason for applying ITIN nos.
1. Dependent of US resident alien for child
2. Spouse of US resident alien
3. Dependent /spouse of US non resident alien

The reason I am asking is because my CPA is selecting 3rd option in the W7 form. I am not clear whether he is doing correct.

And also in the 1040 tax return form CPA says to leave the SSN/ITIN nos column blank for my spouse and dependent and do not mention any amount in the child tax credit column as the IRS will issue ITIN and fill those ITIN and child tax credit columns.

Please confirm whether this is correct in the tax forms by not mentioning any amount in the child tax credit column. I do not want to do any errors in the tax forms.

Please advice.

Thanks and regards

On the W-7, send "Spouse of US resident alien" for your wife's W-7 and "Dependant of US resident alien for child" for your children's W-7s.

If you leave the Child Tax Credit calculations blank, you will NOT get the Child Tax Credit. At least, that has been my experience.

I assume you have already filed. If you got the Child Tax Credit, great!

If not, contact me at [email protected] to determine if an amendment is in order.

I have a related question on the discussion. I am in L1B VISA. I am a first time Tax Return Filer. And I want to add my dependents to get a Tax Child Credit. However they don't have SSN. So I need to get ITIN. But ITIN application requires a valid Tax Return form.

Can I just submit my TaxReturn with a dummy SSN/ITIN entry then I will attach the W-7 form? Does this works?

Hope you can shed light to my question

You have to FILE your 2010 tax return with the Form W-7 for your dependents ITINs WITH the return.

Once the Forms W-7 and the notarized passport photocopies are completed, you complete the return with the SSN area BLANKL, then mail everything to the ITIN Processing Center in Austin, Texas.

If you need professional help, I do this for a living. Contact me at [email protected].