Hi,

I need to apply the ITIN for my Wife and Son, who are here on H4.
Could you please let me know what Docs. I need to submit.

I've the original Passports, but the Visa stamped on the Passport is expired. I have the extended petition.

Do, I need to send the original I-797 approval notice. Or just sending passports will be sufficient?

Thanks

You will need to apply for Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs) for your wife and child by submitting Form W-7, and that process has undergone some radical procedural changes this past year.  Instead of the simple notarization process, the IRS now requires that your home country certify the photocopy of your passport as a true copy.  This is due to rampant fraud in the ITIN submission process.  The notaries simply cannot tell the difference between a fake passport and the genuine passport.

The IRS recently announced the opening of Tax Assistance Centers through which you may be able to have the passport verifued as genuine, then submit the tax return and Form W-7 IN PERSON to be forwarded to the ITIN Processing Center in Austin, Texas for processing , without having to get the photocopies certified by your home country consulate. The list of the TACs are at the link below:

Taxpayer Assistance Center Locations Where In-Person Document Verification is Provided

The alternative is to mail in the actual passports themselves, something most of my clients are reluctant to do.

If you believe that you will need professional help filing this year, this IS what I do. Please double-click on my name (Atlanta Tax Expert) above to access my profile. You will find my email address in the signature portion of the profile (scroll down to the BOTTOM of the page).

Thanks for the quick reply.

Could you please let me know, if sending Passport will suffice the purpose or do I need to send the extended petition approval notice (I-797, as original H4 visa is expired).

You will need to send the I-797 as well as the passport to get the Form W-7 approved for the child.

For the wife, the passport by itself is sufficient.