Hi all,

I am a Dutch citizen and am currently on my third year of a J-1 visa (in 2011, 2012, and 2013 as a researcher). If I understand it correctly I will have to file my taxes as a resident since this is my third tax year and I meet all the requirements of the substantial presence test. My question is related to my wife; she has a J-2 visa and is also in her third year. During these three years she did not have any income, she does not have a SSN nor an ITIN. Does she still need file taxes? If so, should we request an ITIN and can I file for both of us together on the 1040 form?

Thanks for your help!

You will need to apply for an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) for your wife by submitting Form W-7, and that process underwent some radical procedural changes in 2013. 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.


FIRST ALTERNATIVE: This certification can be done by the Dutch embassy in Washington, D.C. or at one of the Dutch consulates in Svarious cities across the USA. Assuming you do NOT want to drive there, you need to call the nearest consulate and arrange to have this process done via the mail. If you choose this alternative, get started immediately (the process, done via mail, can take up to three months to complete).

SECOND ALTERNATIVE: The IRS also have Tax Assistance Centers through which you may be able to have the passport verified 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.

You go to the TAC with your wife, her passport, the SIGNED Forms W-7, and the completed and SIGNED tax return.

The IRS official verifies the passports, asks a few questions, completes the certification paperwork, checks the Forms W-7 and tax return, then returns the passports with a receipt for the tax return and Forms W-7, which is sent to Austin, Texas for processing.

You leave the TAC with your wife and/or family, the passports and a receipt for the Forms W-7 and the tax return.

You would get the ITIN about six weeks after you left the TAC.

The tax returns are NOT processed at Austin, Texas, but rather forwarded to the regional IRS centers for processing, so the refund will come about one month AFTER you get the ITIN letters.

The list of the TACs are at the link below:

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

THIRD ALTERNATIVE. I am a Certifying Acceptance Agent, and I can certify the passport if the TACs are not close.

You would mail the passport and the SIGNED Form W-7 and SIGNED tax return to me. I would contact you via SKYPE, conduct a brief interview with your spouse, certify the passport, attach the certification to the SIGNED W-7 and sign both documents. I would also sign the tax return, then paperclip the W-7 with certification to the tax return, and then mail them and a clear color photocopy of the passport to the IRS ITIN Processing Center in Austin, Texas.


The passport I would mail BACK to you via tracked PRIORITY MAIL, so the passport would be out of your possession for about a week.

You could also use a local CAA if you are in a large city; not sure what the going rate for CAAs would be in your city.

If the IRS gets the passport, they hold it for about TWO months.

The FINAL ALTERNATIVE is to mail in the actual passport itself, something most of my clients are reluctant to do.

If you want my professional help on this matter, email me at the email address in my profile.

Thank you very much for this detailed answer! Since I live close to Seattle I mailed the Dutch consulate if they do certified copies of passports there.

Just to be clear: Even though my spouse did not have any income in 2013, she would still need to file taxes and therefore apply for an ITIN?

She does not HAVE to file taxes, as you can file a dual-status return by yourself.

But filing jointly likely is the best option tax-wise for you, as your sole income is taxed at the lowest available tax rate.