[finman]

Hi,

I am on L1 - B visa & have spouse & child on L2 (non working)

I never taken SSN / ITIN for my dependent

Now, to file returns & claim them as a married person, how should I proceed?

- Should I request SSN for both of them
- Or ITIN

Also I worked in 2 different states in 2008

Looking for reply from you experts

Thanks

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Your wife and child are NOT eligible for a SSN.

You will need to submit Forms W-7 with your federal tax return to get ITINs for your wife and child.

Here is the process used by my firm.

We prepare the tax return and the Forms W-7.

While this is being done, you make photocopies of all pages of your wife's and child's passport that had information on it; you can ignore BLANK pages. You then take these photocopies to a local bank to have them notarized, usually at no charge.

If the bank will not do it, go to a local IRS office (call first to make sure they provide the service) to have the IRS officials certify the photocopy as a true copy of the passport.

The tax return and Forms W-7 will be emailed to you for review and approval before they are printed printed, signed, packaged and mailed to you for signature. A tax return is a legal document which must have original signatures by the taxpayers.

Upon receipt of the package, you take the STATE tax return and put it to the side for future filing (see below).

You will then sign the federal return and Form W-7 for your child, have your wife sign the return and her W-7, then staple the notarized photocopies of the passports to the respective W-7 and paper clip both forms to the tax return. You then mail the tax return to the IRS.

The IRS receives the W-7, issues the ITIN, inserts the ITIN on the tax return and processes the return. The IRS then mails the ITIN to you in a separate envelope. This process takes between 4 weeks and three months, depending on the workload at the ITIN processing center.

You then neatly print the ITIN on the state return and mail the return to the state.

Under most circumstances, from start to when you get the state refund, the process takes about TWO months.