I am married but my spouse does not have an ITIN. I was told that I can attach the application for the ITIN along with my tax returns. However, I am confused as to whether that means I should file as single and then they will make the necessary adjustments, or if I should file as married and just leave the ITIN area blank for my spouse. Don't want to file the wrong way and then have it cause problems for me.

If anyone has any info, please reply... Thanks in advance!

You file jointly and leave the SSN area blank, submitting the Form W-7 with the tax return.

It is probably most advantageous for you to file jointly with your spouse.

You will need to apply for Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs) for your spouse 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.

This certification can be done by the home country embassy in Washington, D.C. or at one of the consulates.  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.  This process, done via mail, can take up to three months to complete.

Also, 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:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/TAC-Locations...on-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).

Thank you so much! Really appreciate it!

One more question... With that being said now, then that means that I no other choice but to file a paper return? Or is it possible to file both the return and the w-7 electronically, and then mail in documentation for w-7 separately? Thx again.

You cannot efile any return without all of the SSN fields being complete, so, yes, the return and the Form W-7 MUST be physically mailed together to the IRS ITIN center in Austin, TX.