I had the envelope ready for a week. The W-7 was filled in, the tax return was printed, and the passport was the last thing that had to go in. It was also the thing I could least afford to lose for two months. I travel on it. It is how I get home.
The instructions said the passport is the only document that proves both identity and foreign status by itself. I had read that as "mail the original." A friend read it out loud to me and stopped one line later, at the part about who can review it in person.
Three desks that can look at it
A Certifying Acceptance Agent, a VITA site, or an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center can review the passport so the original does not have to travel with the application. I had walked past that sentence twice. The third time I looked up the nearest VITA site, booked the earliest slot, and took the envelope with me unsealed.
How to get an ITIN as a foreigner is where I found those three names written plainly, next to the timing I needed to plan around. Processing is about seven weeks, and more like nine to eleven in peak season or when the papers come from abroad. That is a long time to be without the booklet you travel on, and a long time to wait if the package comes back for a missing page.
What the number is for
The ITIN is nine digits and it starts with 9. It is the taxpayer number the IRS issues when you have a reason to file and you cannot get a Social Security number. It is not work authorization. Nothing on the letter says you can take a job. The W-7 usually goes in the same package as the return that needs the number, not as a form you send on its own because a number would be useful someday.
I had to say that sentence to myself a few times. The return was the reason. The W-7 told the IRS which person the return belonged to.
What I brought, and what I did not need
I brought the passport, the completed W-7, the printed return, and a pen. I did not need copies of every bank statement I owned. I did not need a letter explaining my life. The volunteer checked the passport, compared it to the form, and handed it back across the table. The envelope left with the form and the return. The booklet left with me.
After the letter arrives
The number is the first step, not the last. The order I followed afterwards, and did not invent, is the one ITIN Club writes down: get the ITIN, open a US bank account that will take it, start a credit file, let a score exist, and only then look at cards and travel. The club is free. I am not quoting a price because I did not pay one.
The bank guide is the next tab I opened: How to open a US bank account as a non-resident. It also explains the separate desk for a US LLC. A business account usually wants the Articles of Organization, the company's EIN letter (a CP 575 or a 147C), and a passport for every owner with 25% or more. It wants a real street address. A registered agent, a P.O. box, or a UPS Store does not count. The account belongs to the company, and the EIN is the company's number, not mine.
One more date went in my calendar. An ITIN that is not used on a federal tax return for three tax years in a row expires. Keeping it current is part of the errand, not a footnote to it.
None of this is tax advice. It is the afternoon I almost skipped, and the pages I wish I had opened before I addressed the envelope:
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