ITIN for a Spouse or Dependent (Form W-7)

Who actually needs an ITIN, and who does not

An ITIN is a tax processing number for people who have a US tax filing or reporting obligation but are not eligible for a Social Security number. The word "eligible" is doing real work there: if you can get an SSN you must get that instead, and you cannot hold both.

For this audience the situations are predictable, and knowing which one you are in determines whether you need to apply at all.

That fourth row is where most of the confusion sits. An H-4 spouse who has been granted an Employment Authorization Document is eligible for a Social Security number, so applying for an ITIN would be both unnecessary and refused. If the EAD application is pending, the position depends on timing, and it is worth deciding deliberately rather than filing two applications and hoping.

Why the joint election is usually the point

If your spouse is a non-resident alien and you are a US tax resident, you are not automatically entitled to file jointly. There is an election available under the Internal Revenue Code that treats a non-resident spouse as a US resident for the whole tax year, and making it is what opens joint filing.

The election is generally advantageous for a single-earner household, because married-filing-jointly brings a larger standard deduction and wider brackets than married-filing-separately, and separate filing also restricts several credits outright. For a family where one spouse works on H-1B and the other is on H-4 without an EAD, that is the typical shape.

It is not free, and this is the part that is frequently not explained. Electing to treat your spouse as a US resident brings their worldwide income into US scope for the year — including any Indian salary, NRE or NRO interest, or Indian rental income they hold in their own name. Where the spouse has substantial Indian income of their own, the election can cost more than it saves. It also generally applies to all later years until formally revoked, and once revoked it cannot be made again with the same spouse.

We model the election both ways before recommending it. For most single-earner households it is clearly worth making; for a couple who both have Indian income it sometimes is not, and that is a calculation rather than a rule of thumb.

What an ITIN child can and cannot claim

This is the part of the arithmetic most often got wrong, and it can move the answer materially. Obtaining an ITIN for a child lets you claim that child as a dependent. It does not give you access to the same credits a US-born child would attract, and the difference is larger than most families expect.

The Child Tax Credit requires each qualifying child to have a Social Security number valid for employment, issued before the due date of the return including extensions. An ITIN is not a Social Security number, so a child holding one falls outside the Child Tax Credit and outside its refundable component as well.

What remains is the Credit for Other Dependents, which exists precisely for dependents who do not qualify for the Child Tax Credit and which does accept an ITIN. It is non-refundable and worth considerably less per child. The dependent must also be a US citizen, national or resident alien, so the child’s own residency position matters alongside their identifier — which for a child on H-4 usually follows from the same election discussed above.

The consequence is worth stating plainly rather than discovering in April: a household with two India-born children on ITINs does not receive what a household with two US-born children receives. That is not a reason to skip the ITIN — the joint filing status is normally the larger prize by some distance — but the credit difference belongs in the calculation from the start, particularly when you are weighing whether the election is worth making at all.

We deliberately do not print the credit amounts, because they have changed more than once in recent years. The structural rule is the durable part: a Social Security number for the Child Tax Credit, an ITIN acceptable only for the smaller Credit for Other Dependents.

Documentation is why applications get refused

Rejections are overwhelmingly documentary rather than substantive. The IRS requires original documents or copies certified by the issuing agency to establish both identity and foreign status, and a plain photocopy of a passport will not do — notarised or otherwise.

A valid passport is the one document that establishes both identity and foreign status on its own, which is why it is the usual choice. Without one you need a combination of two or more documents from the accepted list, and for a dependent child the requirements are stricter: a passport without a US entry date may not be sufficient on its own, and additional evidence such as a birth certificate or medical or school records may be required depending on the applicant's age.

You do not have to mail your passport abroad, and we would not suggest it. Two alternatives exist: a Certifying Acceptance Agent can verify your documents and return them to you the same day, or you can present them in person at a designated IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center by appointment. Either route keeps the passport in your possession, which matters when the alternative is being without it for several weeks during a period you may need to travel.

Timing, and why February is the decision point

A W-7 normally travels with the tax return that establishes the need for it, rather than being applied for in advance. That coupling has a practical consequence people underestimate: an incomplete or rejected W-7 does not just delay the ITIN, it delays the return attached to it and any refund with it.

Processing commonly takes around seven weeks once a complete application reaches the IRS, and longer during filing season. Working backwards from an April deadline, the decision about whether you are filing jointly — and therefore whether you need an ITIN at all — needs to be made by roughly February, not in the first week of April. Leaving it later usually means filing an extension, which is a legitimate outcome but not a free one, because an extension extends the time to file and not the time to pay.

Renewals follow the same logic. An ITIN not used on a federal return for three consecutive years expires at the end of the third year. Filing with an expired number causes processing delays and can suspend credits that depend on it, so if it has been some years since the number appeared on a return, assume it needs renewing before the season rather than discovering it mid-filing.

Where this comes from

• IRS — Individual Taxpayer Identification Number: who needs one, how to apply, expiry and renewal
• IRS — About Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
• IRS — Nonresident spouse: the election to treat a nonresident spouse as a US resident, and how to revoke it
• IRS Publication 519 — US Tax Guide for Aliens, including filing status and the residency elections
• IRS — Taxpayer Identification Numbers: which identifier applies to whom
• IRS — Child Tax Credit and Credit for Other Dependents, including the Social Security number requirement