International Taxpayer - Obtaining an ITIN from Abroad


The IRS has permanent staff which are able to help process Forms W-7 at the following U.S. embassies overseas: Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rome, Singapore, and Tokyo.

In addition, there are public accounting firms overseas in certain countries which are acceptance agents for ITIN numbers. You will find their names and addresses AcceptanceAgent Program page.

If none of the above persons can help, then the IRS will accept a Form W-7 accompanied by ORIGINAL documents which establish to the IRS 

1.the identity of the foreign person, and 
2.the foreign status of the ITIN applicant. 

The best documents to provide for this purpose would be a foreign passport and/or a foreign national identity card. The IRS will accept copies of documents establishing foreign identity and foreign status if the copies have been certified by

1.the government agency (foreign or domestic) which issued the documents, 
2.employees of the U.S. State Department located in U.S. embassies and consulates
abroad, or 
3.a U.S. notary public who is allowed under state law to notarize foreign documents. 

In addition, there is an alternative procedure which can be used by an alien who resides outside of the United States to certify copies of documents attached to his Form W-7 so that he does not have to attach original documents to such Form W-7 when he mails it in to the Philadelphia Service Center to apply for an ITIN from abroad.

The United States is an official signatory of a multilateral agreement issued in 1961 known as THE HAGUE CONVENTION ABOLISHING THE REQUIREMENT OF LEGALIZATION FOR FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ("The Hague Convention"). This agreement is one of 41
such multilateral agreements issued under the auspices of The Hague Conference on Private International Law, an organization of 47 member states whose official purpose is to, as much as possible, standardize certain legal procedures among nations in order to expedite international legal, commercial, and personal matters. After the Hague Conference issues a convention on a certain subject, then each nation that wishes to avail itself of its provisions must become an official signatory in order for the provisions of the convention to apply in that nation. The United States is an official signatory of this convention.

Under the provisions of the Hague Convention mentioned above, an individual in one signatory country who is required to present certified copies of certain documents to government officials of another signatory country may have these copies of documents certified, not by the agencies which issued the documents but rather by certain "competent authorities" of each country listed at the latter website noted above . These competent
authorities will complete a one-page form known as an "apostille", which they will then either sign or impress with a seal. This apostille can then be attached to the copies of the documents needed by the other government, and serves as a legal authentication of the signatures on the documents, a certification of the capacity in which the person signing the documents has acted, or as a certification of the identity of the seal or stamp which is on
the documents. The attachment of this apostille to the copies of the documents avoids the necessity of having the copies of the documents certified by the government agencies which issued them, or by diplomatic or consular officers of either government, and it avoids having to send the originals of the documents to government officials of the other country.