Filing seperately

[sekeh00]

I'm currently married however my is a foreign national and does not have a SSN nor ITIN. She is currently in school in Jamaica and has never lived, or received an income in United States. I'm currently stationed in Germany and my understanding is that in order to get an ITIN she would have to send a certified copy of her passport to me to have it filed with my return. Is this still mandatory even tho she has never lived or worked in the states? I would rather not go through the hassle of having the document shipped from Jamaica to Germany for no reason, as she'll be moving here to live with me in 4 months time. However by then my deadline to file my returns will have passed.

[bine22 · Accepted solution]

Yes, the certified copy of the passport (or two other documents listed in the instructions for W7) is still required to apply for an ITIN. She would also have to sign the return if you want to treat her as a resident alien and file jointly (in which case you would need to add a statement to treat her as such). 

You can file for an extension to file until October, so you would have enough time. Or you could file as married filing separately without claiming an exemption for your spouse. In this case you would print the return and write NRA in the box for her SSN/ITIN and file by regular mail, but she would no need to sign anything.