WTF? ITIN issues...

Not sure if this is the right place to put this. Feel free to move it if needed... I couldn't find my original thread on this topic.

I got a reply back from the IRS in Texas over my ITIN application. They've rejected it on the grounds that I did not provide valid supporting documents to prove residency. They say I need to provide a valid, unexpired passport or a notarised copy.

Except that I *did* provide a valid, unexpired passport. I sent it with the W7 form to the US embassy in London. A few days later they sent it back to me. I checked, it is a valid passport (I double checked the date just now - July 2013).

So, what the hell has happened here? From the looks of it, the US office in London has not sent the copy they made on to the office in Texas with my application. Or they failed to notarise it or something.

I plan to ring them on Monday to see what the hell is going on but I wondered if there was any advice from people here about what could be done to speed this up without needing to go through the whole process again (and risk the same error happening again from their end).

Not quite true... we send our paperwork to London and they are supposed to forward it on to Texas (making sure to photocopy and notarise any documentation) who then process the actual application. But they can only go on what the Embassy send them which is why I think someone there forgot to do something...

I think my first step may be to call London, query the lack of documentation and see if they can send off a new application to Texas without me needing to resend the passport (there is always a chance they still have copies in their files of all the paperwork I sent them).

However, the rejection came from Texas and the contact details I have been given to query this are all US ones. So, technically I am supposed to ring the number they give me which is a US one (and I may have to do that anyway...) but I am taking the cheaper option of ringing London first to avoid large amounts of money being spent on phone calls (and having to call late at night...). They may say to me that I have to call Texas or write to Texas or do the whole thing again.

Oh, it is likely that is the case. However, before I do that I do want to trace the cause and establish exactly where the fault lies because:

a) I don't want this to go through the same process and have the exact same thing happen. I'd rather make them aware of a potential hole in thier process which they may feel the need to plug before I put my application in again.

b) There is a chance that London will say 'Oh, that's odd' and do an investigation, find my notarised copy hidden behind a bookshelf somewhere (or have a spare copy they keep for just such an eventuality) and then call me to say 'Not to worry, we've sent the copy along for you along with a copy of your form which we kept for just this eventuality'.

c) I have a great urge at the moment to ensure that it is made clear, in writing (or at least on a recorded phone call) that this was nothing to do with me and that the mistake was quite clearly in the hands of someone else along the chain. Since I have evidence of my passport being sent, of it arriving and being signed for in London and of it being sent back to me from London (with all the required dates and tracking numbers involved) I want it to be known (regardless of where the blame lies) that I was not the sort of idiot to not put my passport in the envelope

I may have to go on a spree of some form in London. If anyone asks, I was here all along, OK?

Well, from long experience:

1) UK bureaucracy *IS* shitty. I thought we all knew that Having friends who are 'in the know' in various ways due to their careers I have had this confirmed independently from several sources

2) I suspect the IRS office in the embassy is staffed mainly by US resident UK living IRS employees rather than being British bureaucracy but the point still remains - either way there is a paperwork issue

To clarify things. I do not intend to not follow any instructions to the letter. I do not blame the US based IRS office in the slightest for this because I am sure it is not thier fault. I don't even consider it likely that the person I ring in London is in any culpable and will not be making any accusations of blame. My call on Monday will be nothing more than a 'I have had this letter, <quote reference numbers> and am confused as to why my passport was not accepted as evidence of citizenship. Could you please investigate and find out what my next step is likely to be?'

And yes, the documents did need to be notarised. This was why I had to send my physical passport to the embassy where (so I was told) they would photocopy and notarise it before sending the whole package onto Texas for the next stage... It's the option you choose if you don't want to pay for a notary (very expensive and rare in the UK - I searched, there are not many out there the US government would accept. It was a shame that my friend who used to work for a solicitors did not get his US notaries license before losing his job but never mind ) or take the passport to the embassy in person.

I suspect that an unpaid, overworked intern put the wrong copy of the document in the packet that was going to Texas or it was not properly notarised by them or they forgot to put it in at all or, maybe, they found out that my family has, in the past, been accessory to regicide* and consider it too much of a criminal record

*True story... in that any Norman who was present at the Battle of Hastings was probably accessory to regicide if not the actual regicide themselves. They also have a tax evasion record from a later period and there is evidence that one of them was involved in revaling to Henry VIII that one of his wives (can't remember which one, it is mentioned in David Starkey's Wives of Henry VIII) was cheating on him thereby dooming her to death...

scarletpeaches said:

I did it all by post. One of the accounts staff at one of my publishers suggested I go to London to deal with it all.

Because yes, Scotland is right next door and I can nip down and have it done in my lunch hour.

Click to expand...

Of course you can!!!! It takes all of 10 minutes to walk to London from Scotland. I would have done it myself but I am too lazy to walk 300 miles in less than 10 minutes

mirandashell said:

This always riles. Bad admin screws up some many things for so many people. It destroys more business and reputations than anything else.

Yet..... most companies treat their admin like the bottom of the pile.

Makes no sense to me.

Click to expand...

Yep. And process improvement... My wife deals with IT industry service standards and it is sometimes fun to watch her deal with people on the phone as she questions them on the reason why their processes are so inefficient and how if they did not want to lose the registration they claimed to have on their adverts they would have to hurry up and actually change those processes... (she helped write some of the industry standards...)

Governments are the worst for it, especially local government.

Still, hopefully I will know more on Monday.

Isn't the USA part of Canada?

BTW, for those who deleted posts earlier for being too silly, there was no need. The question has been answered, silliness is already happening...

Hmmm, back into serious country now...

It appears as if you cannot ring the IRS in London or contact them in any other way...

They have a phone number which leads you to a load of options which all list information already on the website or a message which says they are busy (and you can't wait on the line until someone is free because 'the calls may involve long conversations'). I've been trying this number all morning and now the lines are closed...

Or you can call a number in Philidelphia which I bet will cost a lot more money and not necessarily be able to answer my question because I want to talk to someone in that office not thousands of miles away...

They also have an e-mail link on thier site which opens up an outlook window with no e-mail address in it.

So, it is either write to them or go in person...

I may just have to give up and send the new application in. And they'll probably mess than one up too...

Count this as another rant about how call logging systems seem to be used to prevent customer service in organisations rather (as they were intended) assist it these days...

Ok, an update and the mystery is solved!

I rang the IRS in London this morning (actually got through this time, I think choosing to ring on one of the days they are open until 4 rather than 12 was a good idea...) and asked for an explanation as to why my passport was not appropriate.

Guy went away and checked the file, came back and told me that it was nothing to do with my passport (I think the standard rejection letter just mentions that because it is a common cause of failure and like all bureaucracies they get sick of saying the same things over and over again). Apparently it was the letter from my publisher. According to the very helpful guy in the IRS, some of the assessors in Texas are very pernickerty about the wording of this letter and what needs to be said in it and so will reject an application on the basis of a letter that is not worded exactly as they think it should be.

So, mystery solved! Publisher prodded and asked to produce another letter, this time covering all the points on section 1d. New application will be sent in next week.