How To Get ITIN for International Students

Today we’re going to be talking about how to get an ITIN for international students.

Hey everyone, this is Sina Bonabi here from the EIN Express. I’m an IRS certifying acceptance agent and I’m both trained and authorized by the IRS to help non-US citizens all over the world, just like you, to successfully get the EINs and ITINs for them.

We’ve assisted over 2,240 non-US citizens to get their EINs and ITINs and we’d love to help you get yours as well too.

Today we’re going to be talking about how to get ITINs for international students, a topic that does come up a lot. And oftentimes, whenever I handled these international student cases, they’re separated into one of three categories. And just to preface my response, normally, I work with the school on getting all the documentation for these types of cases and it’s not easy.

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How We Successfully Get ITIN for International Students

Honestly, it requires a lot of correspondence back and forth.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a really easy international student case on the exception category end. So I do want to say that these international student cases, first we decide … we figure out, okay, are they on a J1 or F1 visa. And sometimes they’re tax return cases.

If that is the case then we go that way accordingly. Sometimes we also do F2 cases where it’s a dependent of an F1 visa holder and we get the ITIN … so we claim as the spouse on their tax return. That’s one route that we go.

Now, if the international student is not going to tax return route, then we proceed over to the other side, which is the exception category route. And now for the exception category route for international students, it’s divvied up into three parts. The first part being are they on a scholarship, fellowship, or grant, and the country they’re from has a tax treaty benefit that caters to this for their country in the United States.

If so, then we work with the school on getting the proper documentation. We fill out the ITIN application accordingly based on that tax treaty and we proceed forward.

If their country they’re from does not have an income tax treaty with the United States that benefits to this specific case, then we go a different route where we get the documentation needed, we work with the school on that, and we go about completing that ITIN application accordingly based on that, and we proceed forward.

If either one of these is not the case, then the third category would be if the international student is part of something called the SEVP, which means the institution, school, or university they’re at is a SEVP school, which is … SEVP stands for Student Exchange Visitor Program. If the international student is part of a school, institution, or university that’s SEVP-certified, then we work with the school once again to get the certain documentation required for this category, for this international student’s ITIN application case.

It’s not easy, requires a lot of work, we have to work with their school officials who are designated for this specific purpose. It’s a lot of back and forth, but I have handled this case many, many times before in my years of doing this and I have a lot of knowledge about it.

I hope this response was informative. I know a lot of people sometimes think like, oh, as an international student you can’t get an ITIN. You very much can.

You just have to know where you fall into in terms of the route to take to get it. This is where having a certifying acceptance agent like myself who knows the game, who knows the ins and outs about tax IDs and the IRS and this process comes into your benefit and to help.

I can get you on the right path to getting this done and what documentation we need and what to say to the school officials and how to work with them.

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What To Do Next

I hope this video was informative and helpful. If you feel like you fall into this situation and you’re an international student who trying to get an ITIN, whether to a tax return or a scholarship or whatever it is, please contact us, email us, let us know.

We’d love to help you. If you guys have any questions or comments, please post them below, and when you are ready to start your ITIN application, go ahead and click the link below as well too.

I look forward to working with you soon. Take care, everyone. All the best.

Apply for your ITIN today: https://einexpress.com/itin