Foreign nationals/no US gov't number??

John Europe is moving here with his company. He is obtaining proper US issued number, which we will use on the account level and CIP level.

His wife is coming here as well and will never work. We are being told, that in view of this fact, she does not have to obtain and will never have a US government issued number of any kind.

Is this the case?

If you are referring to any form of taxpayer ID number, it is true that she won't have to obtain one unless she and John file a joint tax return.

She should have a visa issued in her name, whether she works or not will determine which type.

"who" is telling you she will have no government issued anything?

Wife can get (an should get) an ITIN - government issued ID for non-working non-US Residents

Wife can get (an should get) an ITIN - government issued ID for non-working non-US Residents

Why? An ITIN is not "government issued ID"?

If a person has an ITIN issued by the IRS does this mean they cannot work in the US, and is just for joint tax return filing? Just wondering.

Going over the CIP requirements, and the purpose of CIP, we ensure we obtain a government issued form of ID, such as passports. Again, this is for CIP.

For interest bearing accounts, etc. we insist on some form of SSN or we do back-up withholding.

If you are in the same situation as we are, with the occasional non-US persons opening accounts, Are you insisting on the ITINS or, based on the purpose of CIP, just obtaining and recording the passport numbers and not insisting on a US number.

Rick - the IRS issues an ITIN.

Purex - My understanding is an ITIN is issued to non-Americans who have US source income but no need for a TIN.

Actually it is Randy - my point was that a number issued by the IRS is not identification.

Sorry Randy

Trees, you asked the same question (and got some answers) a couple of weeks ago:



http://www.bankersonline.com/forum/ubbth...653#Post1619653

I think you asked this before like another poster mentioned. However, we do not open any accounts for anyone unless they have a TIN, EIN, or ITIN. Doesn't matter if they have proper ID, we don't do it unless we have one of those numbers.

Assuming that you have satisfied your bank's CIP requirements insofar as the type of ID required, there is no problem in opening a joint interest-bearing account for the 2 people, 1 of whom has a TIN and the other does not, as long as the person with the TIN is the first name on the account for 1099-INT purposes. While banks can have their own policies about not opening accounts for persons without a TIN as jenny's bank has, there is no prohibition against it. You can certainly satisfy CIP with getting the passport number as the identifying number.