IRS - ITIN application

Question

I have filed my 2020 tax return jointly with my wife, along with my wife's ITIN application, back in late Feb 2020.

In March, I got a letter for IRS ITIN department saying that we should send my wife's original passport to them. So we sent my wife's passport on March 23rd. USPS tracking number confirmed that IRS received it on March 29th.

However, last week we have received another letter from IRS ITIN department saying that our ITIN application has been rejected, rejected because we have not sent the original identification document that they requested!

Okay, let's put our tax return and ITIN aside. Where is my wife's passport?

What can I do? How to handle this situation ? Who will help on this?

Answer 1

I would start by contacting the IRS directly. If they gave you a phone number to call in the letter you received, use that.

On the IRS ITIN Updated Procedures FAQ page, they list a phone number as the number you should call if you do not get your passport back within 65 days of sending it. I don’t think it’s quite been 65 days for you yet, but considering that you got the letter that you did, I would think you could call right away.