James Ridout CPA is a Certified Acceptance Agent of the Internal Revenue Service. If you are applying for an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), James can examine your immigration documents (Ex: passport; visa). Then, he will sign a certificate that your documents have been authenticated. Next, you would send his certificate with your ITIN application (W-7) to the IRS, so that you can receive your ITIN. Without the certificate, you would have to make an appointment with the IRS to visit them at their offices, so that they could authenticate your documents. You typically have to wait 8 weeks for these appointments along with the inconvenience of traveling to the IRS offices. Instead, you could let James do the work and time for you.