I have nearly 15 years of well documented residency here, and I will gladly pay any back taxes that i owe. In fact, i tried getting an ITIN to do that a few years back and i was unsuccessful. A lot of applicants get denied simply because the IRS may believe you're trying to use the ITIN for other purposes like opening a bank account, getting a driver's license, etc., as opposed to getting one because you want to actually pay taxes. I was trying to get it for both purposes, hoping that it would help me in the future as well.