Hi everyone. I have tow questions;

1. My wife is the USC and has been living in Canada for the past 9 years. She has recently petitioned for me to move to the U.S. She has not filed her tax returns from the past 9 years in the U.S. In 2007, she wasn't required to (income too low), however in 2006 and 2005 I believe she might have been because she was self employed. First question - how strict is the CO on "checking up" that last 3 years of taxes have been completed? PS - we will be using a co-sponsor; her dad, who can provide 3 years of returns and meets the poverty limits.

2. How much of a problem will it be that she has been domiciled in Canada? Will the GC get denied? We DO have a place to live - with her mother and dad who will also be co-sponsors.

I'd love to mail off my DS-230 and checklist tomorrow, so any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!!

Hello there! She will need to back file for at least 2005 and 2006. She's not required to show copies of the returns for those years, but she will have to put in the reported income on the I-864 and to put $0 would be lying since she did earn income and to put income earned without back filing would be lying. But don't worry - it's not too hard to back file the returns.

Domicile is an important issue. Going to live with her parents isn't as good of proof as something like having an apartment lease or mortgage papers. If she doesn't have anything beside use of her parents' address (ie, voter's registration, valid driver's license, US bank account) it would be smart for her to make a trip before the interview to set up some of those things. That shouldn't stop you from sending off the DS-230 and checklist though since you should have plenty of time to sort everything out before the interview.

Also, if they did end up having a problem with her domicile, the visa wouldn't be totally denied, just delayed until she could prove US domicile. On the I-864, she should write USA for domicile and not Canada.

We had some of the same questions when we had to file. My husband had been living in Denmark for almost 3 years. All he showed to prove U.S. domicile was his drivers license.

As for his tax returns he hadn't filed during the previous 3 years. The last year because his income was too low. He just attached a statement saying he didn't have to file the previous year and because we had a co-sponsor they didn't ask about it at all.

Yeah, I think that you can do something similar and explain them that he didn't work abroad for last X years. Also you can attach evidence that he wasn't working because he was studing (for example).
Anyway there is a choice if he wants file previous years that he worked. I don't think that they would be too hard on checking that if you have a co-sponsor. Good luck

My advice wpuld be to file the previous years returns as far as you can - she was after all working and earning in Canada. Be aware that a large chunk of her income in Canada is exempt - up to $82,00 if I remember it correctly - so she basically fills a 1040 tax return showing Canadian income and then on the 2555 (Foreign Earned Income form) she would be able to exclude up to $82,00 of it - so the net result will be zero taxable income. Take a look at the forms - they may seem difficult but are not hard to do - one can do these using turbo tax also, hopefully the previous years cds should be cheap. Its always good to keep your taxes in order if you intend to come back to USA and also if you have US income while living abroad (like many retirees living outside of USA do - they stil have to pay taxes on US income). Good Luck

Actually, you get more like 85K in Canadian income exclusion through the 2555 form (I just did it). But she indeed needs to file the late returns asap.

I'm worried about this too. I filed my last US Tax Return in 2005 (for 2004). So now I'm contacting a tax guy here in Germany that can do US taxes so I can get caught up. Need to do it anyway so we can buy a house next year, especially while its a buyer's market . Is everyone putting the entire return with their document or just a summary page?

Since my husband also filed late (we lived in Canada when we filed and he didn't even know he had to continue filing with the IRS), we did not have the transcripts; so we attached the complete tax returns to his I-864. It was fine!