Hi Texan,
Good luck on your immigration journey. Lol...I guess I must have posted two message threads with the same name, and you replied to this one. So if you want, see the other message thread with the same name for more posts on this topic. In answer to your question, I have thought about joint filing with my spouse, but there's one problem: my spouse doesn't file taxes, because of their situation (and yes, it's legal, but I can't get into the specifics of it here on VJ). So am I then to file my own taxes? I don't think I'll get to $82.5k of foreign income though (unless I win the lottery, which is unlikely, and even that the IRS will go after that for taxes). Thanks for your reply and for the link to the other message thread about a similar topic about taxes...
Ant
QUOTE(wannabe_texan @ Feb 6 2007, 07:32 PM)

Won't you be filing a joint return with your spouse? In which case you will both be on there, and the income (regardless of which partner it came from) as a couple will be taxed. Probably better to take the married deduction

There are various get-arounds like filing with a spouse as a non-resident alien so that you can have up to $82.5k of foreign earned income etc, so depending on what your circumstances you can figure out the best treatment for you. I know I read some other threads on this recently so I will try to go find them, since I have little knowledge in this area...
Here's an example thread where this is discussed - filing taxes
Hope this helps!