We have filed an I-130 for my Husband (Australian now in Canada). We have received the NOA. Now it's time to look ahead to the next level of paperwork!

I have seen mention elsewhere that I (a dual Canadian/American Citizen) am going to have to provide 3 years worth of U.S. tax returns? I hope there is some way around this....

I also read on the USCIS website that I might only be asked for the most recent year.

I only had my U.S. Citizenship documented this year (that is a whole other paperwork story), I have never lived in the U.S. and never worked in the U.S..

They don't seriously want me to file a U.S. tax return? If so, should I go ahead and file for 3 years, or just for last year.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Begs the question as to how you acquired Citizenship, usually you have to be a PR first and a PR needs to file taxes on world wide income.

I take it you have US citizenship by virtue of a parent's citizenship but have never lived or worked here. A tax return is only one of the methods of proving the income and/or assets you state on the I-864. Just show the proof you have.

On another note, you'll need to prove domicile in the USA at some point. Having never lived or worked here begs the question of how you plan to do that.

trailmix,

One does not have to live in the USA or work in the USA to be obligated to file a US tax return. A US citizen is obligated to file a US tax return, if their income excedes the minimum filing requirement, no matter where in the world they live and no matter where in the world they earned the income.

This requirement is not retroactive for naturalized citizens.

Yodrak

Thanks to everyone for their replies. You all make valid points and ask valid questions.

To Boiler: I acquired citizenship through both my parents, I only received my U.S. passport in February 2007 - it took me almost a year to get together the documentation they required - which was a lot! (But that's another forum).

To Pushbrk: Good question, depends what they require for domicile? In reading I think they require that you either own a home or rent a home? If that's what we have to do, then we shall. It makes it hard when you are an American Citizen, however since you were born in another country and married in that country - well you know. Both my Sisters (and their families) already live in the U.S. - we plan on living with my one Sister when we move - unless we have to pre-rent/buy.

To Yodrak: Yes, that is what I understand, however since I only documented my citizenship a month ago, I doubt the IRS will be knocking on my door anytime soon.

Yes there serious
But you should contact the irs and tell them your situation being that you just came here a year ago and get them to give you a letter stating that you are not responsible for taxs for the other 2 yrs and yes file for this year. Then you can send the letter with your documents. Make a copy for yourself always. Good luck to you.


Sabila
p.s Did you file tax in canada if so send that showing your employment during that time.

s

Since you have only been a USC for the last months and have not been a LPR before, the tax problem shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Have you tried to call or email the embassy and ask them?

What I guess might be even more important for your situation as it is right now is to establish domicile in the US, which includes a lot of different things: having bank accounts/credit cards, a mailing address (we used my husbands parents address for that purpose because he lived in Germany with me), owning a vehicle, a life insurance in the US...

Good luck!

Here's what I've found about domicile on an US embassy site (http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwh3207.html):

If the petitioner travels to the United States and sets up a principal residence, where he or she intends to reside, he or she may then qualify to petition an immigrant. Establishing a principal residence would entail obtaining an address (a house, apartment, etc.) and taking up physical residence. There is no minimum time to establish residence, but a credible demonstration of an actual residence in the United States is required. If the officer is convinced that the petitioner has in fact taken up residence in the U.S., the applicant will then be able to receive his/her immigrant visa. A convincing combination of several of the following types of action might be considered as an indication of U.S. domicile:

Establishing an address in the United States
Setting up a bank account and transferring funds to the U.S.
Making investments
Seeking employment
Applying for a Social Security number
Voting in local, state or federal elections

If I have it right you always have been a US Citizen, obtaining a passport is a separate issue.

In which case you would have had the tax obligation, with or without a passport.

You've seen more good information on domicile that should help. The minimum I would do is open a bank account in the US using your sister's address, apply for a Social Security number, and show employability and effort to seek employment. As for the tax issue, I would take that up with the IRS. If you've never lived in the US, never had a social security number or earnings in the US, you are unlikely to owe any taxes but you may be required to file some returns. If not required to file, then be prepared to show the interviewer the specific IRS regulation that excuses you from filing.

trailmix,

It makes no difference when you "documented" your citizenship, as Boiler points out it does make a difference when you obtained your citizenship.

You may be correct that the IRS will not be knocking on your door, but you will be knocking on the USCIS' door. And the USCIS, by law, will need to see either your most recent tax return or a legitimate reason, based on the tax code, for why you have not filed a tax return.

Yodrak

Yes Boiler, you are absolutely correct.

As for the other comments, I really do appreciate your help and thanks for answering my question. As to whether the USCIS will accept the fact that I don't have any U.S. returns or that I don't actually have a U.S. residence, that remains to be seen, we can only do what we can do to prove our intention I suppose.

The whole citizenship/necessity of filing returns should probably be on some other forum, it's complicated and I won't bore you all with the details.

Hello All
Actually my fiancee is in the exact same position. We only documented her US citizenship a few months ago by applying for a passport based ont he fact that her mother was a US citizen. In principle since you have been considered to be a US citizen your whole life (whether you knew it or not, its not as if you were naturalized. you are claiming you were a US citizen by birth) , you can be held liable for taxes for a long time by the IRS. But in practise, you should file at least 6 years of back taxes with the IRS. Living in canada its very easy since you get to exlcude most of your foreign earned income, and also the Canada-US tax treaty comes in very handy, and likely you dont own a penny to the IRS. Look for information on the IRS website regarding Form 2555 which is what you will have to use.

We talked ot an immigration attorney and he confirmed this. Since my fiancee was legally obligated to file US taxes as a US citizen, those need to be taken care of first before doing anything regarding immigration. We got those out of the way a few months ago and it was relatively painless but time consuming. We plan to set up an apartment together, and she is moving to the US with a confirmed job offer etc etc all of which play a role in the AOS application. Keep in mind that the I-864 application clearly states that if you havent filed US taxes and are obligated to do so (which is indeed true in our case, and sounds like in your case as well) do those first and then do the I-864. You can do them yourself (which is what we did) or contact someone who specializes in Canada-US taxes: for instance do a google search for Gary Gauvin who is supposed to be quite good and is based out of Texas. Or David Ingram in Vancouver can do some of this too, though I think at much higher cost. By the way I assume you have filed Canada taxes for the past 6 years (or Australian, I wanst sure) which would be necessary to use all of this foegin inclome exclusion stuff.

Anyway hope this helps
Muraari

Hi Muraari

Thanks for the info, you are indeed in the same situation we are. After posting this I called the IRS to see what I needed to file (I was on the phone for 74 minutes!) he basically read me all of the documentation....about 5 minutes of the information was required.

Anyway, I have already completed my 2006 return, just waiting for my SSN to show up (should be this week) and I will then send it in.

He basically alluded to the fact that I would probably only need to file 3 years worth of returns as that is the "assessment period". I'll file the 2006 right away then get to the others, taxes are boring. I've read quite a few USCIS documents stating they will probably only require a transcript from the last tax year, although I do know that they might ask for 3.

What might be of interest, for those of you with basic returns - he told me I need to file a 1040, F2555-EZ and an F8891-for RRSP funds (I took some money out of my RRSP last year and apparently you have to have one of these for each year you contribute or take out money). There are of course variations, all I have is employment income basically and the RRSP and I fit their criteria to use the F2555-EZ as opposed to the full form. The info on their website is pretty straight forward.

As for the 'domicile/residency' issue - we are just going to give them the address we are going to be living at, with my Sister.

Thanks again for the info!

Yes, it does "beg the question".
On another note, one of the (unspoken) purposes of immigration from the government's point-of-view is to bring new taxpayers into the country - those who "contribute" to the U.S. economy. (Elderly parents being the exception).
That is the reason why Domicile is so important and why paying the IRS your taxes due is so important as a prerequisite to petitioning anyone to "join their loved one" in the U.S. But you would never get that "in writing".

It only comes in via tinfoil hat?

Sorry, man. I couldn't resist. And, you might be right! (tho I suspect it's more to do with suing you if your immigrant scoops up means-tested bennies)

Hello Again
You are right in that 3 years will do. Also you will probably find it easier to work forward rather than backward when it comes to the 3 years of taxes. This is basically becasue of 25550EX where you are asked when was the last year you used the foreign income exclusion. By the way please note that you can only use the 2555-EZ for previous years readily if you do not owe anything to the IRS. There is this wierd clause (see pub 519) where you can sue it for previous years if you owe taxes to IRS provided you file before they catch you. Odd I know...

Cheers
Muraari