unfiled taxes and the I-864

[cswalczakny 0]

I haven't filed my taxes for 2016 yet due to the fact that I'm not sure how to go about claiming my wife as a dependent since she's not a resident yet and doesn't have a SSN.  I was going to fill out my I-864 with the total income listed on my income transcript from the IRS and include a cover letter explaining this.  

 

I am also including my transcripts for 2015 and 2014, but there's an issue with 2014 as well.  My 2014 taxes were filed as "married filing jointly" because I was still technically married to my ex wife in 2014 although we were in the midst of our divorce, so the transcript shows a combination of our incomes.  I was going to fill in just my income in that section of the I-864 and include an income transcript for that year to show just my income separate from my ex wife's.

 

So I'll have:

 

2016: no tax return, but included income transcript, income on form taken from income transcript

2015: tax return transcript, income on form taken from tax return transcript

2014: tax return transcript, income transcript, income on form taken from income transcript

-Cover letter explaining 2016 and 2014

 

Do you think this is sufficient, or is there anything else I should do?

 

[truelove29 218]

I would file your 2016 taxes now & file as "married filing separately". Where it asks for spouses info, like SSN, you are supposed to put NRA for non resident alien...so they know your spouse wouldn't have a SSN yet. 

[Bendite 26]

I had to apply for an ITIN# per my accountant it's a W-7 form

[jle2234 68]

We had the same situation -- my husband had not filed his 2016 taxes since he was not sure how to claim me, and we had to do them in a hurry to file our I-864. We did significant research, and here is what we did:

 

- Completed his 2016 taxes as normal (we chose "Married Filing Jointly", but I believe you can also choose "Married Filing Separately")

- In the box for "spouse's SSN", we wrote "Form W-7 Attached"

- We completed Form W-7 -- note that there are very specific identification requirements for this form, which are outlined here: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/iw7/ch01.html

- We submitted Form W-7 and the taxes together, with the W-7 on top

- To do this, we were required to mail the package to ITIN Operations rather than my husband's usual IRS service center -- here is the address: Internal Revenue Service 
ITIN Operation 
3651 S. Interregional, Hwy 35 
Mail Stop 6090-AUSC 
Austin, TX 78741-0000

 

Hope that helps! I will update to let you know if our taxes and I-864 are successful using this process.

[jle2234 68]

Sorry, I should have included this in my original reply:

 

If you choose to file as "Married Filing Jointly" with one spouse being a non-resident alien, you must include a declaration signed by both spouses stating that you wish for the NRA to be treated as a resident.

 

Here are instructions for this from the IRS:

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse-treated-as-a-resident

[jle2234 68]

Update:

 

I just got word that our 1040, filed as I explained in my posts above, was accepted by the NVC. Just waiting for an interview date now

[Ryan H 3,791]

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