Tax Related Issue

[green-world2012 1]

Great discussion board and lot of help from kind people.

The I130 has been approved for my wife. Now the NVC stage starts.

I didn't file taxes for last 3 years, two of those years I was in my home country to be with my family. Now when I'm trying to file for all these back years, looks like my wife needs to have an ITIN which may take a while and at the same time getting new ITIN process looks complicated.

In this situation to make the case proceed quicker can I file "Married filling Separately" instead of "Married filling Jointly" so that I don't need to use her ITIN?

And does it have any impact on approving the case?

I gratefully appreciate your thoughts on this.

[speedwell 224]

Great discussion board and lot of help from kind people.

The I130 has been approved for my wife. Now the NVC stage starts.

I didn't file taxes for last 3 years, two of those years I was in my home country to be with my family. Now when I'm trying to file for all these back years, looks like my wife needs to have an ITIN which may take a while and at the same time getting new ITIN process looks complicated.

In this situation to make the case proceed quicker can I file "Married filling Separately" instead of "Married filling Jointly" so that I don't need to use her ITIN?

And does it have any impact on approving the case?

I gratefully appreciate your thoughts on this.

That will do fine. Your wife will have to evaluate whether she will also need to file US taxes (probably not but it needs to be thought about). Filing separately has no impact on case processing. You just don't calculate your taxes owed the same way as if you filed joint. You have three years from a given tax year to update your filing to joint, which could get you back money, but it is fine to file separately in any tax year.

One thing to think about that could save you a lot of money if it applies to you: If you are the US citizen or resident, and you have dependents that you will claim on your tax form OTHER than your wife, AND your wife was not a resident and was not actually in the US for the tax year, THEN you may qualify for "Head of Household" filing AS IF you were single. You will still say you are married on the tax form, and you will still put your wife down like filing separately, but HOH means you pay a lot less tax. Read the rules for HOH filing on the IRS site to be sure you qualify.

By the way my husband and I filed joint this year and requested an ITIN. It went very smoothly and instead of paying over 2000 USD in taxes I got back almost 1000. If you do file separately, apply for the ITIN as soon as practical and then amend your tax returns; it's fine to do this and you won't be in trouble.

Edited May 13, 2013 by speedwell

[green-world2012 1]

Thx Speedwell for your thoughtful answer. We have a child.The child and mother both are not here. My child has got a SSN cause she was born as a US citizen for me being a US citizen.My wife never came to US.

I will follow your suggesstions. I will file as a Head of Household and married filing separately and claim my child.

I heard the ITIN process may take a while ( may be around 2 months), and they also ask for the original passport to be sent out to IRS.

That may delay the whole NVC process even more.

I will just file the taxes now and will amend them when I get the ITIN later, so that I don't waste some time in the NVC process.