Filing Taxes prior to Spouse receiving EAD/Green Card

[jenni17 36]

Hello All,

I think I have this down after reading a bit on here but I just wanted to make sure. My husband immigrated to the US on September 21, 2013. We were married on October 11, 2013 but didn't file for AOS until December and he therefore didn't work in the US at all in 2013. He just received notice that his EAD has been approved but has not yet gotten the card in the mail. He does have a SSN but doesn't have his green card yet.

From what i've read on here we can either file Married Filing Jointly or Married filing Separately. If we do Married filing Joint we would need to declare all income he earned while working abroad in 2013 and submit a statement saying that he is a non-resident spouse but we would like for him to be treated as a resident for tax purposes. If we're doing this with turbo tax would we just attach the statement to the printout that it prepares?

If I do Married filing Separately then he just doesn't file and I just declare my income only on my filing.

Is this correct? I know that married filing jointly is probably going to be the route that will get us a bigger return, but honestly i'm ready to go the path of least resistance if filing separate looks easier...

Thanks in advance!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Yes, you have the correct understanding, but on the TurboTax section called Income, look for Less Common Income> Foreign Income. That will allow you Form 2555 for the foreign income exclusion. It will include his income on Line 7 and subtract it out on line 21. It will appear as a negative number. in the print option , print forms for filing will give you a paper return. You have to push on through...no to efile, etc to finally get it to know you are wanting a print copy. That is if you are using online TurboTax. The version you install from a CD is a little easier to get it to print forms.