Filing taxes as a J1 visa holder/AOS pending with my married citizen wife

[DrPearson 0]

Some context: I have been working at a university in the US for almost 5 years on a J1 visa. I married my wife, a US citizen, in September of last year and filed for AOS in October. My J1 status does not expire until March. In previous years, my wife and I have used TurboTax to file our taxes (individually as we weren't married yet). We are kind of confused about how to go about filing our taxes this year.

 

Our understanding is that we should file jointly with my tax status being "resident alien." Can we just do this on TurboTax as we have in the past? We are happy to hire someone if needed, but I don't know if I trust the people at companies like H&R Block to be experienced in handling this kind of situation. We have family connections to a tax lawyer and to an immigration lawyer, but I'm not sure who would be more helpful to consult. 

 

Finally, to complicate things more, a few months ago my wife finished her PhD at the university I work at and moved to another state for a job. I will be moving there in March, but with our various addresses and state residencies, I am a little concerned about how complicated our taxes may be. We are both pretty capable people, but is it too risky to try to do our taxes ourselves (with help from TurboTax of course)?

[Chancy 6,241]

40 minutes ago, DrPearson said:

Some context: I have been working at a university in the US for almost 5 years on a J1 visa. I married my wife, a US citizen, in September of last year and filed for AOS in October. My J1 status does not expire until March. In previous years, my wife and I have used TurboTax to file our taxes (individually as we weren't married yet). We are kind of confused about how to go about filing our taxes this year.

 

Based on the above, I assume you already have your SSN.  If so, you may file MFJ with your wife using your preferred tax software.  IRS does not care about your immigration status as long as they get your tax money.

 

[WaterLeaf 201]

You can still try to use TurboTax and use their number to call for help for such situation. When you do, verify that and make sure it's right. You can call the original IRS # and see if they can give you the info that match to correct. If it is not correct, find out what is correct. Not everyone know about this situation at TurboTax, HR Block, etc. so the only one who is going to know it the best is you and your spouse.

 

I'd too rather not recommend HR Block for their poorly trained employee not double checking on everything and turns out the customer is in a deeper mess.

 

It doesn't take long to try to do research if done right. Heck, the people here can help you out if they see this thread. Just ask the questions!

The other idea about the whole moving thing is if you get it filled out and submit it via mail, add a note that you will be relocating where and provide address if you got it or email/phone #. A PO Box would be safe in case if you did not get your address as wanted. While moving, go to the post office and file the form for mail forwarding. If you get direct deposit into your bank account then you won't have an issue about finding the lost check in the mail.

[Veronikac 15]

Hi,

I have almost the same exact timeline with you regarding the J1 visa, marriage and AOS application. You are definitely a resident alien for tax purposes (you were suppose to be filling as a resident alien since you passed the Substantial Presence test). This mean that Yes, you will be filling jointly as an resident alien. However, I am not sure regarding the different address for you and your wife. You can always choose married filling separately option. 

I am also very hesitate to trust regular tax experts regarding "immigration taxes" and my situation before was also complicated with claiming tax treaty between my country and US. I find this company pretty helpful (I never paid them to do my taxes but I communicate with them and they were very helpful) https://www.taxtake.com/.