I-130 Tax, filed as single instead of married.

[pushbrk 13,764]

1 hour ago, S2N said:

It’s worth noting there are some cases where MFS vs. single would create a material underpayment when filing single.

 

As an example the options I had were:

 

Single: $50 refund

MFS: $100 owed to the government

MFJ: $4000 refund.

 

We went with MFJ since Mr. S2N has an approved ESTA and we travel back and forth.

 

All that to say: if someone files single and they live in a community property state or make more than $100,000 they actually need to amend to MFJ and not just forget to do it since in those cases single could lead to underpayment as MFS has some cases where they need to pay more.

Tax anamolies aside. The question was regarding impact to the spouse visa process.  Yes, amend later.

 

[JeanneAdil 7,234]

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/international-taxpayers-filing-status-if-married-to-a-nonresident-alien-youtube-video-text-script

States:

BUT, IN GENERAL, REMEMBER…IF YOU DO NOT CHOOSE TO TREAT THE NONRESIDENT ALIEN SPOUSE AS A U.S. RESIDENT FOR TAX PURPOSES, AND YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD FILING STATUS, THEN YOUR FILING STATUS WILL BE MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY.

THIS SUMMARIZES SOME OF THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR TAXPAYERS WHO ARE MARRIED TO A NONRESIDENT ALIEN.

 

CO does not say "u filed taxes as single/ why?"  but can say "marriage is not bona fide"  

this very much depends on whether u spend quality time with spouse and the evidence u provide to prove the marriage is strong

some embassies do judge harder than others and filing single is an frowned on

 

 

 

[pushbrk 13,764]

1 hour ago, JeanneAdil said:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/international-taxpayers-filing-status-if-married-to-a-nonresident-alien-youtube-video-text-script

States:

BUT, IN GENERAL, REMEMBER…IF YOU DO NOT CHOOSE TO TREAT THE NONRESIDENT ALIEN SPOUSE AS A U.S. RESIDENT FOR TAX PURPOSES, AND YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD FILING STATUS, THEN YOUR FILING STATUS WILL BE MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY.

THIS SUMMARIZES SOME OF THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR TAXPAYERS WHO ARE MARRIED TO A NONRESIDENT ALIEN.

 

CO does not say "u filed taxes as single/ why?"  but can say "marriage is not bona fide"  

this very much depends on whether u spend quality time with spouse and the evidence u provide to prove the marriage is strong

some embassies do judge harder than others and filing single is an frowned on

 

 

 

Can, yes, but in 20 years I have not seen any reports of visa denials based on tax filing status.  What I...HAVE....seen is many visas issued when the petitioner filed single in a spouse visa case.  I'm one of them.  After 20 years here, I see it as extremely low risk.  Yes, bonafides are best demonstrated with other primary evidence, like time together in person.

Edited Sunday at 10:21 PM by pushbrk