cp2000

From what I gathered from the IRS, once you are married, you can not file as single. The IRS told me to file out the tax form and apply for an ITIN with a W-7, when you send in the tax 1040. Your attorney is not fimiliar with the situation.

Except you "can" because I "did" and so have many others. It's not the proper filing status but the return will be accepted and any refund transmitted. The lawyer is probably familiar with the fact that there's more to a W7 than "filling it out" which you too would understand if you read the previous 3 pages of responses.

To be clear, you "can" file that way because you were not caught, just like you "can" break any other law if you are not caught.

What Pushbrk doesn't state is that filing properly will for many, but not all, people change the amount of taxes you owe to the government. There may or may not be consequences if you are caught. If filing properly would not have made a difference in your tax liability or if it would have actually decreased your tax liability, than there probably will not be tax consequences (I don't know whether there might be immigration consequences, but you never know when you might get a picky interviewer who notices that you filed incorrectly and cares). The tax authorities don't care if you overpaid your taxes. If filing properly would have increased your tax liability, than you have effectively underpaid your taxes. If the tax authorities catch this type of underpayment in time, then at you will at least owe the underpayment, interest on the underpayment and potentially penalty charges on the underpayment. Notice that Puskbrk filed an amended tax return to fix this later after his/her spouse got the SSN. If you fix an underpayment of tax liability by an amended tax return, you will at least owe interest on the underpayment.

This is similar to the tax problems experienced by recent Obama nominees--Tim Geithner (did not pay self employment taxes associated with World Bank employment), Tom Daschle (did not report a free car service as income), and Nancy Killefer (nonpayment of unemployment taxes associated with household help). These are all areas of tax law where many individuals do not correctly file their income taxes and are rarely caught. But if you do get caught, there may be consequences just like they experienced consequences.

To be fair, this is probably closer to (but not the equivalent of) jay walking than murder on a continuum of tax infractions. However, I would never advocate an improper course of action.

I just spoke to my attorney about the filing status I should for my 2008. He told me to file as single since my wife is in Pakistan, and in order to file married I would need her SS#. So, I guess it's ok to file as single for those people whose husband/wife is abroad. Can anyone share their opinion? Thanks.

Yeah, the guy who handled my taxes last year told me the same thing, my spouse would have to have a SSN to be claimed on my income tax. He also told me you can go back and claim them. So if you got married back in Jan 2007, you can go back and claim them for 2007 and 2008. I'm still looking into it myself though, hopefully I won't forget about this post, if I find more info on this, I'll let you know.

jurod16

Both the attorney in the original post and the guy who handled taxes are probably wrong. You generally do not need a SSN to claim a spouse for tax purposes. As others have stated, you can apply for an Individual Tax Identification Number ("ITIN") if your spouse does not qualify for a SSN. See http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96287,00.html. I say probably because I believe (but have not checked recently) that if your spouse IS eligible for a SSN, then that spouse must get the SSN and can't get or use an ITIN--it's sort of circular logic in that case because your spouse may need a SSN because he or she is eligible for a SSN but would not need a SSN if he or she is not eligible for a SSN.

Either way, you are considered married for tax purposes and must consider filing options other than single.

I would just like to say that there is a lot of bad tax information in the comments generally (please note that this is a general comment and is not specifically pointed towards any comments related to this post--I'm just saying that I've seen a lot of good tax information and a lot of bad tax information during my time on these boards and someone who doesn't know taxes would have a hard time differentiating between the two). Please read the instructions to the Form 1040 to determine what your filing status should be (see http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf; especially at page 14) and Publication 519 to determine whether the nonUS spouse has an independent US tax filing obligation (which is related to whether or not you are a resident or nonresident) and if you are interest in filing jointly with your spouse (which could, but may not necessarily, reduce your US taxes) (see http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf, especially around page 10, Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident)

For those with questions, it would probably be better to call the free IRS tax helpline (see http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=103554,00.html) rather than trusting the potpourri of answers you might receive to your post here. The IRS people are knowledgeable and helpful--note that I've never worked for the IRS, just have had good experiences in the past. You do not need to identify yourself to ask a question, just say you have a general tax question without giving your identifying information.

Good luck on your taxes.

I agree that filing single would be wrong as a general rule. Don't know why your attorney suggested that. Were you talking with a tax attorney or one with a lot of experience in taxes? Most attorneys don't know tax law (like doctors, lawyers are usually specialists and you wouldn't ask a foot doctor what to do about your brain tumor) and some are as bright as a burned out light bulb.

For those who said that they filed single and were fine, you probably weren't filing correctly and benefited from a lack of enforcement. The IRS audits a tiny amount of tax returns and this won't show up as an automatic error in the IRS computer system since they don't automatically get information on when people marry foreigners. I say probably because I don't know any specific details and, as payxibka and rin and john pointed out, there are situations outside of what applies generally that could trip you up.

Hi.

There aren't many, but there are a few who still keep an eye on a Cambodian VJ Thread and still seem to respond. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...5&start=225. This should give you an idea of who is around. It seems that there are many more from Vietnam or Thailand than Cambodia.

HI All!!

It's been awhile and I just signed back on to give an update. It's been well over a year and here is the latest news!

So last year, I inquired over telephone a few times as well as wrote a letter to Vermont. When I called I was able to speak to an agent who got the DHS to send a letter to me with an update, however it pretty much stated, "we're going to get to it when we get to it."

I inquired again in October with a letter to Vermont Service Center and got no response at all. I then did some more research online and followed up with a letter to the OBUDSMAN down in Washington around November. I did receive a letter back from them at the beginning of December that they had received my letter and were going to follow up for me. So, today I received a letter from DHS, here is what it says...

"This courtesy notice is to advise you of action taken on this case. The offical notice has been mailed to the attorney or representative indicated above. Any relevant documentation included in the notice was also mailed as part of the offical notice." Then it goes onto state, "This is to advise you that we have reaffirmed our previous decision on the above application or petition which the Department of State had previously returned for review. We have forwarded the case back to the Department of State for action."

So, I get on the phone with my lawyers office after I fax over the letters that I had received and they stated that this means that they have approved the request and they are sending back information to my lawyer on how to proceed.

For some reason, i'm still having doubts and in dis-belief unless i'm just mis-understanding... what do ya'll think?

Hope things work out for you.

Just wanted to post the questions my spouse received during her recent interview. Hope the information helps someone else.

What does your husband do for a living?

What does his mother do for a living?

What do you do for a living?

How did your husband come to meet you?

How long did you know each other?

Do you speak good English?

What language do you communicate in?

I believe that the interview was at a counter in the public waiting area. Her interview was relatively easy even though others before her seemed to be having a fair bit harder of an interview from the same person in her opinion.

Good luck to others.

Can someone help me??

ok..

We were married in June 2007..so last year we applied for an ITIN and did a joint return. My husband made like 1,000 U.S. dollars so he was below the cut off for having to claim his income. Since we filed with an ITIN we did not receive the stimulus payment. He is also still not here..so I will have to file taxes without him again. Our interview is in February.

Due to Jamaica's economy he had no reportable income for 2008.

ok... my questions

1) Can i reuse the ITIN for this year's return? I am assuming I can.

2) When I tried to file online there was a question "are you both resident of the U.S." Now, I understand that he does not live here BUT being married and filing for a joint return is that the alien spouse is allowed to be considered a resident for tax filing purposes....so do I say YES we both live here?

3) Then when it got to the part about not receiving the stimulus.. it tried to credit that to me and Im not sure that is okay...

so... what do I do??????

ANYONE? HELP?

Call the IRS helpline and ask them the question. Make sure you get the employee number of the person responding to you and keep notes on the call including the response, time and date so you have some proof that you made an effort to get this done correctly.

Is anyone thinking of filing joint taxes for 2008?

My husband is still in Russia but I'm in US.

Do you know what documents I'd need? W7?

Thanks!

I filed jointly with my spouse. You should refer to IRS Publication 519, which can be found at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf. See page 10, "Nonresident Treated as a Resident." Once you have taken a look at the information, I also recommend calling the general IRS helpline (it's on www.irs.gov) and they will direct you to the specific people who handle tax returns of the nature you will be filing and who would be happy to answer any specific questions you have. Just call soon as I imagine that they will get quite busy the closer it gets toward April 15th.

I would note that you and your spouse must make an affirmative election for the nonUS spouse to be treated as a nonresident alien (just type up a statement using the magic words from the publication on the same page under "How to Make the Election", nothing fancy). Such an election creates tax implications such as your spouse being taxed on his worldwide income and having an obligation to file US tax returns that might not have existed before for your spouse. This election would just be included along with your normal 1040. There is also a different address your 1040 must be sent to which I believe is in the instructions to the W-7.

Several of the commentators have mentioned that filing jointly saved them a lot on their taxes in comparison to filing married, filing separately. Such was true in my situation and would be true for many other couples. However, whether filing "married filing jointly" as opposed to filing "married filing separately" will increase or decrease your tax liability is dependent upon your personal situation. I'm just saying run the numbers and don't take it on faith that it will save you money.

Hello everybody ... i have small question and i need advice ... i had my interview 13 jan 2009 and i got approved .. but they ask me to send tax return 2008 from my wife or Joint sponsor , so coz my wife make enough income and we dont have Joint sponsor we decided to send tax return 2008 but we confused about something that paper i have from the embassy said ( copies of the fedral tax returns ( form 1040 ) and the most recent income tax from :- sponsor or joint sponsor ) and we dont know this well be include w-2 cuz the w-2 will take time almost 20 day's till i have this but 1040 easy to get .. so i can send 1040 only without w2 or i need to wait till we get w-2 ..... thank you

If you are not sure, then you should probably call the embassy to confirm which tax return they want - 2007 or 2008. The 2007 tax return will usually be reporting income for the period from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 and the 2008 tax return for the period January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008.

Also, are you sure they are not asking for more than 1 tax return? Look at your quote "copies of the federal tax returns ( form 1040 ) and the most recent income tax from :- sponsor or joint sponsor". "Copies" and "returns" are both in the plural and could mean that the embassy expects to receive a copy of your tax return for more than 1 year. Also "and the most recent income tax from" indicates to me that there is something in addition to a copy of the tax return that the embassy wants. I might be reading too much into your quote or I might be losing some of the context from not seeing the entire document, but it might be useful to ask the embassy for clarification.

I believe that there are circumstances where you can file your tax return without a W-2 (e.g. the employer did not send me a W-2 and they are no longer in existence), but it is not the typical situation and it would probably be prudent to include an explanation to the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") as to why there is no W-2 in those circumstances. It would also be prudent to look into the rules a bit more before going down that route.

Regardless of which tax return the embassy wants, the standard instructions (at least for the spousal visa) say that for tax information you must send either (i) a copy of the tax return your filed, a copy of your W-2 AND copies of all Form 1099s you received for that year or (ii) a copy of the tax transcript for that year from the IRS (see page 8 of the Form I-864 instructions at http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-864.pdfat page 8, item 25). Of course, if your embassy has different instructions, then you should follow what your embassy requires.

The W-2 and 1099 represent different forms of income you received. The Form 1099 will be things like interest received from your bank accounts (1099-INT), dividends or capital gain income received from your stock investments (1099-DIV), miscellaneous income (1099-MISC), etc. There could be several 1099s that your significant other might need for the tax return or he/she might not have any of this type of income and might not get any 1099s (though many people do get 1099s)

Hope things go well for you.

Thanks guys - I looked at the numbers and if I do an amended return as Married Filing Separately it will not affect my refund at all - Govi did not earn any income in his name for 2007. It is too much trouble at this point for him to get the IIN - I think if we were to file a joint return it would delay things considerably. I will call NVC tonight just to be sure but I think I will go ahead and file 1040X as Married Filing Separately.

If you file as married filing separately...they expect a return from your husband also.

You would amend the return to file as married jointly. His income will have no effect.

It will be the easiest $1500 additional refund that you will ever get.

I disagree with the statement about expecting a return from the husband. See my post in this thread. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=157115

As I stated in another thread I erroneously marked the 'single' box on my 1040EZ for 2007 - at the time I thought that you only filed as married if you were married for the whole of the previous year. Now I am very confused. If I file an amended return as married filing separately then the IRS will expect a separate 1040 from Govi even though he has never set foot in the USA and didn't earn any money at all in his name for 2007 - now it is October so obviously way after the April 15 filing deadline anyway... What would he show for W-2???? It's ridiculous.....

If I refile as married filing jointly then G needs to get an ITIN which (as I recall from a thread around tax time) is very difficult, his passport needs to be sent back and forth, etc. At this stage in the game we really don;t want to deal with any more Fed Exing besides the fortune I am already spending to send proofs and documents to him and really don't want to run the risk of his passport getting lost - at one time during the mess in Nepal the last few years the gov't wasn't issuing any more passports and with the way the NP gov't is in a transition phase who knows what could happen.

Honestly what have other I-130 filers done, especially if your spouse is a student or didn't have any income for 2007?

For those who choose to file married filing separately, whether your spouse must also file a U.S. tax return depends upon whether that spouse is considered a Resident Alien or Nonresident Alien and their level of income taxable by the United States.

Generally, Resident Aliens are treated like United States Citizens and are taxed on their worldwide income. Generally, Nonresident Aliens are taxed only on their U.S. sourced income. See Publication 519 (the 2007 version is here http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf) for the specifics on the determination on whether an individual is a Resident Alien or Nonresident Alien and whether income is U.S. sourced or not. Tax laws, IRS rules and tax treaties with individual countries, among other things, may impact the determination of income. If your non-U.S. spouse has significant income, there are complications with your individual tax situation, or you just don’t understand any of this, I would suggest contacting an accountant, other tax advisor or the free IRS helpline at 1-800-829-1040 for assistance.

Another factor to consider in the determination on whether an individual is required to file a tax return is that individual’s level of income taxable by the United States. See the instructions to Form 1040 at the section entitled “Do You Have to File†(the 2007 version is here http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf; keep in mind that both Publication 519 and these instructions may change for 2008 but these are the current versions as of today).

Generally, an individual must have at least a certain level of income before such individual is required to file a U.S. tax return. An individual may choose to file a federal tax return even if they do not meet such levels (typically to get a refund of federal taxes withheld from their income or to benefit from certain tax credits, but these situations may not apply to a foreign spouse).

For those of you considering filing jointly with your spouse who is a Nonresident Alien, you may have to include an affirmative statement with your tax return electing to choose to treat your Nonresident Alien spouse as a Resident Alien. See Publication 519 at the section entitled “Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident†for more information on this election.

If you need to obtain an ITIN, a copy of your spouse’s passport biographical page can be notarized at the U.S. embassy in that spouse’s foreign country. That was what I did and it was accepted with no problems. It does not need to be specifically notarized in the United States or by the IRS.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about filing married even though the spouse is not in the U.S. As I stated in a previous thread:

Once you are legally married to your spouse, you are married under the U.S. tax laws regardless of where the marriage took place, regardless of whether your spouse is in the U.S. or not, regardless of whether you have changed your status at work and regardless of your spouse's current immigration status. Your choices once married are either to file jointly or to file married filing separately.

As a previous commentator above stated, even if you are married only on the last day of the year, you are considered married for that year under the U.S. tax code. I was married in December of 2007. So I was required to file my 2007 U.S. tax return as married.

Please note that the above is not intended to be tax advice. You should consult your own tax advisor or the IRS helpline (I’ve found them to be quite helpful).

i just got married this year. i have not changed my status to married at work just as yet. i dont want to start paying for her benifits and start claiming her until she is in the US.

i will be filing the return for 2008 in january. when i do that, how can i file as married, when my wife is definately not going to be here by jan as our case is still with USCIS and we dont see an interview date in the very near future.

the dilemma is that if i file as single, i can be questioned by NVC as to why i filed single when i am married. i cannot get a ssn for my wife as she is not here. can i apply for ITIN?

i am really confused...someone help!!

Once you are legally married to your spouse, you are married under the U.S. tax laws regardless of where the marriage took place, regardless of whether your spouse is in the U.S. or not, regardless of whether you have changed your status at work and regardless of your spouse's current immigration status. Your choices once married are either to file jointly or to file married filing separately.

There are upsides and downsides to the choice between filing jointly or married filing separately. It all depends on you and your spouse’s respective incomes and personal situations. For me, I elected to file jointly for tax year 2007 because it resulted in a significant tax liability savings for us. You would have to examine your own tax situation under both scenarios to determine which one would result in the lowest tax liability.

If you choose to file jointly, you will need a social security number ("SSN") or tax identification number ("TIN") for your spouse. If obtaining a SSN is not a viable option for you, you can obtain a TIN for your spouse by filing Form W-7, which can be sent in with your Form 1040 (or when amending your tax return with Form 1040X) when filing your taxes. The instructions to the Form W-7 list the requirements. The form may change every year, but here is the current form http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7.pdf.

For those of you who have foreign spouses that do not have income, the decision is not necessarily moot. The U.S. tax system is a progressive one, where increasing amounts of income are tax at increasingly higher rates. and your spouse's standard deduction and personal exemption are not available for those filing married filing separately. Look at the 2007 tax rate tables http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html and you can see what I mean. For 2007, the tax rates range from 10% to 35%. A person filing married filing separately’s first $7,825 of income is taxed at 10%. A married couple filing jointly gets to have their first $15,650 taxed at the lowest rate of 10%, meaning that the married couple gets to have twice as much income subject to the lowest tax rate than the married person filing separately.

Others have pointed out that there are Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) Publications that are intended to help explain the rules and your options. The IRS Forms and Publications and be found here http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html. You can start by looking at Pub. 519 U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens as noted by an above commentator.

Please note that the above is not intended to be tax advice. You should consult your own tax advisor or the IRS helpline (I’ve found them to be quite helpful).

Can I confirm... Were you transferred to CSC from VSC?

Yes. Transferred on 8/21. So it took a little more than a month to get approved after the transfer.

Just wanted to update others since I've benefited so much from reading everyone else's information and updates. I received my approval notice today. I-130 sent 1/7/08, NOA1 2/8/08.

Ironic that the only time I got impatient and called USCIS for the first time was yesterday. Maddening that the automated phone system basically said that you must wait 180 days to contact USCIS after any activity on your application (including the recent transfers from Vermont to California) – unhelpful cover your ### information like this just reduces trust in the system. Helpful that the live person I finally reached said that if you filed within 30 days of the current processing dates, you are considered still currently processing and should wait until that processing date has moved past 30 days after you filed. She said that she couldn’t do anything for me until I was 30 days outside of the processing date, so I don’t think my call had anything to do with receiving the approval.

Good luck to others still waiting for NOA2.

Hi all,

Reading through the posts in this forum, it appears that the interviews in Vietnam are being conducted with heighten scrutiny and people are being asked to prove their relationships with more evidence than normal. A fair number of people on this board have been deemed to have suspect relationships, with their applications returned to the US. I've seen people commenting on this board that the reason why interviews are tougher in Vietnam is the us government's fear of fraudulent applications in that country.

Has anyone experienced or heard whether the interviews and evidence requirements are tougher in the U.S. I've seen when people comment about their interviews in other countries that they have been nowhere near as hard as it seems the ones in Vietnam are. I haven't seen anything on this board to justify it, but 'm worried that Cambodia might be in the same boat as Vietnam. Does it make a difference whether you are applying for a fiancee or spousal visa?

Forgive me if I'm repeating information that you already know, but I'm assuming that you are new to the website from your date joined. Where did you file? Vermont or California Service Center? I think Vermont Service Center has been months behind California and has not been processing anything. Only this month Vermont has transferred about a half year's worth of their case load to California to even up processing (I think something like their Sept 07-Feb08 cases). Those transferred have been receiving their approvals in reasonably short order. There is a transferred applicant thread that has been keeping track of the transfers and approvals in a spreadsheet. Take a look at that. If you started with Cali, I would be worried (you would be months behind other people in your service center). If you started with Vermont, there were people months ahead of you in the same situation, but these recent transfers should be helping out (and you would be hoping to be transferred also). I filed in Vermont on 1/10/08 and was transferred last week to Cali. That transfer was the only activity on my file the entire time.

Everything I've seen states that while it is possible, it is very hard to get a nonimmigrant visa while you are in the process of getting an immigrant visa because of the risk that the potential immigrant would just stay in the US and file for adjustment of status. I agree with the earlier poster that there are fraud considerations that you do not want to engage in.

The processing time moves in strange ways. I've seen it stuck at the same date for months. I've seen it go backward. I just tend to view any timeline or time frame you get from USCIS website or from their call centers (at least as far as from Vermont as that's what I've been paying attention to) as a cover your butt date.

Just thought I'd give an FYI. I filed a I-130 on 1/9/08 (NOA1 notice date 2/8/08) with Vermont and received an email notification that I was transferred today to the CA Service Center.

Ooh, I filed 2 days after you and my NOA1 is the same day... Maybe there's hope for me... Have you had any touches? I wonder if you're in the '2/24 black hole' with me?

No touches. This is the first activity since the NOA1.

Just thought I'd give an FYI. I filed a I-130 on 1/9/08 (NOA1 notice date 2/8/08) with Vermont and received an email notification that I was transferred today to the CA Service Center.