Hello geminagl,
If, at the end of your tax year, you are married and one spouse is a U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident within the meaning of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 7701(b)(1)(A) and the other is not, you can choose to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes. This includes situations in which one of you was not a U.S. resident at the beginning of the tax year but was at the end of the year, and the other was not a U.S. resident at the end of the year.
If you and your spouse do not choose to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident, you may be able to use head of household filing status. To use this status, you must pay more than half the cost of maintaining a household for certain dependents or relatives other than your nonresident spouse.
If you decide to do a joint return with your spouse then the steps to follow are in this link - Nonresident Spouse - IRS
We would need more information about your step-son to be able to determine if you qualify as Head of Household, if you decided to go this route instead. Here is a link that will help you in determining if your step-son is a 'qualifying person' for the Head of Household filing status - What is a "qualifying person" for Head of Household?
Best regards,
Gabriela
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