@please_help
"While I may be wrong, I interpret "neither spouse can make this choice again in any later tax year, even if married to a different individual – it is a once-in-a-lifetime choice" as meaning that the choice "to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes" cannot be replicated after the presence of any scenario under the article's "Ending the Choice" paragraph. Earlier in the article reads the following:"
This relates to the choice to treat your non-resident spouse as a US resident for tax purposes. This gets you a lot of US tax benefits, because when you are married filing separately, your tax rates are higher and a lot of deductions and credits are reduced or disallowed. If you chose to treat your non-resident spouse as a US resident, that choice is generally irreversible, except for certain circumstances. If you do fit one of the circumstances, and reverse the choice, you can never again choose to treat a non-resident spouse as a resident to get the tax benefits of filing jointly.
Consider this scenario. In 2024 your spouse does not work and you choose to treat her as a US resident. She must report all her world-wide income, but she has none, so you get all the benefits of filing jointly and it costs you nothing. In 2025, she sells some property in her home country for an enormous capital gain that would drastically increase your US tax, so you decide to reverse the choice and file separately. Since she is not a US resident, she does not have to report the capital gain and pay US tax on foreign income. Then in 2027, she is back to having no income, so you want to file jointly. You can't, because you can't take that choice a second time.
However, that rule only applies as long as your spouse is a non-resident alien. If she becomes a resident alien, green card holder or US citizen, then all her worldwide income is always subject to US tax, whether she files jointly or separately, and you have the same ability to file jointly or separately as any other married couple under US laws (citizens, green card holders and residents).
Knowing those rules, if you decide to treat your spouse as a US resident for tax purposes, go ahead. Follow the procedure to file a joint return and apply for an ITIN. In the future, you should be able to use the ITIN to e-file. Just remember that if you make that choice, then all your spouse's worldwide income is subject to US taxation, even if it is earned and paid in a foreign country. And if she applies for permanent status, one of the questions on the interview is "have you paid any and all US income tax that you have owed?" And if you do decide to end the choice before she gets residency status, you won't be able to make the choice again for her or a different future spouse.
