I am an Indian Citizen and on H1B visa (Resident Alien) for past 4 years. I recently got married on Dec 2016 in India. My wife has never been to US and will not be coming to US before 31st Dec'2016. She does not have SSN or ITIN. She is planning to come as soon as she gets her dependent visa.
At present she does not have passport as well. So it will take some time to get her passport and then dependent visa. If I file jointly then I believe ITIN is required of my wife which I do not believe I would be able to apply as she does not have passport, nor any US visa yet.
Hence my questions:
A. Can you advise if I should be filing Married jointly or separately? Do I need ITIN to file tax returns this year?
B. My wife does file IT returns in home country which is non-taxable because her income is below taxable income threshold. How does she report her income back in India? Does she has to report in US? 1. If her income needs to report in US if filing jointly or separately in any case, I believe only her income after our marriage date of Dec 2016 is needed to be reported? 2. Please provide guidelines on filing tax returns if she has to report in US.
C. Can you provide guidelines on how to get ITIN for my Wife as she is not in US.
D. Kindly suggest best possible way to file returns and provide appropriate solution so that I can meet filing deadline and file in appropriate status.
