Thank you so much for the rapid and helpful response. I think I am all set with my kids situation now, but I am afraid my situation with my husband (the J2 holder) is a bit trickier. Our J visas were good until Sept 6th 2017, but he returned to Europe sooner (in June), and will be filing taxes in Spain for 2017- not the US. Is that possible? does the IRS count the date on the visa to establish substantial presence? or will I be required to show proof that he left earlier? For tax purposes, it makes a lot more sense that he files in Spain and not in the US.
I just did a simulation with TurboTax. I chose "married filing separately", specified that we only lived together until June 2016, used a dummy SSN, and was able to complete the whole process OK. However, when I do it for real, will I have to enter an ITIN for him? or can I do as the previous answer suggested, "manually writing in with a pen the words "None" or "Not Applicable" where you are asked to give the US tax ID number for your spouse"? (if so please give instruction on how to do it in turboTax if possible) or do I have to get him an ITIN even if we are not filing jointly and he is not filing in the US?
Thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.
