Hi everyone,
My husband and I are desperately looking for advice on our situation.
We both became Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR) during 2019 (precisely, we entered the U.S. as LPR on the 21st of September). Before that, he got an F1 visa since he is a Ph.D. student from 2016 who used to file his taxes as a single individual because I kept living abroad since we got married in July 2017 (during 2019, I only came to visit him for two weeks during April).
After I entered the U.S. on the 21st of September, I came back to Europe on the 28th of September to wrap up my things, and I moved everything to the U.S. at the beginning of 2020. He stayed here in the U.S. for his Ph.D. (so, he spent more than 200 days in the U.S. during 2019).
Given our situation, how do we have to file our taxes? As MFJ, MFS, or Separate individuals?
Given that I have a dual-alien status, can I be treated as a U.S. resident for the full year?
I saw that the IRS guide states for the "Choosing Resident Alien Status" that "If you are a dual-status alien, you can choose to be treated as a U.S. resident for the entire year if all of the following apply.
• You were a nonresident alien at the beginning of the year.
• You are a resident alien or U.S. citizen at the end of the year.
• You are married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien at the end of the year.
• Your spouse joins you in making the choice.
This includes situations in which both you and your spouse were nonresident aliens at the beginning of the tax year and both of you are resident aliens at the end of the tax year."
Would our situation be included in this choice? Considering that he is a resident alien for the full 2019, and I have a dual-status?
Furthermore, given that during 2019 I earned only foreign income from my European employer, can I apply for the foreign income exclusion? Would that be ok from the immigration point of view?
We are really trying to find the right way to file our taxes to be fully compliant with the immigration requirements stating that "An individual shall cease to be treated as a lawful permanent resident of the United States if such individual commences being treated as a resident of a foreign country under the provisions of a tax treaty between the United States and the foreign country, does not waive the benefits of such treaty applicable to residents of the foreign country, and notifies the Secretary of the commencement of such treatment."
Thank you so much!!! Any help would be much appreciated
@KarenJ2 #greencard #filingstatus #foreignicomeexclusion
