Because you are married, you must file as married filing separately or married filing jointly, unless you provide care in your home for a qualifying child dependent. In that case, you may be able to file as head of household.
Joint filing usually has lower taxes in the US because some credits and deductions are disallowed or reduced when filing separately. However, to file a joint return with your spouse, you must make an election to treat your spouse as a US resident for tax purposes and this means that you must report all of your spouses worldwide income and pay US income tax on it, even if your spouse does not live in the US. There is a credit or deduction if your spouse also pays for in taxes on the same income that will reduce the impact of double taxation.
Therefore, the decision of whether to file jointly or separately is complicated and which is financially better depends on your unique circumstances. You can create multiple test returns in TurboTax if you have separate online accounts for each test or if you buy and install the software on your own computer.
