You treat your nonresident spouse as a resident for tax purposes by making the choice described in IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, designating your spouse as a resident in TurboTax, and attaching a required statement to your mailed (not-efiled) tax return.
Here is some of the Publication 519 text describing the option to treat your nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes:
"If, at the end of your tax year, you are married and one spouse is a U.S. citizen or a resident alien and the other spouse is a nonresident alien, you can choose to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident. This includes situations in which one spouse is a nonresident alien at the beginning of the tax year, but a resident alien at the end of the year, and the other spouse is a nonresident alien at the end of the year."
To make the choice, attach a statement, signed by both spouses, to your joint return for the first tax year for which the choice applies. It should contain the following information.
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A declaration that one spouse was a nonresident alien and the other spouse a U.S. citizen or resident alien on the last day of your tax year, and that you choose to be treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year.
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The name, address, and identification number of each spouse. (If one spouse died, include the name and address of the person making the choice for the deceased spouse.)
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