My husband is not a permanent resident and has not moved to the states yet so he has no SSN

[Anonymous_]

@pk ?

[pk · Accepted solution]

@mana98653 

You a US person (citizen / Green Card / Resident for tax purposes ) is married to Non-Resident Alien ( whom is not in the USA) with nil tax ID. What are you trying to do  -- file jointly with him ? for 2021 or 2022 ?  What country is he a citizen/ Resident of ?  Does he have any income  either sourced or connected to US?  Has he ever been to USA and if so any stays in the USA during current + two prior years?  Does he have income in his country of citizenship and/or country of residence/ domicile ?

Please tell me more -- I would circle back once I hear from you 

pk

[mana98653]

Thank you. 

I am an LPR living in the states. My husband is Syrian who lives in Bulgaria and does not have a SSN nor an ITIN. He also has no income.

I also have no income and live with my son here. 

I am filing for 2021. I have no preference whether to file separately or jointly. 
My question: can I file without having to apply for SSN or ITIN for him because it takes time turns out and I have to file asap. 

[pk · Accepted solution]

@mana98653 , thank you for your response -- hopefully I understand the situation correctly.

You a permanent resident ( Green Card ) live in the USA  and have no income ( US and foreign ? ).  So then why do you have to file a return?

But if for some reason you do need to file , there is no real issue filing a Married Filing Separate ( MFS ).  However TurboTax  and for e-filing will need the details of your husband ( name , Tax ID etc. ).  You can always prepare the return with a dummy SSN for your husband like  488-88-9000 or similar. The print the return ( tell TurboTax that you want to file by mail ), erase the dummy SSN and replace  with  " N R A " and then sign, date  and mail it in .  This will keep TurboTax software  happy and you in control.

Is there more I can do for you ?

pk

[mana98653]

Thank you for your response. Got it. To provide more context:

Neither me nor my husband have any income foreign or US-linked. We live off our kids support . It's been the case since 2019.

I became an LPR and moved to the States last year (2022). Mu husband will apply and move here soon too. 

I need to file taxes as I was asked for a tax return to prove 0 income while applying to some programs. 

I just want to make sure it is OK to file as married jointly with my husband and fill in NRA in the SSN box for him considering that neither of us has any US (and non US) income. 

[pk]

@mana98653 Great

[Critter-3]

If you use a fake SS# for a place filler it MUST start with a 9 ... so 999 - 88 - 9999 works well. 

[pk]

@mana98653 . sorry -- I went back and re-read your post.   NO you cannot file as joint -- Married Filing Joint  ( because in that case your husband would need a SSN or ITIN and because he has  never come to the USA, has no income or US sourced income, it would take quite sometime and may be refused ) --will not work.

What I meant was to file Married Filing Separate (MFS). Here is where you prepare the  return using a dummy SSN just to pass TurboTax checks, then print replace the dummy SSN with " N  R  A " and file by mail.

What @Critter-3  is talking about is using a dummy SSN that will pass TurboTax check  and is known to be dummy and therefore possible to e-file.  I actually have never tried this  but  am pretty sure @Critter-3  is correct  ( as she almost always is  ).

Sorry for the confusion..

pk

[Critter-3]

@pk   Thanks for the complement ... but using a fake SS# that starts with a 9  is to mimic an ITIN so the program doesn't give the taxpayer a credit they are not entitled to.  

[pk]

@Critter-3 , agreed -- but .....