Dependent qualifications for child lived outside us

[gangqu9319]

Here's my situation:

I am a resident alien living in the U.S.

My spouse is a non-resident alien residing in China with an ITIN.

Our child born in US, who has a U.S. SSN, has spent most of the year outside the U.S. with her mother.

My questions are:

Can I file taxes jointly with my wife?

Can I claim our child as a dependent?

The complexity arises from the definition of residency. One criterion is that the child must "live with you for more than 183 days." However, if we file jointly, does my spouse living outside the U.S. also count as "you" for fulfilling the residency requirement for our child?

[NCperson]

@gangqu9319 - yes

[AmeliesUncle]

In order to file a Joint return, you and your wife will need to make an election to treat her as a Resident Alien.  TurboTax is not set up for that, so you would need to manually do that and mail the tax return (or go to a tax professional).

Your Joint tax return will need to include any worldwide income that your wife had,

In the event you were not a Resident Alien for the entire year, you should go to a tax professional that is experienced with Nonresident Aliens.  Even if you were a Resident for the entire year, you may still want to consider a good tax professional, so they can check if any Tax Treaty provisions apply, FBAR, FATCA, etc.