Can my wife and I, with me on an F-1 visa and her on an R-1 visa, file our taxes jointly using TurboTax, considering our 2-year-old son is a U.S. citizen?

Yes, your spouse may file a resident tax return and choose to treat you as a resident alien for tax reporting purposes. This way you can file jointly and claim your two-year old son as a dependent. 

 

To qualify, your wife would need to meet the substantial presence test, which includes:

 

1. 31 days during the current year, and
2. 183 days during the 3-year period that includes the current year and the 2 years immediately before that, counting:
   • All the days you were present in the current year, and
   • 1/3 of the days you were present in the first year before the current year, and
   • 1/6 of the days you were present in the second year before the current year.

If she spent the entire year in the US, she'd be eligible to file as a US resident with her R-1 Visa status. You would not be considered a resident normally because of your F-1 visa status.

 

If you wife didn't meet the substantial presence test for 2024, you both would need to file separate 1040 NR nonresident returns with Sprint Tax here.