Filing Tax for married H1-B VISA holder, but spouse not in the US yet.

[sayan7]

Hi, I am on H1-B Work VISA, and I got married in December 2020. My wife is not in the US yet (due to covid travel bans). I need to file my taxes soon, by June 15th 2021 (I’m a Texas resident).

When using TurboTax, it asks me if I want to file as an individual, Jointly or Separately. If I choose “File Jointly”, then it asks me for my wife’s SSN. She does not have a SSN, nor does she have an ITIN, since she is not in the US yet. So how should I file? She was not present in the US last year, and had no income in the US last year, or this year. So should I just file as individually, like I have been doing for the past few years?

[pk]

@sayan7  you can file as follows:

(a) Married Filing Separate --- TurboTax will ask for  your wife's name, Tax ID etc. So you put her name in and enter a dummy SSN  such as 562-64-9999. Then  when the return has been fully prepared , select file  by mail. This will  provide you with a printed version of the filing documents. Now you snopake/earse the dummy SSN you used and replace that with hand written " NRA".  Now you sign, date and file by  mail.     Since you are here in the USA during the filing season, your filing date ( without regard to extension ) for 2020 is/was May 17th. 2021.

(b)  You file as Married  filing Joint --- follow the steps  for  option(a) above.  However in this case , you download, print , fill out  the form W-7 and  provide all the  documents  required.  This  will result in your spouse  getting an ITIN  that is valid for 2020 filing retrospectively.  You two also would need to send in a jointly signed letter requesting that she be treated as a resident -for -tax purposes for the whole year 2020.  This would mean  her world income  would come under US tax purview.

Is there more I can do for  you ?

Namaste

pk

[Critter-3]

If you are going to get an ITIN then you must use a dummy SS# that starts with a 9  ... try 999- 88 - 9999.