I am married but my wife is currently in India, and she is un-employed. Do I need to file as “married filing separately / married filing jointly”?

[dhansinghpatel]

Hi, I have recently moved to USA on 10th December 2016 on H1B visa. I am married but my wife is currently in India, and she is not having any income source in India. So for filling tax return, I have some question, please find them below.

1)       Do I need to file as “married filing separately / married filing jointly”?

2)      What will be my taxable married status ‘single / married’? As per w-2 form it is single.

3)      If I filled for married filing jointly, what do I have select for “States your spouse lived”?

4)      As my wife is in India and non-employed, she didn’t have SSN or ITIN, so how to file married filing jointly? Or do I have to file married filing separately?

Please suggest. Thanks in advance.

[CDKristopherP]

Alright there is a lot to break down here so lets get started,  

1) Base on what you have provided you would likely benefit the most from filing as married filing jointly.  

2) Your taxable married status can be married even if the W-2 says you are single.  

3) The state you would select is at the bottom of the list: "Foreign or U.S. Possession." 

4) Since your spouse is a nonresident alien you have the option of married filing jointly or married filing separately, since she has no income you would likely benefit most form filing as married filing jointly.   

I determined these recommendations based on this article: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Taxes-101/Claiming-a-Non-Citizen-Spouse-and-Children-... that goes into details about this topic.  I would recommend reading it.