My wife is from Scotland and still lives in Scotland as waiting on immigration to approve her. How would I file with her if she does not have a SS number?

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

If you are a US citizen and your spouse does not have a Social Security number or an ITIN and you are not applying for an ITIN with the tax return then you can only file your tax return as Married Filing Separately.  Where asked to enter the spouse's Social Security number enter 999-88-9999.  You can only print and mail your tax return, it cannot be e-filed.  When you print the tax return erase the Social Security number for your spouse and manually enter NRA for non-resident alien.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for the procedure to print and mail a tax return using the online editions - https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1944348-how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online

Your spouse would only need to report her income if you were filing your tax return as Married Filing Jointly, applying for an ITIN with the tax return and you would be providing a statement with your tax return that you want your Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident.  See IRS Publication 54 Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad pages 6 and 7 - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

[tomaip]

Thank you Donin as this helped tremendously.  I had informed my wife that I was filing "Married Filing Separately" as she in not even in the country yet as waiting on Immigration to ensure she is not a bad person as coming in from a dangerous country.  They watched the movie Braveheart and have not heard that William Wallace died a couple years ago.  LOL  Thanks again.

[DoninGA]

The INS sure has some issues if they are trying to decide if a person from the Free and democratic country of Scotland (I know it is still part of the UK) is a danger to the US.  BTW loved Braveheart.  Going to England, Scotland and Ireland next year for our 50th to check out where our ancestors lived...Good Luck with your taxes