If you are a US citizen or resident living in Vietnam, you have an option to file either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. Generally, married filing jointly gives you more benefit to maximize your total refund. To see the comparison, click here: Jointly vs Separately. If you meet certain requirements, you may qualify to claim the child as your dependent. To see eligibility, click here: Dependent
If your spouse is a nonresident and if you want to file jointly with her, you can make an election to claim her from a nonresident to a resident. TurboTax does not provide any tools or forms to assist you to make the election, unfortunately. You would need to follow IRS's instructions to attach the statement to your 2020 tax return. You cannot e-file. Instead, print out all your tax forms along with the statement and paper-file. Click here to see Nonresident to resident You both can file jointly on a Form 1040 by using TurboTax, reporting worldwide income including those you earned in Vietnam and any US source income you may have.
If both of your spouse and the child do not have either an SSN or ITIN, you would need to apply for one for both of them. To do so, you must file a Form W-7 along with filing your tax return. Without an SSN or ITIN, you won't be able to e-file.
To prepare your tax return in the program, here are the steps:
- In the program, as you enter the information, leave the SSN space blank
- After entering all your information, print out returns and required forms ( write APPLIED in the dependent and spouse 's space)
- As TurboTax does not support the Form W-7, fill out the forms by following
- https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/General-ITIN-Information and attach to other required documentation
- Submit both the Form W-7 and your tax forms to IRS Austin location in Texas. ( see Form W-7 instructions)
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