Spouse (Homemaker)and 2 kids (one US citizen and one indian citizen, how to file taxes in US

[akumarv]

My family(Spouse indian citizen homemaker has ITIN,  2 kids one daughter US citizen has SSN and one son Indian citizen has ITIN is currently based in India), I am based in US working on H1B visa, they were out of US whole of year 2018, can you pls let me know if I can claim them as dependents for 2018 tax returns.

I am filing my tax returns through the Turbo tax CD and need answer to below questions in dependent sections.

1. What shall i put as citizenship status for my son and daughter out of 3 options:

a. US citizen or legal resident

b. A resident of canada or mexico

c. None of the above

2. How many months did they stayed with you in 2018?

What shall i put here 0 days or something else, they stayed in my home country not in US for whole of 2018

Also i am filing my return as Married filing jointly

[KarenJ · Accepted solution]

You can file a joint return with your spouse if you file an election to file a married filing jointly return.

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Nonresident-Spouse-Treated-as-a-Resident

You can claim an exemption for your US citizen daughter but you cannot claim an exemption for your son and he was not a US resident in 2018.

Your daughter would be a US citizen, and as she stayed with your wife the whole year, you can enter 12 months.

For your son, you would enter that he is not a US citizen or resident alien and that he lived with you the entire 12 months as he lived with your wife.