Tax exception- Non-immigrant married to Unemployed American citizens

[Sandilyan]

Hi, 

I am a Non immigrant from India and I am married to a American citizen who is not employed from last tax year also we have a 9 moths old daughter.

I heard that I cannot file jointly because I'm non-immigrant

My question is : how many exceptions I can file and what are my best options when i filing tax?.

Thank you 

[tagteam]

@pk 

[pk]

First Namaste Second --- by non-immigrant, you mean that you are here in the USA with a visa ( we need to know: what visa, when did you enter the country, do you have SSN, when did you get married , does the child have SSN , was the child born in the USA, some details of your employment such as , research, regular W-2, business, etc. etc. ) then generally there is nothing that requires the spouse to be employed; Third -- generally filing jointly depends on answers to some of the questions / information requested above; Fourth -- I am assuming that by "exception" you mean exemption for filing. Or did you mean exemptions for purposes of filling out W-4 with your employer ( withholding instructions ) ? Please answer my questions and I will circle back and help Namaste ji pk

[Opus 17]

If you are living in the US and meet the substantial presence test, then you are a US person for income tax purposes and must file a US resident tax return. In that case, there is no barrier to filing a joint return with your US spouse. A married couple may always file a joint return, even when one spouse is not employed, and joint returns almost always result in lower tax.

Since you seem to be asking about your withholding allowances at your job, if you will be filing a resident tax return, you follow the same rules as any other resident or citizen and use the same withholding form and you have the same rights to claim dependents.

If you do not live in the US, and do not meet the substantial presence test, and do not have a green card, then you are a nonresident alien, and you would file a nonresident alien tax return. Here, your options become more complicated. Rather than discuss those complicated options, it would be better to know a little bit more about your situation first. 

[Sandilyan]

Thank you for the response. I have been living in the United States for last 6 years using H1B visa and I don't have a green card. I had a approved i140 and now we just applied for green card through marriage couple of months ago which is still in process. My marriage happened may 2022. Hope it gives more insight. Thanks Again 

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

An H1B visa holder is a resident for tax purposes.  That means you follow the same tax regulations and file the same tax form as a married couple who are both US citizens.  In most cases, you will want to file a joint return with your spouse. Married filing jointly almost always results in less overall tax or a larger refund, because certain deductions or credits are limited or disallowed when filing separately from your spouse. There is no problem filing a joint return if one spouse doesn’t work.

[Sandilyan]

thanks a lot for the informative respose @Opus 17 .  i appriciate it and will follow it.

[Sandilyan]

@pk Vanakam and thanks for the response. i think @Opus 17  helped me with the enough info for now.