I-130 and Tax return status

**majavacool** · 1st April 2012, 07:15 PM

I hope it is ok to ask a tax question related to I-130 processing. I got married last year. I've started I-130 for my wife. She is in her country now. Should I filed married jointly or separately or single? She doesn't have any income in US in 2011. She already has SSN as she used to work here few years ago.

Thanks,

**littleadv** · 2nd April 2012, 03:20 AM

Originally Posted by majavacool

I hope it is ok to ask a tax question related to I-130 processing. I got married last year. I've started I-130 for my wife. She is in her country now. Should I filed married jointly or separately or single? She doesn't have any income in US in 2011. She already has SSN as she used to work here few years ago.

Thanks,

You're married, so you cannot file as single. You can file as married filing separately, and your wife would file a 1040NR form with zero liability (assuming she has no US income).

**majavacool** · 2nd April 2012, 08:56 PM

Thanks for the reply. She doesn't have any US income. She is not living in USA. Does she really need to submit 1040NR? Is there any connection how I'm filing tax and my I-130 processing?

Thanks again.

**littleadv** · 3rd April 2012, 01:14 AM

Originally Posted by majavacool

Thanks for the reply. She doesn't have any US income. She is not living in USA. Does she really need to submit 1040NR? Is there any connection how I'm filing tax and my I-130 processing?

Thanks again.

You cannot claim to be married when dealing with one Federal agency, and claim to be single when dealing with another. You're lying to one of them, and you'll get in trouble. At some point you'll have to file an AOS which will also require you and your wife to send your IRS forms to USCIS. You don't want them to see that you checked "single" there, because if they do the least that would happen would be an IRS audit and RFE on your request which would likely to end up with a denial.

Why is it so complicated for your wife to fill a couple of pages and mail to the IRS? Its not that she'll have to pay anything (other than postage). Why are you even thinking about tax fraud and immigration fraud, what are you expecting to gain by it???

**majavacool** · 3rd April 2012, 07:25 PM

Thanks for your reply again. I think you have misunderstood my answer or I wasn't clear. I have no intention of lying at all. In fact I'm trying to find the information so that I'm not doing any mistake anywhere. I wanted to say if I file as 'married filing separately' then do my wife has to file 1040NR or not. As you said it would be zero liability for her as she doesn't have any US income.

Thanks,