GC holder & Spouse abroad -- Tax withholdings

[WheresMahGreen]

Gurus,
Could anyone shed some light on how people who have obtained their GC (employment or other) or in the process of obtaining their GC are reporting taxes when their respective spouse live abroad?

Thanks

 

[sv_nagari]

Hi,

I am not sure how much this will be helpful for your case, when I was GC Holder (Now I am a USC) I applied for tax ID for my wife with hopelessly and hesitantly based on my CPA's advise (Election Category!!??, yes that's what my CPA told me), luckily I got a tax ID after a query. She was not in US at that time. However she is a Canadian PR. I found there is a law for Canadian and Mexican PR spouse can obtain tax ID though they are not in US. I would suggest to check with a CPA. There must be a way to get a tax id. It is worth to try because it is a big money.

Good Luck..

 

[WheresMahGreen]

Thanks, SV_Nagari

But I think Canada and Mexico have slightly different set of rules applied to them by virtue of the NAFTA agreement.
To be more specific: My wife is in India and will not be able to join me this tax year as it might take a while for my GC to come through and an FTJ to take place. My question is whether I can claim her as a dependent (rightfully so). If yes, then how do I go about filing next year's tax returns? I don't want to get penalized for filing under "married filing separately" category as the deductions are lower and tax rates are comparable to those under "single" category.