I am Canadian and obtained the greencard in 1990. However I have maintained my residence in US and studied in school and university in Canada uptil now. I however have not filed taxes all these years as I had no income being a student. I am wondering if this will be a big problem in my application for Citizenship ?
You mean arriving in the US every 5.5 months, staying for a few days, and leaving again for 5.5 months again and again? That does not maintain residence for naturalization purposes. If that is what you have been doing since 1990, it's surprising they haven't revoked your green card.Residency is based on presence out of US no longer than 6 months..which i do fulfill and so that is not as much a issue.
What is your travel pattern exactly? Have you been spending more time inside the US every year than outside? Have you spend at least 30 months of the last 5 years in the US? Were you a minor for most of those years since 1990? Please explain your situation fully so we can provide some useful information.NO!!!! I have been staying for longer besides that is NOT my point...My focus is on the tax issue!!!!!!!! Could someone help me out with THAT, please?
NO!!!! I have been staying for longer besides that is NOT my point...My focus is on the tax issue!!!!!!!! Could someone help me out with THAT, please?
Having zero income is a perfectly justifiable reason for not filing tax returns.Well that will be an issue, even if somehow they decide to accept the non-filling of the taxes (which would be highly unlikely without a good just cause and other supporting documents of why you didn't), then your timeline in the US would be the next point where they will have the issue.
No...I am 30...but that is flattering. And I have been commuting to Canada and lived in US and I have been living in US for the past 5 years. But I am still unemployed and so I did not file taxes as of yet. I am now looking to file for citizenship so I dont know how to answer the "have to filed taxes ?" question.
If you haven't filed taxes due to no income, you would answer "no" to question 4 on application since you weren't required to file taxes in the first place.
"Since becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident, have you ever failed to file a required Federal state or local tax return?"
If your income is zero you don't have to file (unless you have certain specific transactions like real estate). Yes, it helps to file if you are spending lots of time overseas, but it still is not a requirement.Yes you don't file the entire tax form, but you are still required to fill out the appropriate answers on the form to state you are not paying taxes and send that to the IRS.
Same with living overseas as a citizen, you still need to file taxes claiming no income...
Your income was zero all the time as a permanent resident? And you didn't do any of the things mentioned here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96623,00.html ? If both are true for you, you didn't need to file taxes.No...I am 30...but that is flattering. And I have been commuting to Canada and lived in US and I have been living in US for the past 5 years. But I am still unemployed and so I did not file taxes as of yet. I am now looking to file for citizenship so I dont know how to answer the "have to filed taxes ?" question.
.. but you are still required to fill out the appropriate answers on the form to state you are not paying taxes and send that to the IRS.
I don't see any such requirement on the IRS website. In fact, they have a list of questions on their website to help you determine if you must file, but there's no mention that there's a requirement to send in your answers on a tax form.
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96623,00.html