Virtually separated. Do we have to filing taxes jointly? Chances to stay in the country?

V

vegano

New Member
My wife (American citizen and my petitioner) and I got married in September 2011 and stayed happy and living together since then until last December 2012 when the trouble started. We haven't filling out yet our 2012 taxes because we have been separated since January, with little conversation and keeping a very cold distance relationship. I thought we were going to solve our differences in these latest months but it didn't happen, quite the opposite, we recently had a deep conversation with some confessions from her side where at the end we decided that we definitely need and have to stay separate and get a divorce. In the state we live we have to stay one year separated in order to submit the divorce paperwork with a court, so we have to wait until January/2014 to start the legal process. I have no idea how long does it take to get the final decision from the judge in our case that would be an uncontested divorce as we agreed.

My concern now is the immigration process. I got the temporal resident card in May/2012 which expires in May/2014. After this day I don't know what I'm going to do or what's going to happen with the permit and my life in the US, since my wife and me aren't going to be married anymore. The truth is that she screwed things up and she told me that if I need anything in order to continue with the process she was going to help me and today she asked me if now that we decided we are going to be separated and submitting a divorce next year, we still have to filing taxes jointly? I told her I have no idea and that's why I'm asking for some help and advice which I'll really appreciate it. :)

I had understood that I have to fill out a I-751 form next year, but not sure if I have to attach our taxes declaration with it or something else. Is there any chance that I can stay legally in the country after all this misfortune?

Million thanks for any help.
 
Thanks Jackolantern, I know I can do that, my question is, if we should or not do it together or individually and how it could affect the immigration process if we do it in one way or the other. Thanks :J
 
Married people can file jointly or separately. Usually jointly is better in terms of taxes, but if you can't or don't want to talk to each other or trust each other, then filing separately is fine. How you file taxes doesn't really matter for immigration. And anyways by the time you file for Removal of Conditions, you will either be divorced or be going through divorce anyway, so it's not like they won't know.

Immediately after you are divorced, you can (and should) file for Removal of Conditions on your own. The sooner you get divorced the better. If you hit the 90 days before the end of the two years and you are still not divorced yet, you can still file and they will give you some more time to finish the divorce.
 
Thanks newacct, I appreciate your answer, I thought having a jointly taxes was an imminent requirement.
 
Filing taxes jointly is not required, but it helps ... if you file separately without a good financial reason (saving money compared to filing jointly), or some other reason that isn't based on your marriage falling apart (e.g. some public officials who release their tax returns to the public will file separately so their spouse's income details aren't made public), it makes them suspicious.
 
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