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The minimum hassle might be to file initially as "married, filing separately", and NOT apply for an ITIN. You would NOT be able to claim the exemption or deduction, but once she arrives, you can file an amended return with filing status "married filing jointly", furnish her SS # once she gets it, and get your full refund at that time. Note the IRS terminology - your spouse may ELECT to be TREATED as a resident of the United States for tax purposes. Read Publication 519, Section "Non-Resident Spouse Treated as Resident" for more information on that. Note also that if your spouse DID have reportable income, it may be EXCLUDED by using Form 2555. wait i'm more confused now. randy w. just said i can't claim my wife as an exemption based on this above statement "...You would NOT be able to claim the exemption or deduction, but once she arrives, you can file an amended return with filing status "married filing jointly", furnish her SS # once she gets it, and get your full refund at that time." so can someone clear this up for me once and for all? here is the scenerio again. i'm a us citizen. my wife lives in china. we got married in nov. 2011. i'm filing as "married filing as separately" for my 1040 2011 return. i will apply for itin # for my wife. my wife has no gross income and she WON'T be filing a return when she arrive here in the usa. so one more time. 1. so can i claim my wife as an exemption on my 1040 on line 6b? yes or no? and why? thx.

so i'm having my wife send me back her official passport. since i fired my cpa, i have a few more questions. on my 1040 form, i'm filing as "married filing as separately." 1. when i notorized a copy of her passport here. do i also have to notorized our marriage certificate from china and then send here notarized copy of her passport along with the w7 form to get the itin #? 2. so on my 1040 form, on line 6a and b for exemptions. I will it for myself. b is for my spouse. so i can claim my spouse as an exemption even though she is in china right now? if yes, how sure are you guys? 3. if i'm putting her as exemption on my 1040 already, do i still need to file as amend return when she arrive here in the usa? if so, why? on the amend return, do we file as "married filing jointly" return? 4. since when i send my w7 form to get her itin #, i won't have it when i file my state tax form. so what do i file as for my state and what do i need to do on my state form? i live in new york btw. thx in advance.

i heard the white slip means denied/fail and the blue slip they request more information from you (basically u have to wait for god know what). is that correct? what slip color do they give now if your spouse pass the interview? nothing? they just tell your spouse verbally that they pass?

david: how sure are you that she needs to go to the consulate to get her passport notarized? a few member here mentioned they have their spouse send them their passport and they notarized their spouse passport here in the usa?

I took my wife's passport to a local politicians office here and had it notorized for free. I didn't want my wife to have to deal with any American's in a consulate, so we took the chance with her passport and she sent it over to me on some express delivery that got it here in a few days. On the W-7, or where ever she needed a signature I scanned the form into a PDF and sent it to her by e-mail. She went to a print shop in her city, downloaded the form, signed it and had it scanned into PDF and e-mailed back to me. Everything was done quickly. After 4 years and 10 months of paperwork I was sick and tired of more forms by the time it came to this crap, but you have to do everything you can dream up or read about to prove your bona fide relationship. It made me feel great to get that ITIN number sent to me by the IRS, and to make my 1040's reflect my marriage for the interview. Good luck tsap seui I'm happy to see you doing this. You will be glad you did. tsap seui: that's what i'm leaning toward too. i don't want my wife to deal with the consulate especially she is pregnant now and traveling there by bus would take at least 3 hours. her step mom is flying over to china next week and will be returning on march 21. so i will tell her her step mom to get her passport for me when she comes back to give it to me. so once i get her passport can i go to any notary place or do i need to go to some city hall or office to have it notarized her passport? also god forbid, if she doesn't pass the interview. will i need her passport next year again to get itin # to file my next year income tax? i will be flying back probably sept. 2012. that's when i plan to give her passport back to her. but will she need her passport back sooner for any part of the application before the interveiw? i submitted i-130 in dec. 2011. basically do i need to mail back her passport immediately after i do my tax or i can wait till sept. 2012 to give her passport back? thx in advance.

ok after careful consideration i will follow u guys advice about filing "married but file separately." , i will get her itin #. so a couple more questions: 1. in order to get the itin #, she can do this 2 ways: a ) give me her real passport and i will have it notarized here in the usa? b ) go to us embassy in guangzhou and have her passport notarized. if we choose option b, does she needs to make an appointment with us embassy and then go there to get her passport notarized? or she can go there anytime? she made not be able to go due to her being pregnant so i will ask her dad to do it for her. is that possible? any1 who here went this route and can you shed some light on this? 2. once she got her notarized passport, the w7 form is for my wife to fill out and for her to sign, correct? once completed, she give the completed w7 form and her notarized passport to me, correct? thx in advance.

david: i think option 3 is easier. i just spoke to the immigration guy today who did my I-130 form and he also prepare taxes. he basically told me if i'm expecting a refund, it is not worth my time if i file "married but separately" cause i won't get much of a big return anyway compare to file single. he said the only reason to do it is if you are expecting to owe taxes. then it is worth my time. he said to wait till she is here in the usa and then file married and jointly.

ok let's assume the baby is borned and the wife gave the baby a chinese name (let's use chow yun fat in this example) and that name appear in the chinese birth certificate of the baby. when i go to the us embasy in guangzhou, do i have to use that name (chow yun fat) on all his documents (i.e. us consular birth certificate and passport). or can i give the baby an english name instead like bruce wayne chow assuming chow is the last name? so techinnically the baby can have 2 different name? of do i tell my wife what i want to name the baby and have her use bruce wayne chow on the chinese birth certificate? thx in advance.

i have a question about the dna test...do i do it when they request or can we do it ahead of time? i will be flying back when the baby is born, so i would like to do everything all at once. can i go to any hospital and get the test done or does it need to be one of those "approve" list of hospital by the embassy? thx in advance.

thx dave for your insightful tips. yes i will give the w7 form to her step mom when the step mom is flying to china this sunday. and then her father will either go to guangzhou to get the stamp on her passport bio for us or her step mom can get me her actual passport and i will have it notarized here instead. then when i fly back for the baby, i will return the passport back to her. yes i'm expecting a refund. so based on what you are saying if i file "married filing separately", i can even expect a bigger refund since I can claim her as deduction now? and then when she comes over here i will file an amend return and then get the rest of the remaining amount owe to me? is that correct? also i got my answer back from my accountant and this is what he said: "I am saying that you and your wife can file the joint return and entitle to the married filing joint deduction but she wife is not entitle to the personal exemption since she is not an US citizen or holding a permanent residence card." when i ask him what he meant by personal exemption he said to look at "Look at your 2010 return line 42 on form 1040 page 2." i don't have my 1040 form with me. does any1 know what he meant by that? thx in advance.

looking at the top of the w7 form and it said the following: "getting an ITIN does not change your immigration status or your right to work in the united states and does not make you eligible for the earned income credit." noticed where it said earned income credit. so my accountant is right?

This guy is not worth your time (or ours) and not worth your money. Were you married as of Dec 31st or not? Pure and simple. Answer the question. Yes you can donate your money to both him and the IRS if you choose. yes i was married in nov. 22 2011. the w7 form, can i fill out that form for my spouse or does my spouse need to fill out that form and then give it to me so i can attached it to my 1040? her step mom is going to visit her next week. so i can give that form to her and then when she come back in march i can use that form to complete my tax? correct? does my wife need to bring the w7 form to the us embassy in guangzhou to obtain an itin number?

the reason i can't claim her but i can still file jointly according to my accountant is because she is oversea and not here. the first word out of his mouth was this when i told him i got married in china and my wife is in china and i want to file a married joint tax return. btw he is a chinese accountant and he said he did similar tax to other couple in this situation. someone my gut feeling me is telling me he is either too lazy or arrogant and don't want the hassle of finding out. can you provide me with a link either from irs or somewhere so i can throw it back at his face when i see him again? thx in advance.

what if i want the child to become us citizen? can i go to the guangzhou office and apply for the us citizenship for the child and then get a us passport for the child? how long or complicated is this? the reason i want to do this is so i can gather the evidence for her interview showing that she is pregnant and had a baby with me before the interview and thus increasing her chance of getting a spousal visa for the usa.

A spouse is a spouse for income tax purposes - no distinction is made between a foreign spouse and an American spouse. Check the 1040 instructions, or the 1040 form itself. It asks for your spouse's name and SS or ITIN number. In order to file married filing jointly, you will need an ITIN for your spouse, which you apparently already know about. The W7 is filed with your income tax return, which is mailed to the Austin address specified on that form's instructions. The ITIN functions the same as a Social Security number for income tax purposes. Thus, you are entitled to all exemptions and deductions that EVERY income tax filer is entitled to. Simply check the tax tables to see the difference between filing single and filing married filing jointly. Don't forget the additional exemption and deduction that you are entitled to, as long as you were married on Dec. 31 of last year Randy W, thx for your quick reply. how sure are you that i can claim my spouse as dependent while my tax accountant was pretty damn sure i can't claim her? did u file income tax last year with your foreign spouse and claim her as dependent? so what you are telling me is my tax accountant is wrong and don't know what he is talking about and i should fire him? can u give me a link to show me he is wrong? also can you tell me how to get an itin number for my spouse? what form do i need? links would be great. my spouse step mom is going back to china this week and if i need to give my wife any form to fill out i will get it to her setp mom.

hi all, first i would like to say this is a great forum which provide help for getting love ones oversea to come to usa. a little bit about myself, i got married in china nov. 2011. i've started the process of getting a spousal visa with the i-130 form in dec. 2011. also she is pregnant and is expecting our child in aug. of this year 2012. i will go back to china after the child is borned and go the the us embassy in guangzhou to make sure the child is a us citizen. now i browse thru the forum read some ppl are putting their spousal in their 1040 tax form and some don't. i went to my cpa this weekend and ask him if i can put my spouse in my 1040 form and he said, yes i can but i can't claim her or she is non-exempt which mean my tax refund won't be affected either way. in other word, i won't be getting a big tax refund or small tax refund if i put her in my tax form or not. is that true? can someone who file their 1040 last year verify this? questions: 1. now that she is pregnant with our child, do you think this will greatly improve her chance of coming to the usa now? meaning 100%? of course, i will still gather other evidences, phone logs, photos of our trip and with her family, money send to her to support her now since she is pregnant and no longer working, email, etc. 2. can someone let me know what i need to do once the child is borned? do i just get the birth certificate and walk into the us embassy in guangzhou to claim the child is mine and thus the child become a us citizen and then get a us passport? is it that simple? 3. can someone verify and let me know for sure if i put her in my 1040, that it won't my refund either way? is that true? or should i fire my cpa/accountant? i'm thinking of not putting her name since it is too much of a hassle by gettting a w7 form and having my wife going to guangzhou to get a stamp and have her sending it back to me if i'm not getting a big refund if i can't claim her as dependent. i know most ppl still say just do it anyway just to prove she is your wife when she go for the interview in guangzhou us embassy. but like i said, she is already pregnant with our child. if that is not enought evidence i don't know what is. but if someone here who fill out their tax form and put their spouse as a dependent and got a big refund, please let me know for sure. then i will definately will put her in then. please provide evident like a link from the irs saying i can claim my foreign spouse and thus i will be getting a big refund. thx in advance.