USA foreign spouse, visa pending

[greggreg]

Hi,
My wife's visa is still in process, and she has been out of the country since Nov 20. she wasn't employed when she was here. Searching around, I found a thread with the title "foreign wife needs social security number" on these forums (no link because this is my first post)

But it's from 2008. From the sound of that thread, I should use "NRA" as her SS# / ITN ? I make under 55k a year, and I generally just let turbotax handle my taxes. I wonder if this is the year I will need professional help (one way or the other)

Thanks for any insight into this.

 

[kirby]

To be able to file a joint return with her she needs to have a social security number or an ITIN

 

[MichaelM123]

What passport does your wife carry now? You should be able to use NRA on the return and claim a personal exemption for her if she has no income. But you could also just put "married, filing separately" and file without her and put her name there. As as 55K per year, you will not be paying any tax anyway if you earned all of this money while physically outside the US. But keep in mind that Turbotax is terrible at handling expat returns.