Resident Alien Status for Tax Year 2015

[existenpopat 0]

I am an US Citizen with US income. My spouse received her green card last year on 12/30 (effective starting from that date) via adjustment of status. Here's the timeline:

(a) We were married January 2015

(b) Spouse Entered US last week of May 2015 on B2

© Since she was present in the US we filed for AOS

(d) AOS approved and spouse received green card 12/30/2015

I am in the process of doing my US taxes for 2015. My question is:

(a) Can my spouse be treated as a Resident Alien for Tax Year 2015? I looked at the Substantial Presence Test and June-December is more than 183 days, so I am inclined to say she has passed that test. Furthermore, spouse also received Green Card on 12/30.

(b) If (a) is true and she can be treated as Resident Alien for Tax Year 2015, can I filed married jointly with her? (she has foreign income for part of last year which we will report as per rules).

[existenpopat 0]

I just read the FAQ pinned in this forum, and it seems this applies to my situation more closely:

3. Dual-Status/NRA spouse + Filing Jointly

You can choose to treat your dual-status/NRA spouse as a RA for tax purposes for the entire tax year in question. This option allows you to file a joint return (MFJ) and apply all eligible deductions and credits. You would be required to report BOTH spouse's worldwide income. A special election statement needs to be attached to your return indicating this choice. See the following IRS link for how to write the election statement: http://1.usa.gov/1Sw3S7A

SSN/ITIN is needed.

Can someone please confirm?

[MariaR323 199]

Sounds like you're good to go on the MFJ status.

Attached is an election statement I wrote up for my clients, feel free to use it.

IRC Section 6013g NRA Election for RA.pdf

[newacct 688]

Even if she had never been to the US, you can still file jointly.

If she was dual-status and resident at the end of the year, then you would be using Choosing Resident Alien Status. If she was nonresident for the whole year, then you would be using Nonresident Spouse Treated as Resident. These two things have different names but they do the exact same thing.

[existenpopat 0]

Sounds like you're good to go on the MFJ status.

Attached is an election statement I wrote up for my clients, feel free to use it.

IRC Section 6013g NRA Election for RA.pdf

Thanks for the template. If I understand this correctly, I would rather say "who was a Dual-Status Alien at the end of the tax year" instead of "who was a Nonresident Alien at the end of the tax year", as my spouse already had her GC on 12/30, correct?