I-864 and current years taxes for Expats

[scampbel31 1]

My wife has her interview scheduled for next week and we have a question on the US tax situation.  As an expat we get an automatic extension until June 15th to finish our taxes.  Though as we were filling out the documents it said that we need to have the three most recent years taxes.  I am in the process of working on the current years taxes that are due on June 15th.  The reason why it is taking so long for us to file is because I am trying to file as married filing jointly and get an ITIN for my wife.  As many of you know this process is manual and you need to send in information for it which would not make it possible for us to file before her interview.  The other option I have is to file married filing separately and submit my taxes immediately.  The taxes go up several thousand dollars so it is not an ideal situation if we can avoid it.  The argument that my CPA made was that it takes 4-8 weeks for the IRS to process the returns and even if I submit MFS today it will still be in process.  She suggested that I could provide the copy of the married filing jointly to them that we have complete along with the proof of the extension.  She offered to write a letter that the return was fully completed and we were working on the ITIN.   Lastly, she suggested also providing 2013 return which would meet the 3 year filed returns requirement.  

 

As a side note I have also included my US bank accounts which are well above the poverty line.

 

Question is how strict are they on this IRS requirement and do they follow the rules of the IRS or is it a hard line where they say it must be filed no matter what?  Any suggestions?

[Cat_Dad 6]

I believe that if you file your taxes, and provide proof they have been filed, then that is usually enough for them. Ultimately it will be up to the person doing the interview. I think at worst they will make you wait until they can see your tax transcripts. 

[684117 15]

I was in the same situation as you, what we did is that my wife filed as married filing separately.  wrote my name on the 1040 in the spouse section and in the SSN number we hand wrote NRA (Non Resident Alien) 

 

Getting and ITIN is super complex and manual and takes forever. 

 

We still do not have the transcript from IRS, but I have copies of the 1040, 2555, schedules and payslips that were sent to IRS as proof of filing. 

 

 

Hope this helps.