CPR getting divorced before I-751 and joint Tax Return?

[0310 10]

Hey there,

 

I’m a CPR since November 2018 and will need to petition to remove conditions by November 2020. My wife and I broke up in July last year after 2 years and 4 months of marriage. She decided she wants to start dating other people and actually hooked up with someone else that same day, she basically "ended" our relationship as to not "cheat" on me, yeah right. That was really painful, but I'm over it now. We consider ourselves to be separated since then although we’re still living at the same address in separate rooms, we’re basically roommates and we're still in good terms because I've decided to be. Things do get stressful sometimes, but it’s been better. The reason we're still living together is that it's the Bay Area and it's hard to find another place that’s affordable like the one we have now. She still says she loves me and wishes we were still together, but I don't tell her I love her anymore even though I do care about her still. Over the past few months I've been thinking about what I'm going to do and I'm ready to leave now. I also know I have to file for divorce asap because my ROC is coming up in November and it takes at least 6 months to get the divorced finalized in California. From what we've talked it should be an uncontested divorce, although we're yet to see that.

 

I don’t have a lot of evidence since becoming a CPR. The evidence I have includes:

1. One tax return (two total, but one I submitted during the AOS interview)
2. Beneficiary of 401k
3. Beneficiary of life insurance
4. Shared health insurance
5. Shared rent insurance
6. Shared Internet bill
7. Driver licenses with same address
8. Two international trips together to my country/city of birth - Although the first one she came back early (we flew together) and the second one we met there, she got there a few days later and came back a few days earlier because originally she wasn’t going with me, but her plans changed, basically we didn’t fly together. We also did another international trip to the same country/city, one trip to NY and one trip to Portland, but those were submitted during AOS interview
9. Lots of pictures and Facebook posts

 

I was reading some of the tax law and we could file 2019 tax returns together.

Do you think it will be a good idea to file 2019 taxes together or should I do it separately?

 

Red flags:

1. We always had a roommate and he was basically the main tenant to the landlord, so we don't have any water or electric bills to our name, this was not an issue during AOS interview though
2. We never got a joint bank account
3. Some things like health insurance, rent insurance, Internet are still shared even after separation
4. She is self-employed and her health insurance is through me (and my job). I'm having her on my health insurance plan until the divorce is finalized

 

Thanks!

[TBoneTX 45,319]

Your #1 through #7 are very good for objective evidence.

Your #2 red flag is the only significant one, but surely you have a plausible explanation to offer USCIS.

 

Purely for presumed tax advantages, I'd strongly consider filing 2019 taxes jointly.  Others' advice may differ.