Tax Documents & Citizenship

[Sabela 16]

Hi. I have a question towards citizenship. Once I move to the US with the green card, I know I’ll be paying US taxes. I also do not plan on having any international income after moving to the US. When I apply for citizenship, will I need to provide tax documents from countries where I worked before I moved to the US with a green card? (sorry if posted in the wrong forum, I did not find any specific for citizenship questions, but this path leads to it).

[Raja007 67]

When you apply citizenship you will only have to include tax returns of 3 years. 

[Mike E 11,742]

You don’t need tax documents from other countries and if anything they will hurt your case.  
 

IRS tax transcripts are required for the last three years of filing for citizenship on then basis of being married to a US citizen.  There are N-400 cases where tax returns are not acceptable.  
 

 After you file a tax  return (normally a joint return), several months later you can create an account on IRS,gov and download your tax transcript.  The IRS only keeps the tax transcripts for the 3 most recent tax years online.  
 

If you need to or might need to file N-400 under 5 year rule then get in the habit of downloading and preserving tax transcripts so that you always have the 4th and 5th most recent tax transcript available to file.  

[Sabela 16]

Thank you for your responses. @Mike E: how do I know if the 5-year rule applies? In that case, I assume I'd have to present foreign tax returns (because I'm planning to file for citizenship after 3 years of being a permanent resident, and I worked outside the US in 2021). Am I right?

[Mike E 11,742]

4 minutes ago, Sabela said:

Thank you for your responses. @Mike E: how do I know if the 5-year rule applies? In that case, I assume I'd have to present foreign tax returns (because I'm planning to file for citizenship after 3 years of being a permanent resident, and I worked outside the US in 2021). Am I right?

If you are filing for citizenship 3- 4 years after becoming an LPR then you need three years of IRS tax transcripts.  If you are filing for citizenship 5 or more years after being an LPR then you will need 3 or 5 years of the most recent tax transcripts, depending on the basis for which you are applying for USA citizenship.  The three year rule requires you to be married to a USC for 3 years and has a higher burden of documentation than filing on the basis of 5 year rule.  
 

https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship-resource-center/learn-about-citizenship/naturalization-eligibility

 

Your foreign tax returns might be misinterpreted by USCIS as evidence you broke continuous residency and so, I will make a final plea for your sake that you set aside this notion. 

[iwannaplay54 985]

No, filing taxes is evidence of compliance with US law after becoming a resident.  Has nothing to do with filing taxes in your home country.

With that said we did declare/exclude foreign income in our US tax return from 3 years before filing, but it was in the US return and raised no eyebrows.  The only thing that matters is the immigrant did not use foreign income as a reason to not declare and pay taxes on it in their US return.

Edited February 28, 2022 by iwannaplay54

[Crazy Cat 42,547]

**** I moved this topic to the US Citizenship General Discussion area****