Questions about what to file

[WannabeHuman 3]

Hi, I am trying to prep my stuff early before I file but so far I have

water bill with wifes name on it

electric and phone bills with both names

car insurance with both names

joint bank account

lease with both names

birth cert, kids birth cert (born here)

joint credit card

heath, dental and vision insurance showing then as beneficiaries

photos (too much)

Itineraries of 2 vacations from the past years

last years tax with both names filing and soon to be this years with both names.

 

What could I be missing?

 

I have my green card but I dont have an i797 stating my approval status for it. Should I request one? Or would the green card itself be enough?

 

Thank you all for being a big help in my journey so far

 

 

[OldUser 6,633]

- Scans of drivers licenses for you and your wife showing the same address

- Memberships with both of your names (optional)

- USPS Informed Delivery emails showing pictures of mail addressed to both of you (optional)

 

[WannabeHuman 3]

On 1/9/2023 at 10:30 AM, OldUser said:

- Scans of drivers licenses for you and your wife showing the same address

- Memberships with both of your names (optional)

- USPS Informed Delivery emails showing pictures of mail addressed to both of you (optional)

 

Thank you! Now I do have another question. Our tax return for 2020 was filed as head of household since I was a nonimmigrant spouse. can I just add a letter stating why we did that in our packet? All of the other years its married filing joint and we have other stuff stating we are financally together as well

[Chancy 6,241]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:07 AM, WannabeHuman said:

Our tax return for 2020 was filed as head of household since I was a nonimmigrant spouse.

 

Did you live together at all in 2020?  If so, your spouse was not eligible for HOH filing status.  For a married filer, HOH requires that the spouse be living separately.  Your immigration status at that time is irrelevant.  HOH is fine for your spouse if they had a dependent (not you), and you were not married in 2020 or you did not live in the US at any time during that year.

 

If you did live together as a married couple in 2020, I recommend amending your 2020 filing to MFJ (or MFS if financially beneficial).  If the USCIS IO notices the HOH filing, they could question why your spouse implied that you were living separately.

 

[WannabeHuman 3]

25 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

Did you live together at all in 2020?  If so, your spouse was not eligible for HOH filing status.  For a married filer, HOH requires that the spouse be living separately.  Your immigration status at that time is irrelevant.  HOH is fine for your spouse if they had a dependent (not you), and you were not married in 2020 or you did not live in the US at any time during that year.

 

If you did live together as a married couple in 2020, I recommend amending your 2020 filing to MFJ (or MFS if financially beneficial).  If the USCIS IO notices the HOH filing, they could question why your spouse implied that you were living separately.

 

We lived together for the last two months. The tax person who did it filed it this way since I didnt have an SSN, and lived out of the country for the 10 months prior. Plus we filed MFJ for 2021 and 2022 amd have evidence of us living together since Ive been here in 2020. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by WannabeHuman

[Chancy 6,241]

6 minutes ago, WannabeHuman said:

The tax person who did it filed it this way since I didnt have an SSN, and lived out of the country for the 10 months prior.

 

Unfortunately, that tax person was not very competent, as HOH is not for a married filer living together with their spouse, whether the spouse had SSN or not.  Your spouse should have filed MFS if you were married and lived together in 2020.  Anyway, this is more of an IRS issue, not so much an immigration issue.  Immigration-wise, the only risk is if the USCIS officer notices the HOH filing and questions you about it.  Not likely to impact your ROC if you have other strong evidence of shared residence.