U.S. citizen spouse never filed taxes

[schwerin]

Hi folks.

We won GC through DV2 (GC lottery) in 2012. I became US citizen in 2019, my spouse didn't filed N400. We never filed taxes because we never worked and we are living on our savings. Now my spouse wants to file out N400 through "3 year US spouse". Does my spouse need income tax for citizenship?

[newacct]

Don't they also qualify under the 5-year rule too? If they qualify under both the 3-year and 5-year rules, it's better to apply under the 5-year rule.

[Mike E]

Hi folks.

We won GC through DV2 (GC lottery) in 2012. I became US citizen in 2019, my spouse didn't filed N400. We never filed taxes because we never worked and we are living on our savings. Now my spouse wants to file out N400 through "3 year US spouse". Does my spouse need income tax for citizenship?

Generally USCIS wants to see tax transcripts.

You should file your joint 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 taxes now.

Otherwise this can slow the process.

[ST2022]

As part of Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, you will be asked specific questions about filing taxes. It is one of the critical eligibility criteria, and not optional.


Here is the full fact sheet to determine Naturalization eligibility.

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/...des/G-1151.pdf

[newacct]

If they were not required to file tax returns due to their worldwide income being lower than the threshold for needing to file (which seems like what they're describing), then not having filed is not a problem, and they should not need to file now just for the naturalization application.

On the other hand, if they didn't get stimulus payments, and nobody can claim them as dependents, filing 2020 and 2021 tax returns will allow them to get $3200 total of stimulus payments per person, so they should file for that reason at least.