Filing aliens tax returns

[TLK Enterprises]

My client is a resident alien married to a nonresident alien who happens to live all the way over in India.Since the spouse living in India has no income of her own it would be to my client's advantage to file married filing joint.  My question is this. How can we file the return if the spouse in India cannot sign the return?

[mircpa]

You can include form W7 for foreign spouse, 1040 needs to be signed by both & w7 needs to signed by foreign spouse & manually mail 1040 along with foreign spouse's original passport OR foreign spouse needs to go to IRS certifying agent in person or may be contact US consulate in India to find out ways to do it.

[Pacun]

1 hour ago, TLK Enterprises said:

.  My question is this. How can we file the return if the spouse in India cannot sign the return?

You mean that the spouse lacks the ability to sign?

I normally make the letter stating that they were married and that they both agree for the spouse to be treated as a resident for tax purposes and that you are reporting global income. I email form W-7, 1040 and the letter for the spouse to sign and I ask the forms to be mailed back to me.

[TLK Enterprises]

Thank you for those replies.

On the other hand, if my client decides not to go to that much trouble and he files MFS we have to use NRA on the line for the spouses SSN. However, ATX gives me errors for efile when i type in MFS. Is there a way to overcome that error? or do we have to mail the return in?

[TLK Enterprises]

Thank you, Pacun. I just meant the foreign spouse was not here to sign.

[Pacun]

Search this site, I believe you can file as single.