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Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident: Taxes for Americans Abroad (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident” within taxes for americans abroad. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 54 (12/2025), Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

  • Whether you have to file a return,

  • When to file your return and pay any tax due,

  • How to treat foreign currency,

  • How to file electronically,

  • Where to file your return,

  • When you can treat your nonresident alien spouse as a resident, and

  • When you may have to make estimated tax payments.

Publication

  • 3 Armed Forces' Tax Guide

  • 334 Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C)

  • 501 Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information

  • 505 Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax

  • 519 U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens

  • 570 Tax Guide for Individuals With Income from U.S. Territories

  • 970 Tax Benefits for Education

Form (and Instructions)

  • 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return

  • 1040-ES Estimated Tax for Individuals

  • 1040-X Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return

  • 2350 Application for Extension of Time To File U.S. Income Tax Return

  • 2555 Foreign Earned Income

  • 4868 Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return

  • 8822 Change of Address

All of these forms, instructions, and publications can be downloaded from IRS.gov. See chapter 7 for information about getting these publications and forms.

Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident

If, at the end of your tax year, you are married and one spouse is a U.S. citizen or resident alien and the other is a nonresident alien, you can choose to treat the nonresident as a U.S. resident. This election includes the situation in which one of you is a nonresident alien at the beginning of the tax year and a resident alien at the end of the year and the other is a nonresident alien at the end of the year.

If you make this choice, the following two rules apply.

  • You and your spouse are treated, for income tax purposes and purposes of wage withholding, as U.S. residents for the tax year in which the election is made and all future tax years until the election is terminated for one of the reasons listed in Table 1-1, later, or suspended because neither spouse is a citizen or resident of the United States at any time during a year.

  • You must file a joint income tax return for the year you make the choice and attach a statement as described under How To Make the Choice, later.

This means that neither of you can claim under any tax treaty not to be a U.S. resident for a tax year for which the choice is in effect.

Example 1.

Pat Smith, a U.S. citizen, is married to Norman, a nonresident alien. Pat and Norman make the choice to treat Norman as a resident alien by attaching a statement to their joint return. Pat and Norman must report their worldwide income for the year they make the choice and for all later years unless the choice is ended or suspended. Although Pat and Norman must file a joint return for the year they make the choice, they can file either joint or separate returns for later years.

Example 2.

When Bob and Sharon Williams got married, both were nonresident aliens. In June of last year, Bob became a resident alien and remained a resident for the rest of the year. Bob and Sharon both choose to be treated as resident aliens by attaching a statement to their joint return for last year. Bob and Sharon must report their worldwide income for last year and all later years unless the choice is ended or suspended. Bob and Sharon must file a joint return for last year, but they can file either joint or separate returns for later years.

Tip:

If you do not choose to treat your nonresident alien spouse as a U.S. resident, you may be able to use head of household filing status. To use this status, you must pay more than half the cost of maintaining a household for certain dependents or relatives other than your nonresident alien spouse. For more information, see Pub. 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information, available at IRS.gov/Pub501.

Social Security Number (SSN)

If you choose to treat your nonresident alien spouse as a U.S. resident, your spouse must have either an SSN or an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN).

To get an SSN for a nonresident alien spouse, apply at an office of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) or U.S. consulate. For more information, go to SSA.gov, or call 800-772-1213.

If the nonresident alien spouse is not eligible to get an SSN, the spouse can file Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, available at IRS.gov/FormW7, with the IRS to apply for an ITIN when you timely file the joint return on which you choose to treat your nonresident alien spouse as a U.S. resident. Follow the Instructions for Form W-7 to submit your Form W-7 and file your return.

ITIN renewal.

Your spouse may need to renew the ITIN. For more information, go to IRS.gov/ITIN.

How To Make the Choice

Attach a statement, signed by both spouses, to your joint return for the first tax year for which the choice applies. It should contain the following.

  • A declaration that one spouse was a nonresident alien and the other spouse a U.S. citizen or resident alien on the last day of your tax year and that you choose to be treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year.

  • The name, address, and SSN (or ITIN) of each spouse. (If one spouse died, include the name and address of the person making the choice for the deceased spouse.)

You generally make this choice when you file your joint return. However, you can also make the choice by filing a joint amended return on Form 1040-X. Attach Form 1040 or 1040-SR and enter “Amended” across the top of the amended return. If you make the choice with an amended return, you and your spouse must also amend any returns that you may have filed after the year for which you made the choice.

You must generally file the amended joint return within 3 years from the date you filed your original U.S. income tax return or 2 years from the date you paid your income tax for that year, whichever is later.

Table 1-1. Options for Ending the Choice To Treat Nonresident Alien Spouse as a Resident

Revocation Either spouse can revoke the choice for any tax year.
The revocation must be made by the due date for filing the tax return for that tax year.
The spouse who revokes the choice must attach a signed statement declaring that the choice is being revoked. The statement revoking the choice must include the following.

  • The name, address, and SSN (or TIN) of each spouse.

  • The name and address of any person who is revoking the choice for a deceased spouse.

  • A list of any states, foreign countries, and U.S. territories that have community property laws in which either spouse is domiciled or where real property is located from which either spouse receives income.
If the spouse revoking the choice does not have to file a return and does not file a claim for refund, send the statement to the Internal Revenue Service Center where the last joint return was filed.
Death The death of either spouse ends the choice, beginning with the first tax year following the year in which the spouse died.
If the qualifying surviving spouse is a U.S. citizen or resident alien and is entitled to the joint tax rates as a qualifying surviving spouse, the choice will not end until the close of the last year for which these joint rates may be used.
If both spouses die in the same tax year, the choice ends on the first day after the close of the tax year in which the spouses died.
Divorce or legal separation A divorce or legal separation ends the choice as of the beginning of the tax year in which the legal separation occurs.
Inadequate records The IRS can end the choice for any tax year that either spouse has failed to keep adequate books, records, and other information necessary to determine the correct income tax liability, or to provide adequate access to those records.

Suspending the Choice

The choice to be treated as a resident alien does not apply to any later tax year if neither of you is a U.S. citizen or resident alien at any time during the later tax year.

Example.

Dick Brown was a resident alien on December 31, 2020, and married to Judy, a nonresident alien. They chose to treat Judy as a resident alien and filed joint income tax returns for 2020 and 2021. On January 10, 2022, Dick became a nonresident alien. Judy had remained a nonresident alien. Because Dick was a resident alien during part of 2022, Dick and Judy can file joint or separate returns for that year. Neither Dick nor Judy was a resident alien at any time during 2023 and their choice is suspended for that year. For 2023, both are treated as nonresident aliens. If Dick becomes a resident alien again in 2024, their choice is no longer suspended and both are treated as resident aliens.

Ending the Choice

Once made, the choice to be treated as a resident applies to all later years unless suspended (as explained earlier) or ended in one of the ways shown in Table 1-1.

If the choice is ended for any of the reasons listed in Table 1-1, neither spouse can make a choice in any later tax year.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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