Best course of action

[johndoeusa]

Ok, so I am familiar with these forums and I know that I am going to get some good advise, picked on, and laughed at with a few trolls sprinkled on. Knowing this, I will proceed anyway but am hoping for more of the good advise than the childish behavior that can be all to common.

My girlfriend and I recently decided to move back the the USA. We have been together for more than 5 years and have lived together for much of that time. I have been on a work permit (almost) since I arrived here in Thailand. The USCIS office in Bangkok has confirmed we qualify for the DCF route to a CR1 if we are married. Now we are starting the process of getting legally married in Thailand and putting together the paperwork to process this request. With our history and documentation of our history I believe the I-130 should be a breeze. Neither of us have kids, are both college educated, and is no criminal past or anything that would complicate the process. We have what I believe to me more than adequate documentation to prove this is a genuine relationship.

There is one snag, and it seems to be somewhat common. My income has been in Thailand and not in America. To make matters worse for myself, I have not filed a tax return in the USA since I arrived here. Someone in my family will most likely need to joint sponsor my wife. Since I will need a joint sponsor anyway, is it worth filing the past few years tax returns? I know many people who have lived here a very long time and never filed anything. If I file for prior years with a letter pleading ignorance then I might draw attention to the fact that I have not filed. So the way I see it I have three options.

1) file all past tax returns and send a letter of ignorance and hope the IRS shows mercy

2) file this years tax return to show some income for the visa process and hope that nothing ever comes of the past few years

3) dont file anything, use a joint sponsor and a written job offer as evidence of support and hope that the past few years dont pop up on anyone's radar (i have several friends who have moved back without filing and never heard anything from anyone, although they did not need to go through the CR1/K1 visa process)

advise....................

[noikrit]

I'd go for door number 3 .........

[johndoeusa]

FYI: my income in Thailand is well below the foreign income exemption

[David48]

I suggest to do what ever is Legal for your Country.

If you plan to return and make a life there, your past life will catch up with you.

If that means you have to return and settle your outstanding issues then have your wife apply for her Visa and join you later ,,, then so be it.

[johndoeusa]

i am thinking i should just file the past tax forms. now i need to figure out 1) where to get the proper forms 2) where to send them 3) how long will they take to process

[Soutpeel]

I would retain the services of a tax accountant specialising in US tax law and get some advice before doing anything

[DogNo1]

Tax forms are downloadable from IRS.gov. Probably information about filing past years' tax returns can be found there as well. For any information not on the government website, just Google for it using the appropriate words. There are pages and pages of advice on various websites. Since your income was always below the foreign deductible limit you would probably, at most, need to pay a modest fine for not filing. You can also contact the US Embassy for advice or telephone the IRS directly. If you use Skype it would cost you very little to make the call. There's no need to pay for a lawyer unless you run into some snags. Good luck on getting your (future) wife and yourself back to the US quickly and safely.

[johndoeusa]

got the forms, filled them out, going to submit and hope for the best. i plan to call the embassy and see what evidence of filing will be needed to have everything go through. i tried calling the irs but they had some clueless customer service type person who couldnt answer anything. she just asked me preset questions and told me the forms i would need to fill out. as dog#1 said, it will most likely be a modest penalty if anything and i will hire someone to help if they decide to make a big deal of it. fingers crossed

thanks for those who responded.

p.s. if anyone here is a US citizen and is considering whether to file or not, just do it. after filling out the forms i have realized it took about an hour to figure out the correct procedure and then about 15 minutes to fill out each years 1040/2555ez. if i ever find myself living overseas again i will definitely fill them out seeing how easy it all was. no need for a professional. mark income in the w-2 spot, deduct it under other income, fill in zeros the rest of the way down the page (assuming you have minimal income and no complications)..

[drawp]

right, filing the forms is pretty easy. it is just better to do it manually as well, especially if you go back to the states at any point in time, things like turbotax make it quite difficult sometimes in proving your time outside of the states meets the requirements to not pay anything.

good luck!