Hi,
I am married currently on my F1 -opt and I am entered US in 2001. I am a non resident alien and my spouse is in F1 opt but he came to the US in 1998 and is a resident alien for tax purposes. In my employment social security and medicare taxes were withheld for me for 2004. My employer is not willing to refund the money to me and wants me to claim that myself. If I file 1040 jointly with my husband I get a tax break from 25% to 15% in this case will be able to claim my ss and medicare taxes back. I believe I should file 1040NR to file for FICA refund.
I receive a better tax break than the amount I paid for FICA and in case If I let that go can I file 1040NR for the next year to claim for the ss and medicare which was withheld from my pay check in 2005. I am still on OPT till oct 2005. I will not receive any tax break for the year 2005 by filing jointly. In short if I file 1040 this year because of filing jointly can I go back next year and file 1040NR.
Thanks,
A.

Aartivenkat:

I have to research this to be sure, but I believe that once you file jointly with your husband to be treated as a resident alien, you cannot go back to filing as a nonresident alien with permission from the IRS.

Hence, if you want to file Form 1040NR next year, you had better filed Form 1040NR this year.