Hello. I am a U.S. citizen and married my non-resident wife, who was on a student visa, in mid-2007. She received her green card in December 2007. During 2007, she has worked in the U.S. while on her student visa, but she has also worked for part of December after she became a resident.

My question is, what should be her filing status? Should we be married filing jointly or should we do married filing separately? And if married filing separately, should she do part of the year as non-resident and then part of the year as resident?

As background, my income is considerably higher than hers. Also, we are wondering about how to separate the income and taxes on her W-2 into the part earned while she was a non-resident and the part earned while she was resident.

Thank you.

You can and should file jointly.

If you want to file separately, she files as a resident, as her green card status over-rides all consideration as to how she files.