Hello,

My wife should have her green card as of January 2010 thereby making her a legal permanent resident alien (at the time of filing.) At the present time (during this entire tax year *2009*) she has been a nonresident alien. I am a natural born U.S. citizen. The two of us live together and have lived together at the same address for the last several years, and we were married last spring. She has spent 95% of her time in the United States last year (340+ days). My first question is what should she file as (and which form should be used) resident alien(1040) or nonresident alien (1040NR)? My second question is in either circumstance can we file jointly? Finally, she has earned a very limited income this year. At what point (her maximum income) may I or may I not claim her as a dependent?

She should file Married Filing Jointly with you and submit a statement that she chooses to be treated as a resident alien for all of 2009.

By filing jointly, she is NOT your dependent; she is your co-filer. This is better than filing as a dependent because you get to claim the JOINT standard deduction of $11,100.