I am in a similar situation. Married a Canadian in August; moved into her home in Canada and intend to reside here permanently (have filed for permanent resident status). My wife's a Canadian civil servant with no income from the US or anywhere other than Canada. I see where I have to file a US income tax return, which is fine. I also see where that has to be a joint return, which I guess is fine, too. If we file MFJ in the US, what do we file with Canada? My gross income is $196K (about $6500 of which is from consulting fees I billed my former employer after moving here) and her gross income is about $48,500. [Seems like this is a recipe for double taxation.]

What 'similar situation' are you referring to? To make your question perfectly clear, please refer to the other you are referring to.

Sorry for the confusion. The "similar situation" sentence was pasted over from an unrelated post. Feel free to ignore it; the rest of the question contains all the pertinent facts.

I do not believe Canada has a MFJ option. Everyone files their own tax return.

How you file on the Canadian return has NO bearing as to how you file for the U.S. You CAn file jointly, declare your wife's income on the U.S. return and then either EXCLUDE the income using Form 2555 or claim the Foreign Tax Credit using Form 1116.

For YOUR income, you will file BOTH Forms 2555 and 1116, assuming the $196K in income is EARNED income.