Legal Question in Immigration Law in California

To pay taxes or not?

Hi,

1. My wife and I came to US on tourist visas and chaged our status to H4 (wife) & H1B1 (self) respectively.

2. I am allowed to work for my petitionor but my wife is not authorized to work. However my employer has employed her and is paying her through a third party by check. In 2005 she has filed her income tax as caretaker jointly with

me. This was done at the advice of a lawyer whose services I have now terminated.

3. My new lawyer insists that it is not advisable to show her as earning as it will japordize our immigration process. He stongly advised to file our taxes jointly without showing my wife's earning. He says that it is OK for illegal immigrants without any documents to file taxes to prove their pysical presence in US

4. What is the factual position in cases like this? I do not want to japrodize our green card case at any stage.

5. I am confused at different lawyers advising differently. I would appreciate if you can give a clear answer as to whether it is better to show my wife's income or not in our typical situation?

Thanks

Jay


Asked on 4/15/07, 11:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Armen Tashjian Law Offices of Armen M. Tashjian

Re: To pay taxes or not?

As the saying goes, "you can't have your cake and eat it too." (This expression never really made sense to me, but that is another subject matter.) Nevertheless, if she works and fails to pay taxes, then she is violating the Internal Revenue Code sections pertaining to tax evassion. Also she is in violation of her non-immigrant visa terms and is jeopardizing your/her ability to acquire green cards. Bottom line, she should not work without proper authorization. I know this is perhaps not the advice you were looking for, but you asked for a straight, forward answer!

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Answered on 4/16/07, 10:28 am


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