Q. My dad never filed a tax return. Can he nevertheless become a U.S. citizen? My father never worked. Must he include an explanation with the application?
Chintan, Jackson Heights, Queens
A. Your father can naturalize despite his not having filed tax returns. U.S. naturalization laws require you to have filed tax returns only if the law required you to do so. If an applicant never worked or earned so little money that the law doesn’t require tax returns, not having filed is not a problem. While not always required, he can bring a statement to his interview explaining that he never worked and how he pays his bills in the United States.
Readers should know that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will deny naturalization applications of permanent residents whom the law required to file tax returns but didn’t. Those who should have filed tax returns but didn’t can file late and USCIS will forgive the failure to file.
Q. I am a 65-year-old man about to become a U.S. citizen. My wife is a 24-year-old woman. I want to petition for her green card, but I’m concerned because of our age difference. What do you advise?
C.H. by email
A. Make an extra effort to provide evidence that your marriage is bona fide, or “real.” Do that and your wife shouldn’t have a problem getting her green card because of your age difference.
Immigration officers have the same biases as the general public. In marriage cases, when they see a big age difference or individuals of difference races, they sometimes check more carefully to ensure the marriage is real. Still, with enough evidence, you should be fine. Evidence that might help includes photos of you together on out-of-city trips or with family members, records of a joint bank or credit card account, letters from third parties addressed to you and your spouse at the same address, health and other insurance policies with the names of you and your spouse, personnel records showing your spouse as your emergency contact, and joint tax returns. You don’t need all of the items. The more you can present, the better.
Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship Now! project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 7th Fl., 4 New York Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.
