Where do I start after marrying someone with no US status?
With facts about your spouse, not with forms. Three things decide everything that follows: what income they have and where it arises, what accounts and property they hold in their own name, and what their own country will tax in the years ahead. Only then is the real decision in view, which is whether to leave the spouse outside the US system or elect to treat them as a US resident. Starting with the return instead means the decision gets made by default, in whichever direction the first filing happens to point, and that default is difficult to walk back.
What do I need from my spouse before I can decide?
A list of their accounts, with who owns each one and who can sign on it. A picture of their income by source and the tax their own country takes on it. Details of property, business interests and anything they expect to inherit. And that country's treatment of the main items, because the credits available for its tax are half the arithmetic. None of this needs to be exact at the decision stage. It needs to be complete, because the item nobody mentioned is usually the one that changes the answer once the election is already running.
Should I decide about the election before filing my first married return?
Yes, because that return is where the decision takes effect. The filing you make for the first married year either carries the election or it does not, and the position taken there sets the shape of the years after it. It is far easier to model the choice while nothing has been submitted than to argue about it once a return is on file. If the facts are not yet assembled and time is short, the sequence to prefer is the one that keeps the choice open rather than the one that quietly closes it.
Do we work out the tax first or gather the account details first?
The tax comparison comes first in outline and second in detail. Sketch the two positions early, because the sketch tells you which facts actually matter. For one couple it is the spouse's business profit, for another a single inherited property, for a third a long list of small accounts and no income at all. Then gather the details the sketch says will move the answer. Collecting everything first is a great deal of work for a decision that two figures often settle, and collecting nothing first produces a comparison you cannot rely on.
My spouse will not share their financial details, what can I do?
You can still file, and you can still file correctly. Keeping the non-resident spouse outside the US system is a legitimate position rather than a fallback, and it requires nothing from them about their own income or their own accounts. What you do need is clarity about what you yourself own or can sign on, including anything held jointly, because that is reportable regardless of how the household thinks of it. The election is the only route that needs their full financial picture, so where that picture is not available the decision has effectively been made for you.
Does getting married change my US filing position straight away?
Your marital status on the return changes from the year of the marriage, and that alone alters the brackets and deductions available to you, usually not in your favour where the spouse is a non-resident. What does not change automatically is your spouse's relationship to the US system: they remain outside it unless you elect otherwise. So there is an immediate consequence you cannot opt out of, and a separate choice you can take time over. It helps to keep the two apart when you are working out what the first married year should look like.
What is a dual-status alien?
Someone who is a US tax resident for part of a year and a non-resident for the rest of it — almost always the year of arrival or the year of departure. You file one return covering both periods, with worldwide income and ordinary deductions for the resident part and US-source income under the non-resident rules for the other. Several ordinary reliefs, including joint filing, are restricted for the year. See dual-status alien.
What is a "dual-status alien spouse", and why is my software asking?
The question comes from the filing-status screens, and it is asking whether your spouse was a non-resident or part-year resident for the year — because if they were, a joint return is not available by default. An election exists to treat a non-resident spouse as a resident for the whole year, which unlocks joint filing at the price of bringing their worldwide income into the US return and their accounts into its reporting. See a US person with a non-resident spouse.
