I would like to claim my son as an eligible dependent as his father was residing out of the country (non resident) do I have to change my marital status to separated?

No you do not have to change your marital status to separated if in fact you are still legally married and there has not been a breakdown in the relationship.

You may be able to claim this amount for one other person if at any time in the year you met all of the following conditions at once:

• You did not have a spouse or common-law partner or, if you did, you were not living with, supporting, or being supported by that person.
• You supported a dependant in 2017.
• You lived with the dependant (in most cases in Canada) in a home you maintained. You cannot claim this amount for a person who was only visiting you.

In addition, at the time you met the above conditions, the dependant must also have been either:

• your parent or grandparent by blood, marriage, common-law partnership, or adoption; or
• your child, grandchild, brother, or sister, by blood, marriage, common-law partnership, or adoption and under 18 years of age or had an impairment in physical or mental functions.

TurboTax Experts (2019)- your 2018 version has a software bug re. this issue. The software is listing this credit as an Error because my marital status didn't change but I indeed fulfil the criteria for this credit (as detailed above, the CRA and is clearly stated within the turboTax definition for this credit ).  Will Turbotax be pushing out an update that will resolve this error? As of now, I can't file via Netfile.  If this is purposeful by Turbotax, what do you suggest i do to file?