Previous F1 student with no income/job, and never filed form 8843, will we be in trouble?

[flowerWith1Q 0]

Hello, while doing my taxes this year I noticed a rule about taxes for F1 students. and it put a question in my head.

 

My husband who was an F1 student for 15 months, he did not file form8843 and left the USA last year after his school.

Now we are in process of I-130. He is waiting in his home country.

 

I am reading that any F1 international student has to file taxes no matter if they had any income or not. Form is called 8843 and every F1 student has to submit it. (See my source below)

 

I never heard about this requirement, my husband is obviously never knew or informed about it and I even asked couple of international student friends and they were all unaware.

So it sounds like even if you don't work in the USA as an F1 student, you still have to file taxes?

 

Is this(not filing this form) going to be a problem for our green card process? Some people write that this is not a big deal but I'm not sure if this is even true or false because everyone I asked say they are unaware. 

Can someone share if they have any insights about this?

 

Source: https://internationalaffairs.uchicago.edu/page/tax-responsibilities-international-students-and-scholars

Quote

 

F-1 and J-1 international students and scholars who were present in the U.S. during any portion of the past calendar year may be required to file certain tax forms with the U.S. federal government. This is true whether or not you worked in the U.S., gained income in the U.S., or received a scholarship during the past calendar year. 

 

 

 

Thank you.

Edited March 24 by flowerWith1Q