flowerWith1Q

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 Thank you.

thank you so much for clarification.

Hello all, this year I am filing taxes as a US citizen who is married to my husband who lives abroad. My husband was an F1 student for 15 months last year. He left the US before we got married and went back to his country and now he is waiting for green card process in his country. While he was in the USA on F1 visa, he never worked, he never had income and he never had SSN. He just went to a school program. When filing my taxes this year, I'm asked a question and I don't know how to answer: Is my husband "a nonresident alien" or "resident alien" for the tax year 2023? My research says, F1 students are non resident alien but I found this info online: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/general/tax-tips-for-resident-and-non-resident-aliens/L9Mm0x1i6 Resident or non-resident alien The IRS uses two tests—the green card test and the substantial presence test—for assessing your alien status. If you satisfy the requirements of either one, you’re considered a resident alien for income tax purposes; otherwise, you’re treated as a non-resident alien. If you're an alien with a green card, meaning the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service allows you to reside in the country legally, you are a resident alien. However, if you don’t have a green card and spend at least 31 days in the U.S. during the current tax year and a total of 183 days during the last three tax years (inclusive of the current tax year), you’ll usually satisfy the physical presence test and are also treated as a resident alien. So my husband stayed in the US more than 183 days, does this mean he is considered a resident alien? Can someone please help me understand this issue? Thank you in advance.