Claiming AOTC (Form 8863) for graduate school if foreign citizen

[cowbell]

Hello,

I paid graduate school expenses for my spouse, when she started school in the second half of 2020. We're not US citizens — she moved to the US in Jan 2020 and we are joint filing as resident aliens.

Her undergraduate, completed in 2017, was in her home country, and not in a school managed by any US program. Since she never claimed, or was eligible for American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) during her 4-year undergraduate, does the "4 years of postsecondary education before 2020" apply in her situation? We do not qualify for Lifetime Learning Credit based on MAGI.

Thank you.

[MinhT1 · Accepted solution]

Your spouse does not qualify for the AOTC as she has already completed four years of post-secondary education. The four years apply also to the time she studied outside the US.