@scottwilson222 , in such an account what you are doing is to essentially take a portion of your salary / employer contribution and keep it outside your W-2 income. This becomes useful if you are not going to able to itemize and deduct health expenses. See pub 969 from the IRS which in part says :
Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSAs)
A health Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA) allows employees to be reimbursed for medical expenses. FSAs are usually funded through voluntary salary reduction agreements with your employer. No employment or federal income taxes are deducted from your contribution. The employer may also contribute.
Note.
Unlike HSAs or Archer MSAs, which must be reported on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR, there are no reporting requirements for FSAs on your income tax return.
For information on the interaction between a health FSA and an HSA, see Other employee health plans underQualifying for an HSA, earlier.
What are the benefits of an FSA?
You may enjoy several benefits from having an FSA.
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Contributions made by your employer can be excluded from your gross income.
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No employment or federal income taxes are deducted from the contributions.
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Reimbursements may be tax free if you pay qualified medical expenses. See Qualified medical expenses , later.
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You can use an FSA to pay qualified medical expenses even if you haven’t yet placed the funds in the account.
Thus since the main intent is to help you pay for health expenses, I do not believe that you can use the monies in this FSA for dependent care ( even though one probably could argue that without the dependent care for your child/dependent your health could suffer with full school load plus taking care of the dependent. ). The fact that you are F-1 , implying that you must maintain full-time school load, is not germane.
Is there more I can do for you ?
