Exemption from CA Health Insurance Mandate

[basitsheikh1]

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/health-care-mandate/personal.html

I am a US Citizen who lived and worked in California for all of 2024. My wife is not a US citizen nor does she live in the US.  She is a resident of a foreign country and does not work at all. In 2024, she came to the US on a B1/B2 visa from May 15 to October 15. She was in California for 4 months and Texas for one month (July).

We file our taxes jointly and for the past two years she has been exempt from the CA Health Insurance Mandate since she never came to the USA. In 2024, since she was in California for 4 months (part of May, June, August, September, part of October), is she still exempt from the CA Health Insurance mandate?

Generally people on B1/B2 visas who are in the US for temporary reasons don't need health insurance, but since she's filing taxes jointly with me and spent some time in California, is she no longer exempt?

[Vanessa A]

If she is choosing to be treated as a US Resident for tax purposes and was here lawfully, then she would not qualify for one of the standard exemptions since she was in CA for 4 months. You can apply for a hardship exemption which is done on a case by case basis noting that she was only in CA for 4 months.