Foreign Taxes - Tax credit does not match taxes paid

[plouazel]

I am a US resident alien.

In the summer I spent 3 months in France to work where I paid 3500$ in taxes based on 20000$ income for those three months.

When I enter my foreign income and my foreign taxes paid in France in the section Deductions & credits, the tax credit amount is about 1000$ smaller than the amount paid in taxes in France, which makes me think that the calculation was not made correctly because I would be losing 1000$.

Could you please help me understand?

[SusanY1]

This is not uncommon.  The foreign tax credit will provide you with a credit equal to the equivalent tax that would have been paid on the same income in the U.S.  In cases where the tax is higher in your country where the tax was paid (which is more often than not) the credit will be lower.

Unused portions of the credit are carried forward for later use and not lost. 

While this sounds not unusual, without seeing the specifics I can't say with certainty that yours is correct.