Can I choose to be a Resident Alien for the entire 2016 per First Year Choice?

1)  Deleted for wrong information.  See bine22's answer below.

2)  Deleted for wrong information.  See bine22's answer below.

3)  Yes, it sounds like you are already automatically a Resident Alien for 2017.


TurboTax is not able to do tax returns for Nonresident Aliens.  It would really be in your best interest to go to a tax professional that is EXPERIENCED with Nonresident Aliens for your 2016 tax return.  They will be able to help you to figure out if the First Year Choice would be a good or bad option to make.

Thank you TaxGuyBill for your guidance here.

1. There would be two choices involved. The first year choice would make you a resident alien starting November 1 (so a dual status alien for the year). Then you can make the choice to b treated as resident aliens for the entire year.

2. No you cannot use the foreign earned income exclusion, as you must have been a resident alien for the entire period you are exclusion. Your only option would be the foreign paid tax credit.

Thanks for the correction.  I got the First Year Choice garbled with the election for Dual Status aliens to be full-year Residents.  I'll edit my comments above.

Thank you bine22 for your guidance here.

With regards to bine22's point# 2, if I were to use the foreign paid tax credit option using a Tax Treaty, I may not be able to exercise my choice of being considered as Resident Alien, since I'm also being treated as a resident of India under the Tax Treaty. Is that understanding correct? In other words, can I consider myself as resident of both India and US for the purposes of filing my tax returns, thereby also making use of India-US Tax Treaty provisions?

the foreign paid tax credit has nothing to do with the tax treaty.

I was referring to the "Effect of Tax Treaties" section within <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf</a>, which says,
"If you are treated
as a resident of a foreign country under a tax
treaty, you are treated as a nonresident alien in
figuring your U.S. income tax..."

... which is why I think I may not be able to exercise the choice of "Resident Alien" while filing my US returns.

But in India you are a resident because you meet the requirements to be a resident not because you are claiming the treaty.

So if I understand this correctly, since India's law considers me as a resident through its own substantial presence test, and "not because of applying the tie-breaker rules of the India-US Tax Treaty", I need not consider myself as non-resident alien, but instead, file my US returns "as a resident alien" by the choices which you had made clear in your first comment. Correct?

The choice to be considered as a residen alien in the US is a choice onlz. Zou do not have to make those choices, you could also file as nonresident alien

Cool. Makes sense. Thanks a lot for your assistance, bine22!