Can I claim child tax credit as dual status resident chosen to be treated as full year resident with my spouse? Have 2 year old kid, in US from Jan 12 till Nov 20 2017.

[vitali-bozhko]

I arrived to the US with my spouse and 2 year old kid on Jan 12 2017, stayed until Nov 20 2017. Returned to the US on Jan 19 2018. All are holding non-immigrant L visas. Spouse was not working for the full year.

We are going to prepare married filing jointly Federal tax for 2017 since we are dual status residents and will elect to be treated as full year residents (attaching appropriate statement to the 1040 form return). However it's unclear whether our kid can be treated as resident alien to pass the citizenship test required for child tax credit ("Was the child a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or U.S. resident alien?") and if so would we need to fill Schedule 8812 or include other statement/document(s) of any kind to claim the credit.

[bine22 · Accepted solution]

since you and the child do meet the substantiell presence test, you can claim the child tax credit. You would need schedule 8812 and apply for an ITIN for the child on form W7 (unless the child already has an ITIN number).