Is wife counted as a resident or dual-status for the health insurance penalty in my case?

[asadalavi1]

In 2017, my wife elected to be counted as a resident alien so that I could file taxes jointly with her. She moved to the US on March 30th 2018, and has stayed roughly 218 days in the US this year, with trips outside of the US in between. During this year (2018) she did not have health insurance, will we have to pay the penalty for her not having insurance this year, or will she be exempt as a "dual-status" alien?

If I have to pay the penalty, will I have to pay for the months that she was in the US or for the entire year?

She was not present in the US on the last day of 2018, if that is useful information.

Also, she was out of the country (for at least one day) in the following months:

-Jan
-Feb
-March
-June
-July
-August
-September
-November
-December

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

The way the instructions read, she is exempt for the entire year.

You can either check the box indicating she is 'not a resident' or that she was outside of the US for 330 days.  I realize that the wording of both of those don't actually apply to your wife, BUT it WILL enter the correct exemption code "C" on Form 8965.