What is my residency status? Tax filing for new F-1 visa after previous visas

[jeyess]

Hi everyone,

I saw a lot of great help on here so thought I would ask about my situation.  I am an international graduate student in NY.  I assumed I was a non-resident for 2019, so started using Sprintax to prepare my tax return - I was almost done, but realized I am not 100% sure that I am a non-resident across federal and state returns.  Does anyone have any insights on this?

Here are the states I have lived in and visas I have had (any time I exited the US after the end of my visa, I was in my home country):

- NY: I entered the US on an F-1 student visa from 2014-2017

- California: I re-entered the US on a TN work visa from 2017-2019

- NY: I re-entered the US on an F-1 student visa for a different school from 2019 to present

I understand that the IRS states that after 5 years of being in the US following an initial F-1 visa, international folks may be considered as residents.  I'm not clear on whether this "5 year clock" restarts with new F-1s, or counts all F-1s but pauses during my TN.  I would love to figure out if I should file as a resident or non-resident for my federal, NY, and California returns.

If helpful, here are examples I have been looking at from the IRS, but I couldn't find anything that exactly matched up with my visas: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/alien-residency-examples

Thanks so much in advance!

[DavidS127]

Your TN visa is not listed in IRS Publication 519 as one of the types of visa that makes you an "exempt individual".  As a result, you days of presence under the TN visa count toward the Substantial Presence Test, and depending on the days physically present in the U.S. you may have been become a resident alien in 2017, 2018, or 2019.  Review the IRS Publication 519 section on the Substantial Presence Test at this link for more information.

But, your residency may have terminated when you left the U.S. in 2019.  If your residency terminated, you would be a dual-status alien in 2019.  If your residency didn't terminate, you are a resident alien for all of 2019 according to the IRS Publication 519 section "Last year of Residency".

Note that the references in IRS Publication 519 have not yet been updated for the 2019 tax year.