Hacker News Reader

Comment by microtherion | Hacker News Reader

My younger son lives in this kind of limbo existence. As a former green card holder, I have to file US taxes, but since my son was born in Switzerland to non-US citizens and never lived in the US, he's not eligible for a SSN or ITIN, so I can't claim him as a dependent.

View on HN

You can't claim dependents who didn't live in the US for the majority of the tax year anyway.

What makes you think that as a former green card holder you have to file taxes? My understanding is that if you give it up, no need.

You need to renounce your residence with the IRS as well, and then they require you to pay an exit tax on the cash value of all your assets as if they were sold on the same day. Because of the principle of citizenship based taxation, US residence/citizenship can be quite a burden for those who don't live in the US--just take a look at FATCA and all the filing requirements and penalties.

And you can only do that if your last 5 years of taxes are properly filed.

Green card != citizenship. In fact, you can lose your green card just by not living in the USA for 6 months out of the year.

True, but there is a difference between residence for tax purposes and residence for immigration purposes. You may live a certain number of years (7-8?) in the US, give up your greencard, and still be considered a resident for tax purposes for life or until you relinquish with the IRS and pay your exit tax.

Does the same apply if you lived 7-8 years in the US in a non-immigrant status?

You can't really do that, they make you get a green card after 6 years if you want it or not.

That's not true. There are many scenarios how one can live legally in the US for more than 6 years as a non-immigrant. E.g F-1 student visa for 4+2+4 years (Bachelors through PhD), followed by 3 years on OPT, followed by 6 years on H-1B. That's 19 years.

In addition, nobody "makes" you get a green card.

Ya. You can only be in a H1B for 6 years, but combined with an F1 and OPT, could be longer. I was just thinking about working visas.

You have to get a green card after your second work visa or go back home, that's the choice. Unlike other countries where you can work on a working visa indefinitely and never even qualify for permanent residency.

There are working visas without H1-B's 6 year limit too. Like L1, O1, treaty visas like TN and E-3, exotic visas like T1,R1 etc.

I believe it's only if you had a US citizenship or if you were a legal permanent resident (i.e you had a greencard) for 8 or more years. You can search online for 'IRS expatriation tax' or form 8854, or better talk to a lawyer...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com