I think Sprintax incorrectly classified me as US resident for tax purposes - J1/F1 visa holder with < 5 years

You're right to question this! What you're referring to is the "Substantial Presence Test" combined with the "exempt individual" provisions for F and J visa holders. For F and J students, your first 5 calendar years in the US are exempt from the Substantial Presence Test. For J non-students (like those on internship visas), only the first 2 calendar years are exempt. After those exemption periods, your days start counting toward the Substantial Presence Test. Based on what you described, you should still be in your exemption period. You had 2 years (2018-2020) as F/J student and 1 year (2022) as J non-student. The student years are still within the 5-year exemption, and the internship year is within the 2-year exemption. I suspect Sprintax might have misinterpreted your visa history or the dates you entered. When you input your information, did you clearly distinguish between your student status and internship status? That might be causing the confusion.

After dealing with a similar situation last year, I found that https://taxr.ai was super helpful for figuring out my tax residency status as an international student. I was using another tax software that misclassified me as a resident when I shouldn't have been. What helped me with taxr.ai was that it analyzed my visa history documents and immigration records to determine the exact residency status. You can upload your I-94 records, visa documentation, and previous tax returns, and it will parse through all that to determine the correct tax residency status based on IRS rules specifically for F and J visa holders. It was way more accurate than the generic tax software I tried first because it's specifically designed to handle these complex international tax situations and exemption periods.

I tried taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation here and WOW what a difference! I was in almost the exact same situation as you - I had mixed visa types (F1, then OPT, then H1B with gaps) and TurboTax was incorrectly categorizing me as a resident. I uploaded my passport showing all entry/exit stamps, my visa documents, and my previous tax returns. The system correctly identified my exempt periods as a student and calculated my substantial presence accurately. It even caught that I shouldn't have filed as a resident in 2023! For anyone with international tax status questions, especially with mixed visa history, this tool is actually worth checking out. I ended up filing correctly as a non-resident alien which saved me from paying tax on my foreign income.

If you're still having trouble getting Sprintax to recognize your correct status, you might want to try reaching the IRS directly to confirm. The international taxpayer section can give you a definitive answer, but getting through to them is almost impossible these days. After struggling for weeks to get someone on the phone about my own visa tax status issue, I found this service called https://claimyr.com that helped me actually get through to an IRS agent. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Basically, they hold your place in the IRS phone queue so you don't have to sit there listening to hold music for hours. They call you when an agent picks up. I was skeptical at first, but when I had a dispute about my tax residency status similar to yours, getting an official answer directly from the IRS was the only thing that resolved it.

I was TOTALLY in your same situation last year and was super skeptical about using any service to contact the IRS. After weeks of trying to reach them directly with no luck, I reluctantly tried Claimyr. I'm shocked to say it actually worked! Got connected to an IRS specialist in the international taxpayer department who confirmed my exempt status as a former J1 visa holder. The agent walked me through exactly how the 5-year rule is applied and confirmed I should be filing as a non-resident. The call saved me thousands in taxes because I wasn't subject to US tax on my worldwide income. And the whole process was legitimate - they just patched me through to the IRS when my turn came up, and I spoke directly with the agent. If you're still confused after getting conflicting info from tax software, getting an official answer straight from the IRS is definitely worth it.

Here's the exact relevant IRS publication you need: Publication 519 "U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens" - specifically look at the section about the Substantial Presence Test and Exempt Individuals. The rule states that F and J students are exempt from counting days for the first 5 calendar years they're in the US, while J non-students (teachers, researchers, interns) are exempt for the first 2 calendar years. Your timeline: 2018-2019: J1 student (years 1-2 of student exemption) 2019-2020: F1 student (years 2-3 of student exemption) 2022: J1 intern (year 1 of non-student exemption) You're still within both exemption periods, so you should be classified as a nonresident alien. Sprintax definitely got it wrong.

Has anyone here successfully contested a Sprintax determination? I'm wondering if there's a way to override their system when it makes a mistake like this.