Another tax question. Am I still considered a full-time student?

Having problems with residency status and income tax form...?

• Hello everyone, my mother and I are new immigrants in US. I considered myself a dependent student because I'm living with my mother,receiving her money and only 22 years old. My mother came to CA sooner than me about 6 months, in Dec 2010, and now she has been here more than 1 year. I want to go college next quarter, what do I have to prepare to claim for my mom's residency status to get in-state tuition fee? She already had Bank Account, Driver License, I-94 (or a visa that had a validation date when she had come here). Someone told me that she must fill up her income tax form but she hasn't worked or had any income for the past year in US. We are living with my uncle family, and we don't have to pay for food and rent. Is there any chance that she can file a Income Tax Form? They also need a 2010 Federal Income Tax Form... Is it too late to fill up the 2010 one? Thanks for reading my question. It is too hard to start a new life here without any help. I would appreciate if you could share your experiences about residency status.

• Answer:

  1. If you are a legal immigrant to the USA and have received or have applied for a U.S. Permanent Resident card ("green card"), you can qualify to be considered a resident of the state of California in order to be able to pay the resident/in-state tuition at a California locally funded community college or a state funded university by following the steps outlined here: Establishing Residency http://www.registrar.ucsb.edu/residenc.htm#who The information is on a web page for the University of California - Santa Barbara, but the steps are the same for all government funded community colleges and universities in Calif. 2. Regarding the question of your mother filing a California income tax return, if she earns no income she has no reason to file a state of Calif. income tax form. 3. If you can not yet meet the requirements for Calif. residency for tuition purposes, you will be better off not starting college next quarter, because you will have to pay non-resident tuition. Once you do that as a "non-resident" your status will not change to "resident" for the purposes of college tuition. 4. If the college you plan on attending has an office for "international students," I suggest you talk with someone there for clarifications. If there is no office for "international students," then talk with a counselor in the college Admissions Office. You can go in-person or make a telephone call. Note: The campus of the college that interests you may be closed over the Christmas break and you may not be able to go there or contact someone by telephone until Jan. 2, 2012. Unsolicited advice: Please understand that finding out the right office/department/person to speak with (by telephone or in-person) and following that path of inquiring will gather you far better information than asking a question for some strangers to answer on Y!A. :-) Librarians--Ask Us, We Answer! Find your local Public Library at: http://www.publiclibraries.com/ Find your College/University Library at: http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/Academic_main.html Best wishes