Hi,

I come from the Netherlands where I got a J1 visa to work in the US as a research scholar. I'm currently nearing the end of the 2-year period during which I'm Federal-tax-exempt, according to the US-NL tax treaty.
I'd really like to stay more than 2 years in the US, but the prospect of having to pay back the taxes of the first 2 years retro-actively is a tough one. Hence my questions are the following
1) Is there a way for me to avoid having to pay these 2years of taxes?
2) Would switching from a J1 to an H1B visa allow me to avoid the payment of the taxes of the first 2 years?
3) How about if I go back to my home country for a month or 2 and re-apply for a new visa (J1, H1 or other) before coming back to the US, would I still have to pay the 1st 2 years of taxes?

I'm desperately looking for an answer but haven't found much on the web.

Thanks for your help.

W.

1) You can request an exception to policy from the IRS, but it is UNLIKELY that the excpetion would be granted.

2) That will NOT work, because you would NOT have returned to the Netherlands to re-establish residency.

3) As noted in #2 above, you have to return to your home country and re-establish residency. Typically, that requires a stay of about one year.