[pidandan]

Dear Tax Expert,

My sister came to US with a J1 student Visa but she has no income from US at all, she only has $5000 a year from my home country as scholarship, obviously, that's not enough for her.I paid more than 50% her expense here. I am a resident alien and will file tax return using married file jointly, may I apply for ITIN number for her and claim her as my dependent? Thank you.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Sorry, you CANNOT claim your sister as a dependent.

To be claimed as a dependent, your sister MUST be a citizen or resident of the U.S. Since she is on a J-1 visa, she CANNOT, by definition, be considered a resident so she cannot be claimed as a dependent.