If parents meet resident alien but their children are foreign students' status, can they treat their children as dependent? What I understand is to meet qualified child or dependent, the child or dependent needs to be US citizen, green card holder or resident alien. However, as a foreign student status (F-1), you have to wait 5 years before starting to calculate substantial presence test. Hence, until their children change citizen status or meet substantial presence test, their parents are not able to claim them as dependent on their tax return.