Me and my wife moved to the US in the 2016 and she enrolled in the community college in the end of the 2016 for spring term 2017.
So I paid the tuition in 2016, but she became a student in 2017.
What should I do to get the tax deduction for the tuition expenses?
The problem is that I can't claim this expenses in the 2016 form because she was not a student in that year.
As long as she starts school before April, 2017, you can still deduct it for 2016 even though she didn't become a student until 2017. (And in fact you should because you can't deduct it in 2017.) This exact scenario is described in publication 970 chapter 6:
Prepaid expenses. Qualified education expenses paid in 2015 for an academic period that begins in the first 3 months of 2016 can be used in figuring an education credit for 2015 only. See Academic period , earlier. For example, if you pay $2,000 in December 2015 for qualified tuition for the 2016 winter quarter that begins in January 2016, you can use that $2,000 in figuring an education credit for 2015 only (if you meet all the other requirements).
