long term resident question

[svimagine]

My husband and I moved to US from canada (canadian citizens) in 1987 on permanent green cards. We moved back to Canada in 2001 and started working and filing taxes in Canada at that time. We did not turn in our green cards and stopped filing US taxes as we had no US income after 2000 other than deferred IRAs. We now know we should have been filing US forms but didn't know at the time. We are of modest means. Income less than $25,000 / yr each and net worth only about @150,000/each including our home in Canada. In May 2016 we finally went to the border and surrendered our green cards formally. My question is: We are doing our US taxes for the non resident for first time. Are we considered "long term residents" since we have not lived in US for the last 15 yrs and have been filing Canadian taxes? (tax treaty laws?) or Is the date of our non resident status start the day we turned in our green cards? and we have to do all of the Exit Tax questions? The tax form does not have a box to check if you left before 2004. Thanks for any help on this. No one at the IRS will answer this question for us.

[nelsona]

You must first ALSO prepare expatriation taxes for US. Merely handing in your Green card does not stop you from having to file with IRS as a resident, until you satisfy several requirements.

There have been several posts on this, perhaps another poster can point you in the right direction.