[anang]

You don’t have to use the exclusion, and in a lot of cases it’s not really beneficial.

The other option is to pay the difference in taxes, so if you were taxed at 50% in the country of residence, and the tax bill in the US would have been 45%, you’ll get the 5% back as tax credits towards future US tax obligations.

If you’re working in most European nations you’ll probably be paying more in tax than you would in the US.