This page can be accessed at bit.ly/isstaxstatus
[Updated Feb 6, 2025]
This website is currently being updated for the 2024 tax year (Jan-Dec 2024) for tax forms due April 15, 2025
You will find general information here.
We encourage you to consult other resources to confirm the information here.
See Getting Help
How to determine if you are a nonresident or resident alien
Please verify the information on this page using the flow charts on PDF pages 7-10 of IRS publication 4011 and Topic 851 - Resident and Nonresident Aliens.
See also a Google Slides presentation of this topic at http://bit.ly/isstaxstatus-s
If your status is nonresident alien, you MUST submit a completed IRS Form 8843.
If you have taxable income, you must complete a federal and state personal income tax form.
If you are a nonresident alien, you will complete IRS Form 1040-NR. You will include your 8843 with the 1040-NR. See Income and Taxes
If you are a resident alien, you will complete IRS Form 1040. The 8843 is not needed. See taxes for Resident Aliens
If you are uncertain of your residency status (nonresident alien or resident alien), use Sprintax. There is no charge to use Sprintax to determine your residency. You only pay a fee if you need to download PDFs of the income tax forms completed by Sprintax.)
Enter your all of your U.S. immigration information into Sprintax (visa status and days entering and leaving the U.S.).
You can view your travel history for the last five years at https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/history-search.
If Sprintax allows you to continue to "Visa Details", then your residency status is nonresident alien.
If Sprintax does not show "Visa Details" on the next page, you will see a screen telling you that your status is resident alien.
The substantial presence test determines whether you are a nonresident alien or resident alien.
NOTE: Use Sprintax to determine if you are "substantially present."
If you are not substantially present, your status is nonresident alien.
If you are substantially present, your status is resident alien.
The following information is for those who want to know the details about the substantial presence test
If you are "substantially present" in the U.S., then your status is "resident alien." The following formula is used to calculate if you are substantially present.
You will be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for calendar year 2024. To meet this test, you must be physically present in the United States on at least:
31 days during 2024, and
183 days during the 3-year period (using the following formula):
All the days you were present in 2024, and
1/3 of the days you were present in 2023, and
1/6 of the days you were present in 2022.
Don't count the days you are present in the U.S. as during your "exempt" period.
F & J visa students are exempt for five calendar years (lifetime total).
Example:
You arrived in the U.S. in 2019 on your F or J student visa.
You were present for at least one day (not counting days of arrival and departure) on your F or J student visa during 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
You were not in the U.S. in 2021.
Your five years of exemption would be 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024. You would not include any of those days when doing the substantial presence test.
Beginning Jan 1, 2025, you would begin to count your days present.
If you were to stay in the U.S. for 183 days in 2025, your status for 2025 would change from nonresident alien to resident alien.
Your status would not go back to nonresident alien until you are not present in the U.S. for one complete calendar year (Jan 1 - Dec 31).
J visiting scholars are exempt for up to two calendar years during a six-year period. When determining if a J scholar is exempt for the current year, look at the previous six calendar years. If present in the U.S. on a J visa for two or more years during the previous six years, their status is resident alien for the current year.
Example: If performing the test for 2024, review the last six years: 2018-2023. If you were present during only one of those years (2018-2023), then 2024 would be the second exempt year and you would not count the days in 2024 when doing the substantial presence test. If you were present during two of the calendar years from 2018-2023, then 2024 would not be an exempt year and you would count your days of presence during 2024 when doing the substantial presence test.
When counting "exempt years" in the US, count each calendar year you were present on your F or J visa, even if you were only present for one day. (Do not count days in which you entered or exited the country.) For example, if you arrived on Dec 29, don't count Dec 29; that is the day you entered. You would be considered present in the US on Dec 30 and Dec 31, two days. Because you were present in the US that calendar year; count that calendar year as one year present. Do the same for each year you were present in the US on an F or J visa.
Introduction to Residency Under U.S. Tax Law | Internal Revenue Service
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/introduction-to-residency-under-us-tax-law
Residency Starting and Ending Dates | Internal Revenue Service
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/residency-starting-and-ending-dates
Alien Residency Examples|Internal Revenue Service
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/alien-residency-examples
Exempt Individual - Who is a Student
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/exempt-individual-who-is-a-student