Resident alien: what it means for your US taxes

The two tests

The green-card test. Holding lawful permanent resident status at any point in the calendar year makes you a resident alien for that year. Nothing else needs to be true.

The substantial presence test. This one counts days across three years. You meet it if you were present at least 31 days in the current year, and the weighted total reaches 183 — counting every day this year, a third of the days last year, and a sixth of the days the year before.

The weighting is what surprises people. Someone spending roughly four months a year in the United States, every year, crosses the line without ever spending half a year there.

What residency brings with it

A resident alien is taxed like a citizen: worldwide income on Form 1040, the same filing thresholds, and the same foreign reporting. Foreign accounts over the $10,000 aggregate come onto the FBAR. Foreign financial assets above the FATCA threshold come onto Form 8938. A foreign pension may need reporting even when nothing has been paid out of it.

The relief provisions come too. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and the foreign tax credit are available to resident aliens living abroad on the same terms as citizens.

The arrival year is its own problem

The year you become a resident is rarely a clean one. Residency typically starts partway through it, which produces a dual-status year: nonresident for the first part, resident for the rest, with different rules applying to each stretch and a single return covering both.

There are elections that can change that shape — the first-year choice, or treating yourself as a full-year resident where a spouse is involved. Each has consequences beyond the year in question, which is why the arrival year is the one worth planning rather than simply reporting.

The closer-connection exception

Meeting the substantial presence test does not always settle it. If you were present fewer than 183 days in the current year, kept a tax home abroad and can show a closer connection to that country, Form 8840 may keep you a nonresident. It is a claim you file, not a status you assume.

IRC §7701(b); IRS Publication 519; Forms 1040, 8840 and 8938 instructions; 31 CFR 1010.350. The $10,000 FBAR threshold is an aggregate across all accounts. Checked 13 September 2026.