The physical presence test

Count your days

The rules, including the travel days

The 330 days

• You meet the physical presence test if you are physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during a period of 12 consecutive months that includes some part of the tax year at issue. IRC 911(d)(1)(B); Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(a)(2)(ii)
• The 330 qualifying days do not have to be consecutive. You add up every separate period you were present in a foreign country inside the chosen 12 month window, and the run can be interrupted by time travelling over international waters or otherwise outside a foreign country. Form 2555 instructions, Part III, Physical Presence Test; Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2)
• The test is based only on how long you stay in a foreign country. It does not depend on the kind of residence you establish, your intentions about returning to the United States, or the nature and purpose of your stay. Form 2555 notes that US citizens and all resident aliens can use this test, while the bona fide residence test is open only to US citizens and to resident aliens who are citizens or nationals of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect. IRC 911(d)(1)(B); Form 2555, Part III note; Form 2555 instructions, Parts II and III

Choosing your 12 month window

• A 12 month period can begin with any day of the month. It ends the day before the same calendar day 12 months later, and it must be made up of consecutive months. The Form 2555 instructions put it as a length: the period must include 365 days, or 366 in a leap year, part of which must fall in the tax year you are filing. Form 2555, line 16; Form 2555 instructions, line 16; Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(1)
• You do not have to start the 12 month period with your first full day abroad or end it with the day you leave, and 12 month periods may overlap one another. You can choose whichever 12 month period gives you the greatest exclusion, which matters most in a year you qualify for only part of. Form 2555, line 16; Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(1)
• If your qualifying period covers only part of the tax year, the maximum exclusion is prorated: multiply the year's maximum by the number of qualifying days that fall in the tax year, then divide by 365, or 366 in a leap year. Form 2555 does this at lines 37 through 40, entering the ratio at line 39 as a decimal rounded to at least three places. IRC 911(b)(2)(A); Form 2555, lines 37 to 40

What counts as a full day

• A full day is a period of 24 consecutive hours beginning and ending at midnight, and you must spend the whole of it in a foreign country or countries for it to count. The one softening is the change of location rule: if you have been present in a foreign country and then travel over areas not within any foreign country for less than 24 hours, you are not treated as being outside a foreign country during that travel. Form 2555 instructions, Part III; Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2)
• Time spent on or over international waters when you leave the United States for a foreign country, or return from one, does not count as time in a foreign country. In the IRS example, you fly out of the United States on June 10 and land in France at 9:00 a.m. on June 11, so your first full day in France is June 12. Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2) and (h); Form 2555 instructions, Foreign Country
• If you pass over a foreign country before midnight of the day you leave the United States, the first day you can count toward the 330 is still the day after the day you left. In the IRS example, you leave the United States at 9:30 a.m. on June 10, pass over part of France at 11:00 p.m. that night and land in Spain at 12:30 a.m. on June 11, and June 11 is your first full day in a foreign country. Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2)
• You can move from place to place within a foreign country, or from one foreign country to another, without losing full days, as long as no part of the trip that is outside every foreign country takes 24 hours or more. The IRS examples: London to Stockholm overnight takes less than 24 hours and loses nothing, while a ship leaving Norway at 10 p.m. on July 6 and docking in Portugal at 6 a.m. on July 8 takes more than 24 hours outside any foreign country, so July 6, 7 and 8 are all lost. Form 2555, line 18; Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2)
• If you are in transit between two points outside the United States and are physically present in the United States for less than 24 hours, you are not treated as present in the United States during the transit. You are treated as travelling over areas not within any foreign country, and under the change of location rule that travel costs you full days only if the stretch outside every foreign country takes 24 hours or more. Form 2555 says the same thing from the other side at line 18: you leave off the travel table any travel between foreign countries that did not involve being on or over international waters, or in or over the United States, for 24 hours or more. Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(d)(2); Form 2555, line 18

Where counts as a foreign country

• A foreign country is territory under the sovereignty of a government other than the United States, including its airspace and, for this exclusion, the territorial waters within 12 nautical miles. It does not include international waters or airspace, US territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands or American Samoa, the Antarctic region, or offshore installations outside any country's territorial waters. Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(g) and (h); Form 2555 instructions, Foreign Country
• Days spent in a foreign country in violation of US law do not count toward the 330, and income earned from sources in that country for services performed during the violation is not foreign earned income. Cuba is currently the only country to which US travel restrictions apply, with an exception for civilians performing services at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. IRC 911(d)(8); Notice 2006-84; Form 2555 instructions, Travel restrictions

The tax home condition, and the abode rule that sinks rotational workers

• Counting 330 days is only half the test. Your tax home, meaning the general area of your main place of business, employment or post of duty, must be in a foreign country throughout the period of physical presence. Section 911(d)(1) applies the tax home condition to both qualifying tests. IRC 911(d)(1); IRC 911(d)(3); Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(a)(1)(ii)
• You do not have a tax home in a foreign country for any period in which your abode is in the United States, unless you are serving in support of the Armed Forces in a designated combat zone. Abode turns on where your family, economic and personal ties are, which is how a rotational worker who returns to a US family home fails the test even with the days. IRC 911(d)(3); Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(b)

If you had to leave because of war or unrest

• If your tax home was in a foreign country and you had to leave because of war, civil unrest or similar adverse conditions, the minimum time requirement can be waived. You must show you could reasonably have expected to meet it but for those conditions, and you must have been a bona fide resident of, or physically present in, that country on or before the date the waiver begins. Attach a statement to the return and enter Claiming Waiver in the top margin of page 1 of Form 2555. IRC 911(d)(4); Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(f); Form 2555 instructions, Waiver of Time Requirements
• Early each year the IRS publishes a Revenue Procedure in the Internal Revenue Bulletin naming the only countries whose time requirement is waived for the prior year, with the departure date each one runs from. Rev. Proc. 2026-16 is the list for tax year 2025 and nothing later: Haiti and Ukraine from January 1, 2025, the Democratic Republic of the Congo from January 28, 2025, South Sudan from March 7, 2025, Iraq from June 11, 2025, Lebanon from June 22, 2025, and Mali from October 30, 2025. Rev. Proc. 2026-16, section 3.01, under IRC 911(d)(4)
• The waiver excuses the 330 day minimum, not the arithmetic of the exclusion. In figuring how much you can exclude, your qualifying days include only the days you were actually resident or present in the foreign country. IRC 911(d)(4); Treas. Reg. 1.911-2(f); Form 2555 instructions, Waiver of Time Requirements

What you still have to file

• Passing the test earns nothing by itself. The exclusion applies only if you report the income on a filed US return and make a valid election by attaching Form 2555, and the election then stays in effect for later years unless you revoke it. IRC 911(a) and 911(e); Form 2555

What people get wrong about the 330 days

• The 330 days of this test and the 183 days of the substantial presence test are different tests pointing in opposite directions. This one counts full days you spend outside the United States across any 12 consecutive months, to let a US taxpayer exclude foreign earnings. The substantial presence test counts days you spend inside the United States, at least 31 in the current year and at least 183 over three years weighted at all of the current year, one third of the first prior year and one sixth of the second, and decides whether a non-citizen is taxed as a US resident at all. IRS source
• 330 out of 365 leaves only 35 days, and travel days come out of that budget before any holiday does. Time on or over international waters when you leave the United States for a foreign country, or return from one, does not count as time in a foreign country: in the IRS example you fly out on June 10, land in France at 9:00 a.m. on June 11, and your first countable day is June 12. A round trip home therefore costs the day you leave the foreign country, every day you are in the United States, and the day you fly back in. IRS source
• The 12 month period is not the calendar year. Readers test January to December, come up short, and conclude they do not qualify, when a window starting on a different day would hold 330 full days. You may pick whichever 12 consecutive months give the largest exclusion, and overlapping windows are allowed across years. IRS source
• Qualifying does not mean the whole exclusion. If the qualifying period covers only part of the tax year, the maximum is cut to the share of the year it covers. The IRS worked example: a qualifying period that begins on August 14 covers 140 days of that tax year, so the maximum for that year is 140/365 of the annual figure. IRS source
• Counting the days is not enough on its own. Your tax home must be in a foreign country for the same period, and your abode must not be in the United States. An offshore worker on a 28 day on, 28 day off rotation who returns to a US family home has a US abode and fails, whatever the day count says. IRS source
• No reason excuses falling short of 330 days. The IRS says the test is failed regardless of the cause, including illness, family problems, a vacation, or an employer's orders. The only relief is the war or civil unrest waiver, which covers just the countries and dates named in that year's Revenue Procedure. IRS source
• A stop in the United States of under 24 hours while in transit between two foreign points does not cost you the day. You are not treated as present in the United States during the transit, only as travelling over areas not within any foreign country, and travel outside every foreign country costs full days only when it runs to 24 hours or more. That is why the IRS overnight flight from London to Stockholm loses nothing while the ship from Norway to Portugal loses three days. IRS source
• The waiver country list always runs a year behind the year on its number. Rev. Proc. 2026-16 names the countries whose time requirement is waived for 2025 departures, not 2026 ones. The IRS publishes each year's list early in the following year, so the list covering departures during 2026 is not expected until early 2027. Any page that names the countries has to name the year they belong to. IRS source
• Excluded income still has to be reported. The exclusion applies only if you file a US return reporting the income and attach Form 2555 to elect it. There is no threshold below which an American abroad can simply not file. IRS source
• US territories are not foreign countries for this test. Days in Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands or American Samoa do not count toward the 330, and neither do days in the Antarctic region or on an offshore installation outside any country's territorial waters. IRS source

Which forms does this involve?

What does passing it get you?

It is one of the two ways to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, worth up to $132,900 of foreign earned income in 2026. You also need a tax home in a foreign country for the same period. The other route is the bona fide residence test, which asks about intent rather than days.

This test is often confused with the substantial presence test. They are unrelated: this one counts days abroad to win an exclusion, and that one counts days in the US to decide whether you are taxed as a US resident at all.

Counting after the fact is the hard part, because the answer depends on days you have to remember months later. Spyglass Beacon is a paid app that keeps the running count and warns you before you cross a line. We link it because it is a sister site, not because we are paid for the click.