United States — Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE)

Summary

Requirement

330 full days outside the US

Window

Any 12 consecutive months

Test

Physical presence

Covers

Foreign earned income only

Authority

IRS (IRC §911)

To qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion under the physical presence test, you must be physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months. Reach and maintain 330 full days abroad in that window and you meet the test — fall below 330 and you fail it. The days need not be consecutive, but every one must be a whole day spent entirely outside the United States.

Meeting the test lets you exclude foreign earned income (up to an annual cap) from US taxable income — it does not exempt you from filing. It is one of two routes to the FEIE, the other being the bona fide residence test.

Who it applies to

This matters most if you are:

• A US citizen or green-card holder living and working abroad who still files a US return on worldwide income.
• A remote worker or digital nomad earning wages or self-employment income while based outside the US.
• Someone who cannot use the bona fide residence test — for example, because you move between countries and never establish residence in one for a full tax year.

The physical presence test is open to anyone with a US tax home abroad; unlike the bona fide residence test, it does not depend on citizenship or on settling in a single country. Your income must also be foreign earned income — pay for services performed while physically abroad.

The rule — and why it exists

The physical presence test has two moving parts you control together:

• 330 full days. You must spend at least 330 complete 24-hour days in a foreign country. Any day touching US soil is not a full foreign day.
• A 12-month window. Those 330 days must fall inside a single stretch of 12 consecutive months, which you choose and which need not match the calendar or tax year.

Why it exists: the US taxes its citizens and residents on worldwide income no matter where they live. The FEIE relieves genuine expatriates from double taxation on income they earn abroad, and the 330-day test gives a bright-line, objective way to prove you really are living outside the country — a pure count of days that avoids arguments about intent or where your life is centred.

Counting the days

1. 1Count only full days — a full day is a 24-hour period, from midnight to midnight, spent entirely in a foreign country.
2. 2Any day on which you set foot on US soil counts as a US day, not a foreign day, even if you are there for only part of it.
3. 3Time spent travelling over international waters or airspace between the US and a foreign country generally does not count as a foreign day.
4. 4Add up your full foreign days across your chosen 12 consecutive months; you need at least 330.

Because any partial day touching the US breaks a full foreign day, the effect is strict: an arrival or departure day where you are in the US for even a few hours is a US day. Only clean, entirely-foreign 24-hour days count toward the 330 — which is why the test allows just 35 US days across a whole year.

Choosing the 12-month window

The 12-month period is flexible. You may choose any block of 12 consecutive months, and it does not have to align with the calendar year or the tax year.

• Start on any date.

  The window can begin on your first full foreign day and run 12 months forward, or be positioned to capture your best 330-day stretch.

• Overlapping windows are allowed.

  You can pick different 12-month periods for different tax years, and they may overlap, as long as each one independently contains 330 full foreign days.

• Proration across tax years.

  If your qualifying window straddles two tax years, the maximum exclusion is prorated by how many qualifying days fall in each year.

Examples

Example 1 — clean year abroad

You leave the US on 1 January and spend the entire year working in Portugal and Spain, returning to the US for just three weeks in July (21 US days). Across the 12 months you have well over 330 full foreign days, so you pass the physical presence test.

Example 2 — too many US trips

You are based in Mexico but fly back to the US roughly one week every month — about 45 US days over the year. That leaves you under 330 full foreign days, so you fail the test for that 12-month window and cannot use the physical presence route.

Example 3 — shifting the window

You move abroad on 1 March. A January-to-December window would fail, but a window running from 1 March to the end of February the following year captures 330+ full foreign days. You choose that 12-month period instead — and prorate the exclusion between the two tax years it spans.

Exceptions & edge cases

• The bona fide residence test. If you establish genuine residence in a foreign country for an uninterrupted tax year, you may qualify for the FEIE that way instead — day count no longer matters, but this route is generally limited to US citizens.
• War, unrest, or evacuation. The IRS can waive the minimum time requirement if you must leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest, or similar adverse conditions, provided you could reasonably have expected to meet the test otherwise.
• Restricted countries. Time spent in countries the US has placed under travel or sanctions restrictions does not count as time in a foreign country for FEIE purposes.
• Only earned income qualifies. The exclusion covers wages and self-employment income earned abroad — not dividends, interest, capital gains, or pension and social security income.

Common misconceptions

• "Qualifying means I don't have to file." False — you must file a US return and claim the exclusion on Form 2555; there is no automatic exemption.
• "All my income is tax-free." The exclusion is capped at an annual limit and only covers foreign earned income; anything above the cap, and all unearned income, stays taxable.
• "Arrival and departure days count." They usually don't — any day touching the US is a US day, so only whole foreign days count toward the 330.
• "The 12 months must be a calendar year." No — you can choose any 12 consecutive months and position them around your travel.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• IRS — Foreign Earned Income Exclusion: Physical Presence Test
• IRS — Figuring the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion