The rule in the IRS's own words
You must be physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during a 12-month period.
The statute is 26 U.S.C. § 911(d)(1)(B). The 330 days do not have to be in a row, and the 12-month period can start on any day you choose, including a day in a different tax year, as long as the 12 months are consecutive.
How days are counted: full 24-hour days
A full day is a period of 24 consecutive hours, beginning and ending at midnight.
This is the strictest day definition of any rule we cover. The US Substantial Presence Test counts any part of a day; the FEIE counts only complete days abroad. The same trip home therefore costs you more days under the FEIE than it adds under the SPT.
| Rule | What counts as a day |
|---|---|
| FEIE physical presence test | Only full 24-hour days abroad, midnight to midnight, count. (IRS, Physical Presence Test) |
| US Substantial Presence Test | Any part of a day in the US counts as a full day. (IRS, Substantial Presence Test) |
| US state 183-day rules (most states) | Varies by state. New York counts any part of a day; Pennsylvania counts a day as outside the state only if it is a full day, midnight to midnight; Ohio counts contact periods; many states publish no partial-day rule. (Each state's statute (see the state guide)) |
| UK Statutory Residence Test | A day counts if you are in the UK at midnight, subject to the transit exception and the deeming rule. (HMRC, RFIG20710) |
| Schengen 90/180 | The day you enter and the day you leave both count as days of stay. (Schengen Borders Code, Art. 6(1) and 6(2)) |
Worked examples
| Situation | Effect on the 330-day count |
|---|---|
| Fly Lisbon to New York on 10 June, fly back overnight on 30 June, landing 1 July | 22 days lost: 10 June (part in the US), 11 to 29 June (in the US), 30 June (departure day) and 1 July (began over the ocean). The other 343 days of a 365-day window can still clear 330. |
| Overnight flight London to Stockholm, 11pm to 5am | No full days lost: the IRS treats travel between foreign countries of under 24 hours as continuous presence. |
| Calendar-year count comes to 320 days because of a long March trip home | Try a window starting after the trip: from 1 April to 31 March may clear 330. |
FEIE and US expat guides
Frequently asked questions
- What is the FEIE physical presence test?
- It is one of two ways to qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. You must be physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months. It is a pure day count: your intentions and the type of visa you hold do not matter.
- What counts as a full day?
- A period of 24 consecutive hours beginning and ending at midnight, spent in a foreign country or countries. A day you spend partly in the US is not a full day abroad, and neither is a day that starts or ends over international waters.
- Do the 330 days have to be consecutive?
- No. The IRS says the 330 full days do not have to be consecutive. They only have to fall within one 12-month period.
- Does the 12-month period have to be the calendar year?
- No. It is any 12 consecutive months and it can start on any day. People often test only the calendar year, fail, and give up, when a window starting in March or June would have qualified. The calculator above checks every window.
- How many days can I spend in the US and still qualify?
- At most 35 days that are not full foreign days in a 365-day window (36 if the window includes 29 February). That budget covers US visits and the travel days around them, so two trips home can use most of it.
- Do flights count as days abroad?
- Time over international waters is not time in a foreign country. A flight between two foreign countries that takes less than 24 hours does not cost you a day, but a US trip costs the day you leave and the day you land back, as well as every day in between.
- What if I had to leave because of war or civil unrest?
- The IRS can waive the minimum time if you had to leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest or similar adverse conditions. It publishes the qualifying countries and dates each year.
- What if I do not pass the physical presence test?
- The bona fide residence test is the other route to the same exclusion. It does not use a day count; it asks whether you are a genuine resident of a foreign country for an uninterrupted tax year.
- Is there an app that tracks the 330-day rule?
- Yes. iReside logs which country you are in every day from your iPhone's location, so your days abroad are recorded as you travel instead of being rebuilt from boarding passes at tax time. It does not give tax advice.