Closer connection exception

The exception is open only in a year you spend fewer than 183 days in the US. From your 183rd day the exception is closed, and a treaty tie-breaker is the only way left to stay a nonresident. For the whole year, you must keep a tax home in a foreign country and a closer connection to that same country. Your tax home is where your main job or business is, or where you regularly live if you have neither.

The IRS compares your ties to each country: your permanent home, your family, your belongings and where you bank. Your driver’s license, where you vote and your business activities count too. So do the forms you file, such as a Form W-8 or W-9, and the residence you state on them.

A green card application pending at any point in the year closes the exception, and so does one filed that year. That includes a petition filed on your behalf, such as a relative’s Form I-130 or an employer’s Form I-140. Green card holders cannot claim it at all.

The usual mistake is to treat fewer than 183 days as enough on its own. You also have to claim the exception on Form 8840, filed with your Form 1040-NR or sent to the IRS on its own. Missing its deadline usually costs you the exception. A closer connection also matters in the years you arrive and leave, where it can move your residency start or end date.