US expat tax · Counting days
Do travel days count toward the FEIE 330 days?
Short answer
Usually not. The physical presence test counts only full days — midnight to midnight — in a foreign country, and time over international waters doesn’t count. So the day you fly out of the US isn’t a full day abroad, and after an overnight flight, neither is the day you land. Short trips between foreign countries cost no days.
The IRS example: flying out of the US
You leave the US by air on June 10 and land in France at 9:00 a.m. on June 11:
| Date | A full day abroad? |
|---|---|
| June 10 — you leave the US | No: part of it is in the US |
| June 11 — you land at 9:00 a.m. | No: part of it is over international waters |
| June 12 | Yes — your first full day in France |
An overnight flight costs you one more day than the dates you spend in the US: the day you land abroad isn’t a full day either.
Travel days between foreign countries
Moving between foreign countries costs no full days if the trip takes less than 24 hours, even over international waters. The IRS example: you leave London by air at 11 p.m. on July 6 and land in Stockholm at 5 a.m. on July 7 — no full days lost. A trip outside foreign countries of 24 hours or more does cost full days.
Changing planes in the US
If you pass through the US for less than 24 hours on the way between two foreign points, you aren’t treated as present in the US — but those hours count as travel outside any foreign country, so a day spent partly in transit isn’t a full day abroad either.
To see the date you reach 330 full days with your trips home taken off, use the physical presence test calculator.
Sources
FlySee counts days; it doesn’t give tax advice. Whether you’re resident is for you and your adviser.