Your sixth year on F-1: when you become a resident alien for tax

How many days in the US make me a resident in year 6?

If your earlier days were all exempt, you need at least 183 days in the US in your sixth calendar year alone. A student who is here every day of 2026 reaches the 183rd day on July 2, 2026.

The test for 2026 adds every day in 2026, one third of your days in 2025 and one sixth of your days in 2024 (IRS: substantial presence test). It also needs at least 31 days in 2026. Exempt days count as zero, and any part of a day in the US counts as a full day.

So in year 6 only your year 6 days count, because years 4 and 5 were exempt. In year 7 one third of your year 6 days are added, and from year 8 the full formula applies. Days as a tourist or on H-1B are never exempt, so count any in 2025 or 2024 at one third and one sixth.

When does my residency start in my sixth year?

Your residency generally starts on the first day you are in the US in the calendar year you meet the test, not on the 183rd day. A sixth-year student here on January 1, 2026 who reaches 183 days is a resident alien for all of 2026, unless the Form 8843 line 12 exception applies.

The IRS says the start date is "generally the first day you are present in the United States during that calendar year" (IRS: residency starting and ending dates).

A dual-status return gets no standard deduction, not even for the months you were a resident, and you generally cannot claim the education credits that year (Publication 519). The IRS page on dual-status taxpayers explains how the two parts of the return fit together.

Changing from OPT to H-1B in your sixth year does not change the start date, because your F-1 days already count. The H-1B date matters only inside your first five years (F-1 to H-1B guide). If you meet the test and then leave the US for good, your residency normally ends on December 31; the leaving the US checklist covers the exception.

What changes on my tax return as a resident alien?

A resident alien for all of 2026 files Form 1040, the return US citizens file, and is taxed on income from anywhere in the world. You take the $16,100 standard deduction for a single filer, may qualify for education credits, and no longer file Form 8843.

The $16,100 is the 2026 figure in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. If your home country also taxes interest or gains you earn there, read the Form 1040 instructions on the foreign tax credit.

A full-year resident may claim the American Opportunity or Lifetime Learning credit if they meet its rules (Publication 519). In August 2026, Treasury and the IRS proposed a rule and a new Schedule 3-A for the refundable part of the American Opportunity credit. Who loses that part is not settled, so read the 2026 Form 1040 instructions before you claim it. The Form 1098-T guide explains the credits.

If you filed Form 1040 in an earlier year while you were still a nonresident, read Filed Form 1040 instead of 1040-NR?.

Do I pay Social Security and Medicare tax on OPT after five years?

Yes, once you are a resident alien: from your residency start date, OPT pay owes Social Security and Medicare tax at 7.65%. The F-1 and J-1 exemption from these taxes covers only nonresident aliens (IRS: foreign student liability).

For 2026, Social Security tax is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 (SSA), and Medicare tax is 1.45% of all wages. A tax treaty generally does not exempt pay from these taxes, even when it exempts the pay from income tax.

Pay from the school where you are enrolled and regularly attending classes can still be free of both taxes under a separate student FICA exception, whatever your residency. It never covers OPT or CPT with an outside company, or a full-time employee, and anyone whose normal schedule is 40 hours or more a week is one (Rev. Proc. 2005-11). At a public university, it does not apply if your state's Social Security (Section 218) agreement covers student workers (on-campus job guide).

Give your payroll office the calendar year you first came to the US as a student before your sixth year begins, so it starts withholding at the right time. If your line 12 claim holds, the exemption continues, and if payroll withholds anyway, the FICA refund guide shows how to ask for it back.

How much more tax does a sixth-year OPT worker pay?

For an illustrative STEM OPT worker paid $60,000 in 2026, becoming a resident alien cuts federal income tax by $2,892 but adds $4,590 of Social Security and Medicare tax. The total rises by $1,698.

The brackets are the 2026 single-filer rates in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. We used the rate schedule; the IRS Tax Table, used below $100,000 of taxable income, can differ by a few dollars. Other income, a treaty or itemized deductions also change the numbers.

Do I need to file an FBAR or Form 8938 as a resident alien?

As a resident alien, you file an FBAR for 2026 if your foreign financial accounts together were worth more than $10,000 at any time in the year. A resident alien is a US person for the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114); a nonresident alien does not file one.

A savings account and a fixed deposit at home add together (IRS: FBAR). You file it online with FinCEN, not with your tax return, by Thursday, April 15, 2027, with an automatic extension to Friday, October 15, 2027.

Form 8938 is a separate form that goes with your Form 1040. An unmarried resident living in the US files it only if their specified foreign financial assets pass one of two amounts (Instructions for Form 8938). The amounts are more than $50,000 on December 31, or more than $75,000 at any time in the year. Filing one form does not take care of the other (IRS comparison). The FBAR guide covers both.

Do my tax treaty benefits continue after five years?

Usually not, because each treaty's saving clause ends most treaty benefits when you become a resident alien. But many treaties keep the student article for residents, under its own conditions and time limits.

China's Article 20 lets a Chinese student or trainee exclude up to $5,000 a year of US pay. It can keep applying after you become a resident (IRS: claiming treaty exemption). You must still be a student or trainee, within the time reasonably needed to finish your education or training. As a resident, you claim it by giving the payer Form W-9 with a statement (Form W-9 instructions), not Form 8233. China's exception has no green-card condition: the protocol to the treaty keeps only US citizens fully taxable (Publication 519).

India's Article 21 can also continue for a resident who is not a US citizen and has no green card (Treasury Technical Explanation). That explanation describes Article 21(1) as exempting payments from abroad for your maintenance, education or training. A full-year resident takes the standard deduction anyway, so that part of the article is the one that still matters.

On Form 1040, Publication 519 (2025) has you report the income as usual and enter the exempt amount in parentheses on Schedule 1, line 8z (2025 form). You also write "Exempt income", the treaty country and the article. Whether you must also attach Form 8833 is not settled. A Treasury regulation waives it for student and teacher treaty income, but an IRS training example attaches it to a resident scholar's Form 1040 (Publication 5876).

Many other treaties keep the student article for a resident who is not a US citizen and has no green card (IRS). In the treaty texts we read, that is true of every country in the treaty guide by country except Pakistan, but Canada's $10,000 employment rule does not continue.

A five-year article has usually run out by your sixth calendar year. So this matters most where students have no limit in years, as for Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, India, Malta and the Netherlands. It also matters where a full-time student gets extra time for a postgraduate or professional degree, as for Cyprus, Egypt, Slovenia and Venezuela. See the China treaty guide and the India treaty guide.

Can I stay a nonresident alien after five years?

Yes, if you can show that you do not intend to live in the US permanently. You answer Yes on line 12 of Form 8843 and attach a statement with enough facts to support your claim.

The IRS page on this exception for foreign students lists four conditions, and you must establish all of them:

1. You do not intend to live in the US permanently.
2. You have substantially complied with the terms of your visa.
3. You have not taken steps to become a permanent resident.
4. You have a closer connection to a foreign country than to the US.

Line 13 of the 2026 draft Form 8843 asks whether you applied for, or took steps toward, a green card in 2026, and a Yes there weighs against your claim. The IRS has published no list of documents that guarantees acceptance.

Do not use Form 8840 for this: it is a different exception that needs fewer than 183 days in the US in the year and a tax home abroad. If your line 12 claim holds, you stay a nonresident alien and keep your exemption from Social Security and Medicare tax. You attach Form 8843 and your statement to Form 1040-NR, or mail them alone if you had no income subject to US tax.

Am I also a resident of my state?

Becoming a resident alien for federal tax does not automatically make you a resident of your state. Each state applies its own residency tests, so your federal status does not decide your state status in either direction.

States usually start from your domicile, your permanent home. Some, such as New York, also count you as a resident if you keep a home there and spend enough days in the state (New York definitions). A state taxes residents on all their income, but nonresidents only on income from that state, which for most students means wages for work done there. The state income tax guide covers each state.

What to do next

1. Find the calendar year you first came to the US in F, J, M or Q status, using the I-94 travel history and your passport, and count from there, including 2026.
2. If 2026 is year 6 or later, count your 2026 days and note whether you were here on January 1. In year 6, 183 days or more makes you a resident alien unless line 12 fits you; from year 7, use the full formula.
3. Tell your payroll office the year you first came as a student, and check that your pay stubs show 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare tax on OPT pay from your residency start date.
4. If you are a resident for all of 2026, file Form 1040 by Thursday, April 15, 2027, without Form 8843. Check whether you need an FBAR, due the same day with an automatic extension to Friday, October 15, 2027.
5. If you want to stay a nonresident, write your line 12 statement and gather the facts about your ties abroad before you file.
6. If 2026 is still year 5 or earlier and all your days were in student status, file as a nonresident alien: Form 8843, with Form 1040-NR if you had US income to report (Form 1040-NR guide).

F1TaxReturn prepares Form 1040-NR and Form 8843 for free for students who are still nonresident aliens, once the IRS publishes the final 2026 forms and instructions. It does not prepare Form 1040 or dual-status returns. It answers No on Form 8843 line 12 and writes no statement, so a student who claims the line 12 exception needs another way to file. Create an account.