Missing or wrong W-2 on F-1 or OPT? What to do, step by step (2027)

Is it on the payroll website, and does payroll have your address?

Look on your employer's payroll website first: an employer may give you your W-2 electronically if you agreed to that (Publication 15-A, 2026). If you did not agree, you get a paper copy.

1. Log in to the payroll portal. If you are leaving the job, ask payroll how long you will keep access.
2. Check the address payroll has for you. If you moved, or left the US, send payroll your new address in writing.
3. Ask whether a paper W-2 came back undelivered. Employers must keep undelivered employee copies for 4 years, unless they can produce the W-2 electronically (2026 W-2 and W-3 instructions).

If you are leaving the US, the leaving the US checklist covers the W-2 together with your bank account and the other forms.

How do you ask payroll for the W-2 or a W-2c?

Write to payroll and name the form you need: the 2026 W-2, or a Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, that names the wrong box. Your employer corrects a W-2; you do not change the figures yourself.

1. Email or write to payroll with your full name, the last 4 digits of your SSN, your dates of work and your current address.
2. Say which form you need and, for a correction, which box is wrong and what it should show.
3. Attach your final 2026 pay stub, which shows the year-to-date figures.
4. Keep a copy and the date. Form 4852 later asks how you tried to get the form.

The instructions tell employers to give you a W-2c "as soon as possible" after they find an error. If it comes before you file, attach copies of the original W-2 and the W-2c to the front of Form 1040-NR, as the 2025 Form 1040-NR instructions say.

When do you call the IRS, and what do you say?

Call the IRS if you have asked your employer and still have no W-2 or W-2c by the end of February 2027 (Topic 154). The IRS then contacts your employer for you.

1. In the US, call 800-829-1040, the number Topic 154 gives. From abroad, the IRS's line for international taxpayers' account questions is 267-941-1000 (not toll-free), Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time (IRS).
2. Have ready your name, your address with its postal code, your phone number and date of birth. Add your SSN and the dates you worked there.
3. Have ready the employer's name and address, its phone number and, if you know it, its employer identification number (EIN). Last year's W-2 shows the EIN if you had the same employer.
4. Keep your final pay stub beside you for the amounts.

Form 4852 says the IRS will ask the employer for the form and will also send you a Form 4852. Topic 154 adds that a letter with instructions comes with it.

What if the W-2 is still missing or wrong at the deadline?

File on time with Form 4852, a substitute W-2 that you fill in from your final pay stub, or file Form 4868 for six more months to file. Either way, any tax you owe is due Thursday, April 15, 2027.

Form 4852 (Rev. September 2020) "serves as a substitute for Forms W-2, W-2c, and 1099-R", for a W-2 that never came or one that is wrong and not corrected. Its own instructions say to try your employer first and to call the IRS before you use it.

A W-2 is not wrong just because it includes pay a treaty exempts. You claim the treaty on Form 1040-NR instead (item 6 below).

1. Lines 1 to 3: your name, then your SSN, then your current address.
2. Line 4: write 2026 and check Form W-2. The line says you have notified the IRS, so fill it in after your call.
3. Lines 5 and 6: the employer's name, address and EIN, if known.
4. Line 7: use your final pay stub, as the form's instructions say. Line 7a takes the place of W-2 box 1, which leaves out elective deferrals such as 401(k) contributions (2026 W-2 and W-3 instructions). So enter the stub's year-to-date gross pay less those contributions, before any deduction for taxes, as line 7a says.
5. Line 9: say the amounts come from your final pay stub. Line 10: list your requests to payroll and your IRS call, with dates.
6. On your 2026 Form 1040-NR, put line 7a's wages on line 1a and line 7e's withholding on line 25a (2025 form and 2026 draft), where the W-2's boxes 1 and 2 would go. If a treaty exempts part of the wages, line 1a is the wages minus the exempt amount, which goes on line 1k from Schedule OI, item L. If your employer did not apply the treaty, the 2025 Form 1040-NR instructions also ask for a statement.

You can use Form 4852 with Form 1040-NR, although its header lists only Forms 1040, 1040-SR and 1040-X. The 2025 Form 1040-NR instructions send a filer with a missing or wrong W-2 to the Form 1040 instructions. Those point to Topic 154, which says you may use Form 4852 to complete your return.

Form 4852 itself says to attach it "to the back of your income tax return before any supporting forms or schedules". A W-2, by contrast, goes on the front of Form 1040-NR.

Form 4852 is a federal form. If you also file a state return, ask that state's tax agency what it accepts in place of the W-2.

Form 4852 takes your "best estimates". If you cannot estimate the amounts, file Form 4868 by Thursday, April 15, 2027 instead. That moves the filing deadline to Friday, October 15, 2027, but it is not more time to pay.

What if Social Security and Medicare tax or the wrong state was withheld?

Ask the employer to refund the Social Security and Medicare tax and issue a Form W-2c; ask it to correct a wrong state on a Form W-2c too. Each has its own guide for the steps after that.

A nonresident alien student in F-1, J-1 or M-1 status is generally exempt from both taxes on work USCIS allows for the visa's purpose, including practical training (IRS). If tax was "withheld in error", the IRS says to "contact the employer who withheld the taxes for a refund".

1. Check boxes 4 and 6 of the W-2, or the year-to-date lines on your pay stub, against the FICA refund guide, which covers who is exempt.
2. If the employer will not refund all of it, claim the rest on Form 843 with Form 8316, with a copy of your W-2 or W-2c; the step-by-step claim guide walks the two forms.
3. For a wrong state in box 15, the employer sends the W-2c to you and to "the appropriate state or local agency", not to the Social Security Administration. The two-state guide covers which state taxes which wages.

What if the real W-2 arrives after you filed?

Compare it with your Form 4852: if the figures differ, Form 4852 says "you must amend your return by filing Form 1040-X". If they match, you do nothing.

A nonresident amends a Form 1040-NR with Form 1040-X and a complete corrected Form 1040-NR. How to amend a Form 1040-NR shows how the Form 1040-X package is put together. Attach the W-2 or W-2c that arrived: the Form 1040-X instructions say to attach all additional or corrected Forms W-2 you received after you filed.

What should you keep?

Keep your final pay stub, every W-2 or W-2c, and a copy of Form 4852 with your dated emails to payroll. Form 4852 itself says to keep a copy for your records.

You need these if the IRS writes about your wages, and if you amend.

F1TaxReturn prepares Form 1040-NR and Form 8843 for free from your W-2 or W-2c figures, once the final 2026 forms are published. It does not prepare Form 4852, and its filing guide tells you to attach W-2 Copy B. If you have a W-2c, attach it too.

If Social Security or Medicare tax was withheld in error, F1TaxReturn writes two free letters to your employer. If the employer will not refund it all, it prepares Forms 843 and 8316 for $20, also once the final 2026 forms are published.

What to do next

1. Before January 2027, send every 2026 employer your current address and check that you can still reach its payroll website.
2. After Monday, February 1, 2027, check each W-2 box against your final pay stub, and write to payroll about anything missing or wrong.
3. If nothing has come by the end of February 2027, call 800-829-1040, or 267-941-1000 (not toll-free) from abroad.
4. By Thursday, April 15, 2027, file your Form 1040-NR with Form 4852, or file Form 4868 and pay what you expect to owe.
5. When the real W-2 comes, compare it with Form 4852 and amend with Form 1040-X if it differs.