The FEIE Physical Presence Test: 330 Days, Counted Properly (2026)

For Americans working abroad, the foreign earned income exclusion (FEIE) is the single biggest line in the tax return: it excludes roughly $130,000 of foreign earnings from US tax (the figure is indexed annually; see the IRS FEIE page for the current amount). One of the two ways to qualify is the physical presence test, and it is a pure day-counting exercise with unforgiving edges. Here is the test in the IRS's own words, and the mistakes that cost people the exclusion. Updated 5 August 2026.

The test, in the IRS's words

"You meet the physical presence test if you are physically present in a foreign country or countries 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months including some part of the year at issue."
— IRS, Physical Presence Test (accessed 5 August 2026)

Three load-bearing details, all from the same IRS guidance:

• "A full day is a period of 24 consecutive hours, beginning and ending at midnight." Partial days do not count. Land in Lisbon at 06:00 and that day is not a foreign day; your clock starts at the following midnight.
• "The 330 qualifying days do not have to be consecutive." You can travel home; you just burn budget doing it.
• The 12-month window is any period you choose, and it can straddle calendar years. Choosing the window that maximises your qualifying days is legitimate and often decisive.

The arithmetic nobody does until it is too late

330 days out of 365 leaves a budget of 35 days for everything else: US trips, and, brutally, days in transit. Time spent travelling over international waters generally does not count as presence in a foreign country, so a long-haul routing can quietly eat foreign days at both ends. A summer wedding, a work trip, a family emergency and two long-haul crossings can exhaust 35 days with shocking speed, and there is no partial credit: at 329 days the exclusion is simply gone, worth potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

Physical presence vs bona fide residence

The other route, the bona fide residence test, requires being a bona fide resident of a foreign country for an entire tax year and turns on facts and circumstances rather than day counts. Which test fits which life is its own decision: see our comparison guide. First-year expats and nomads without a settled base usually have only the physical presence test, which makes the day count everything.

How to track it without losing sleep

This is a rolling-window day count with a midnight rule, which is exactly the shape of problem the Days Monitor iPhone app was built for: it logs your days in every country automatically, and you can set a custom rolling rule (330 foreign days / any 365) so the running position is always visible, with alerts before a US trip would break the test. The exported, timestamped report is what your accountant will ask for when claiming the exclusion on Form 2555. Americans juggling this alongside state residency should see our state-by-state day-count guide. Download it on the App Store.

Sources

• IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion - Physical presence test (accessed 5 August 2026)
• IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion (accessed 5 August 2026)

This article is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Rules and their enforcement change, and your facts matter. Verify current requirements with the official sources linked above and confirm your position with a qualified professional.