Form 8843

All International students, scholars, and dependents who are nonresident aliens must file form 8843, even if you did not have any source of income for the current or previous year.  Form 8843 must be filed for each family member who is in the US on an F-2 or J-2 visa, as well.

There is no monetary penalty for failure to file.  However, in order to be compliant with federal regulations, you must file.

The deadline for Federal and State tax form/return is, generally speaking, April 15.  If you do not need to file only the form 8843, the deadline is June 15.

Download and print out form 8843

If you need to file federal from/returns then you can mail the form 8843 with the federal forms to the Internal Revenue Service at:

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, TX 73301-0215

Instructions in filling out form 8843

    • The box for the Taxpayer Identification Number should be filled in with either a Social Security number or an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN). 
    • If you do not have a SSN or ITIN, you may attach form W-7 and write down “Applied for” in the box.  You are not required to apply for an ITIN; however, you will need an ITIN if you plan to claim any treaty benefits for tax purposes.  If you do not apply for an SSN or ITIN, simply write "N/A" in the box, indicated that it is "Not Applicable."
    • Be sure to correctly fill in name and address.  You name should be written as it appears on your passport.

PART I—Everyone Must Complete Part I

1a. Type of visa stamp in your passport you used to enter the US and the date of your entry.

1b. Current nonimmigrant status: Current nonimmigrant status should be the same as 1a, unless you changed your status.  (If you changed your status while in the US, for example: you entered as a F-2 and then changed to F-1 without leaving the US, you would enter F-1 as your status and the date your change occurred.  The date should be indicated on the approval notice you received from Immigration).

2. Enter your country of citizenship

3a. Country that issued your passport (should be same as 2).

3b. Passport number

4a. Estimate the number of days you were present in the US during the indicated years. You may find an online date-to-date calculator is beneficial during this step.

4b. Estimate the number of days that you were present in the US for the tax year.

PART II—To Be Completed By J-1 Research Scholars and Professors

Complete questions 5–8.  Students skip this section.

PART III—To Be Completed By F-1 and J-1 Students

Complete questions 9–14

Skip Part IV and Part V

Sign and Date the form. Mail to the address indicated on the third page.