Taxes for F-1 Students (2026): Form 8843, Nonresident Basics, FICA

Form 8843: the one nobody tells you about

If you take one thing from this page, take this. Individuals in F-1 status who are nonresidents for tax purposes are generally required to file Form 8843 for each relevant year — including years with no US income whatsoever. It is not an income tax return; it is a statement explaining your presence in the US, and it is commonly required of dependents in F-2 status too, including children.

Enormous numbers of students never learn this, spend their first year earning nothing, reasonably conclude that taxes do not apply to them, and file nothing. If that describes you, do not panic and do not ignore it either — take it to your university's international office and ask how to deal with prior years, which is a routine question they field constantly.

If you did have US income, Form 8843 generally goes alongside a nonresident income tax return rather than instead of it.

Resident or nonresident — a tax question, not an immigration one

This is the term that causes the most confusion, because it borrows words from immigration and means something different. Your tax residency is decided by tax rules, not by your visa, and being a "nonresident for tax purposes" has nothing to do with your immigration status being valid.

The mechanism generally works like this: residency for tax purposes is usually determined by a day-counting test, and students in F status are commonly treated as "exempt individuals" for a period — commonly described as five calendar years — meaning their days are not counted toward that test. Note carefully what "exempt individual" means: exempt from the day count, not exempt from tax. Students routinely read that phrase and conclude they owe nothing, which is not what it says.

Why it matters practically: nonresidents file different forms, and a range of deductions, credits and filing statuses available to residents are generally not available to nonresidents. Getting the classification wrong therefore produces a wrong return in both directions — sometimes claiming things you are not entitled to, sometimes missing what you are.

FICA: the withholding that should not be there

Social Security and Medicare taxes — collectively FICA — are generally not applicable to F-1 students in nonresident status on employment authorized by their status, such as on-campus work, CPT or OPT. This is a genuine and reasonably well-known exemption.

The practical problem is that payroll systems do not always know this, and employers occasionally withhold FICA from student paychecks in error. This is especially common with off-campus employers on OPT who have never hired a student in this situation before. It is worth actually checking your pay stubs rather than assuming.

If it has been withheld in error, there is an established process for pursuing a refund — generally starting with your employer, since it is usually far simpler for them to correct it than for you to reclaim it afterwards. Your university's tax resources can point you at the official procedure and forms.

The documents you will actually see

Why mainstream tax software gets you wrong

• The consumer filing services almost everyone around you uses are generally built to produce resident returns. Fed nonresident facts, they will usually still produce a resident return — which is the wrong one, filed confidently.
• Many universities provide access to filing software specifically designed for nonresident students, often free or subsidised through the international office. If yours does, use that rather than the mainstream option, and check before you pay for anything.
• Do not let a friend or a senior file for you "the way they did theirs". Their residency status, income and treaty position may differ entirely from yours, and the return has your name on it.
• Free filing assistance programmes exist in many places, but not all volunteers are trained on nonresident returns — ask specifically whether nonresident filing is supported before relying on one.
• A tax treaty exists between the US and India and may affect how certain items are treated, but whether any provision applies to you is fact-specific. Do not assume one does because someone said so — use your university's tax resources and official IRS publications, and get professional help if real money turns on it.

Timing, states, and the things that surprise people

• Federal filing is generally due in the spring for the previous calendar year, and the deadline for a return can differ from the deadline that applies when you are filing Form 8843 alone. Confirm the current dates rather than relying on a remembered one.
• State tax is separate from federal, and whether you owe any depends on the state. Some states — Texas and Florida among them — levy no state income tax, while others including California, Massachusetts and Arizona do. If you moved states mid-year, or worked in one and lived in another, say so when you seek help, because it changes things.
• Income can be taxable even when it is not "work". Investment income and interest are the common examples, and they follow their own rules for nonresident students. Whether something is authorized employment is an immigration question for your DSO; whether it is taxable is a separate tax question — keep the two apart in your head.
• Scholarships and assistantships are not automatically tax-free. Parts of them can be taxable depending on what they cover, which is often why a 1042-S turns up unexpectedly.
• Keep your documents. Copies of what you filed, your W-2s and 1042-S, and your I-20s form a record you may genuinely need years later for immigration matters, not just tax ones.
• The IRS does not phone you demanding immediate payment in gift cards, nor threaten you with arrest or deportation over the phone. Those calls are scams, they target international students specifically and seasonally, and hanging up is the correct response.

Where to actually get help

The honest bottom line is that this page can tell you what the pieces are called, and cannot tell you what to do with yours. The good news is that help is usually close and often free.

Start with your university's international student office. Every one of them handles this cycle every year, most publish guidance written for their own students, and many provide nonresident filing software. If your situation involves several income sources, a treaty question, a change of residency status, or years you did not file, that is the point to involve a qualified tax professional who works with nonresidents — and to do it before a deadline rather than after.

Frequently asked questions