The 330-day physical presence test, counted from your real trips
US citizens and residents can exclude a large amount of foreign earned income if they are physically present in a foreign country for 330 full days in any 12 consecutive months. It is the highest-stakes day count there is: missing it by a single day can cost the entire exclusion.
119 full days abroad in your best 12-month window. The test looks for 330; you are 211 short.
Full days only: the day you arrive does not count, and days in international waters or airspace count toward nothing. The 12-month window rolls — it need not match a calendar or tax year.
Best window starts 2026-04-18. Counted conservatively — travel days at the edges of each period abroad are excluded.
Saves to this device. No account, no email.
What goes wrong, in order of how often
Arrival days do not count
A qualifying day is a full day, midnight to midnight, in a foreign country. Land in Lisbon at 14:00 and that day is worth nothing to this test, the exact opposite of Schengen, where the same day is burned in full.
The 12-month window rolls, and you choose it
It does not have to match the calendar year or your tax year. You may pick whichever consecutive twelve months give you 330 days, which frequently rescues a year that looks short on a calendar basis.
International waters count toward nothing
Time over international waters or in international airspace is neither in the US nor in a foreign country. A week-long Atlantic crossing costs seven days from your 330, a costly surprise for anyone who takes a repositioning cruise.
Short trips home are what usually break it
You have only 35 days of slack in a whole year. Two trips home for a wedding and a funeral, with travel days at each end, can quietly consume most of it.
Questions people ask
Does flying between two foreign countries break my presence?
Not if the travel takes under 24 hours. Moving from Portugal to Thailand directly keeps your presence intact, which is why this calculator merges back-to-back foreign trips into one continuous period before counting.
Is this the same as the bona fide residence test?
No. That is a separate route to the same exclusion, based on establishing genuine residence abroad for an uninterrupted tax year rather than on counting days. Someone who fails the day count may still qualify that way.
How exact does my day count need to be?
Exact enough to defend. This calculator deliberately errs low by excluding the travel days at each end of a period abroad. Understating your qualifying days is the safe direction of error when the alternative is claiming an exclusion you did not earn.
This rule is not the only one counting your days
The same trips are measured by every other rule you are subject to, and the counting conventions contradict each other — Schengen counts your arrival day, the US 330-day test does not. Driftly runs them all against one trip history.
- The Schengen 90/180 rule, counted properly
- The 183-day rule, on each country's own calendar
- The UK Statutory Residence Test, one step at a time
Driftly reports your recorded day counts against published thresholds. It does not determine your visa or tax status — confirm both with official sources or a qualified adviser.