Your assignment is ending, your lease is up, and your flight home is booked. You have handled the visa paperwork, the movers, and the bank accounts — but there is one departure requirement most people have never heard of: the IRS expects nearly every non-citizen leaving the United States to get tax clearance first. It is called a certificate of compliance, better known as a sailing permit or departure permit, and without one you can be pulled aside for a tax examination at the airport.
This is not a rule that applies only to tax dodgers. Green card holders, H-1B and L-1 workers, and long-term residents all fall under it. The good news is that for most departing workers with clean filing histories, getting the permit is a single appointment — if you know which form to bring and when to show up. This guide walks through who needs clearance, who is exempt, the difference between Form 2063 and Form 1040-C, and the two-week appointment window you cannot afford to miss.
What a Sailing Permit Actually Is
A sailing permit is the detachable certificate of compliance on Form 2063 or Form 1040-C, signed by an agent of the IRS Field Assistance Area Director. It certifies that, based on the information available, your US tax obligations have been satisfied. Think of it as the IRS confirming it has no objection to your departure — not a clean bill of health forever, because the certificate is explicitly not a final determination of your tax liability. If the IRS later decides you owe more, you still owe it.
There are two paths to the same certificate:
- Form 2063, US Departing Alien Income Tax Statement — a short statement with no tax computation, available to departing aliens who qualify.
- Form 1040-C, US Departing Alien Income Tax Return — a real mini tax return covering your income through your departure date, required for everyone who does not qualify for Form 2063.
Whichever form applies, you obtain the signed certificate in person at an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) before you leave. There is no online filing option for the permit itself.
Who Needs One: The Default Rule Catches Almost Everyone
The starting presumption is broad: if you are an alien, you should not leave the United States or any of its territories without a certificate of compliance unless you fit one of the specific exceptions below. That includes:
- Green card holders, whether you are leaving for good or heading abroad for an extended stretch.
- Work-visa holders — H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, E-3, and similar — finishing an assignment or changing jobs across borders.
- Resident aliens under the substantial presence test who accumulated enough US days to be taxed as residents.
A common misunderstanding is that short or temporary trips are automatically fine. They are not, unless you meet an exception. The relief for temporary departures is narrower: a resident alien who is leaving only temporarily, and whose departure will not hinder the collection of any tax, can use the simpler Form 2063 rather than Form 1040-C. You still get the permit — you just get it on the easier form.
Who Is Exempt
The Instructions for Form 1040-C list four exception groups. If you fall into one, you do not need a certificate at all — but be ready to prove it with proper identification if asked.
1. Diplomats and international-organization staff
Representatives of foreign governments holding diplomatic passports, members of their households, accompanying servants, and employees of international organizations or foreign governments whose official pay is exempt from US tax and who have no other US-source income (plus household members with no US-source income). One trap: if you signed a waiver of nonimmigrant privileges to keep both your job and your immigrant status, this exception does not apply.
2. Students, trainees, and exchange visitors on F, H-3, J, or Q visas
If you hold an F-1, F-2, H-3, H-4, J-1, J-2, or Q visa — or you are the spouse or child of someone who does — you are exempt only if your US-source income stays within four narrow lanes: allowances covering study or training expenses (travel, maintenance, tuition), the value of services or housing furnished as part of the program, income from employment authorized under immigration law, and bank-deposit interest not connected with a US trade or business. Earn anything outside those lanes and the exemption is gone.
3. Vocational students on M visas
M-1 and M-2 holders (and their spouses and children) get a similar but tighter exemption: only authorized-employment income and non-business bank interest are permitted.
4. Tourists, short business trips, and frequent cross-border commuters
No certificate is needed if you are visiting for pleasure on a B-2 visa, passing through the US (including on a C-1 transit visa), admitted on a border-crossing card, traveling on military orders as a Defense Department trainee, on a business trip on a B-1 or combined B-1/B-2 visa with no more than 90 US days during the tax year, or a resident of Canada or Mexico who commutes frequently to US work with wages subject to withholding.
The fine print matters: this fourth exception evaporates if the Area Director believes you had taxable income this year or last and that your departure would hinder collecting the tax. Short-trip status is not a shield for unpaid tax.
Notice who is missing from every category: H-1B workers, L-1 transferees, TN professionals, and green card holders. If that is you, plan on getting the permit.
Form 2063 vs. Form 1040-C: Which One Is Yours
Form 2063: the short statement
Form 2063 asks for identifying information and details about your stay but includes no tax computation. Two groups qualify:
- Aliens with no taxable income — resident or nonresident — for the tax year through the departure date and for the preceding year (if that year's filing deadline has not yet passed).
- Resident aliens who did have taxable income but whose departure will not hinder tax collection. If the IRS has reason to think you are leaving to dodge payment, you get bumped to Form 1040-C.
One hard prerequisite applies to both groups: if you have not filed a required income tax return or paid tax for any prior year, you must file and pay before a Form 2063 permit will be issued. The permit detached from Form 2063 covers all your departures during the calendar year, though the IRS can cancel it for a later trip if collection looks jeopardized.
Form 1040-C: the departing alien return
Everyone who needs a permit but does not qualify for Form 2063 files Form 1040-C. Ordinarily you must report all income received or reasonably expected through your departure date and pay the tax shown, plus settle every dollar owed for prior years. When you have paid up and filed everything outstanding, you receive the permit.
Three variations soften the edges:
- Bond instead of cash. The IRS may accept a bond guaranteeing payment for certain years rather than immediate payment. A bond-backed permit covers only that specific departure.
- No payment if collection is safe. If you have not received a termination assessment — a demand for immediate payment of the current and preceding year's tax — the certificate is generally issued without payment or bond, and it covers all departures that year (subject to revocation).
- Returning residents. If you convince the IRS you intend to return to the US and your departure does not jeopardize collection, you can get the permit on Form 1040-C without paying the balance shown — but you must still file every unfiled return, pay all past-due tax, and report your full expected income for the entire departure year.
If the Area Director instead concludes your departure jeopardizes collection, the permit issues only on payment or bond, and only for that one trip.
The Timeline: No Earlier Than 30 Days, No Later Than 2 Weeks
Timing is the part that trips up the most people, because the window runs both directions:
- Apply at least 2 weeks before departure. The IRS says this plainly and adds: do not wait until the last minute in case of unexpected problems.
- You cannot apply earlier than 30 days before departure. Show up six weeks out and you will be turned away.
Every TAC office works by appointment, and not every office offers every service. Call 844-545-5640 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time to book, and call well before your 30-day window opens so the appointment itself lands inside it. If you worked in the US, the IRS advises getting the permit from an office near your employment, though the office near your departure point also works.
File an original plus one copy of Form 1040-C for the year you are leaving. And watch the calendar trap: if you depart between January 1 and April 15, you must also file your annual return for the year just ended and pay any balance due at the same time.
What to Bring to the Appointment
The appointment goes much faster when you arrive with a complete file. Bring every item that applies to you:
- A valid passport plus your green card or visa.
- Copies of your US income tax returns for the past two years (or for your whole shorter stay), with receipts for the tax paid on them.
- Receipts, bank records, canceled checks, and anything else backing the deductions, business expenses, and dependents on those returns.
- A statement from each current-year employer showing wages paid and tax withheld — or, if you are self-employed, a statement of income and expenses through your departure date.
- Proof of estimated-tax payments for last year and this year.
- Documents showing gains or losses on any property sales, including securities and merchandise.
- Scholarship or fellowship paperwork: grantor, source, purpose, application and approval, amounts, and your obligations.
- Documents supporting any treaty benefits you claim.
- Proof of your departure date, such as an airline ticket.
- Proof of your taxpayer identification number, such as a Social Security card or ITIN notice.
- Payment in certified funds — cashier's check, certified bank or postal money order, or cash — if tax is due.
Married and living in a community property state? Bring the same set of documents for your spouse, even if your spouse does not need a certificate.
After You Leave: The Permit Is Not Your Tax Return
This is the single most expensive misconception in the whole process: Form 1040-C is not an annual income tax return. Filing it does not excuse you from filing your regular year-end return — Form 1040 if you are a resident alien, Form 1040-NR if you are a nonresident. Any tax you paid with Form 1040-C becomes a credit against your full-year liability on that annual return, and if you are owed a refund, you can only claim it there. The IRS cannot hand you a refund at the departure appointment, no matter how large the overpayment.
Two related loose ends deserve attention before you board:
- Departing early in the year means settling the prior year's return at the appointment, as noted above. Do not assume the October extended deadline travels with you.
- Giving up a green card can trigger an entirely separate regime — the expatriation rules, including Form 8854 for long-term residents — on top of the sailing permit. If you are abandoning permanent residence rather than just traveling, get professional advice before you file anything.
Keep Your Departure-Year Books Clean
Look at that appointment checklist again and notice what the self-employed departure requires: a statement of income and expenses through the exact date you leave. Reconstructing eight months of business activity from memory in a TAC waiting room is nobody's idea of a smooth exit — and sloppy records slow the appointment, invite questions, and can delay the certificate past your 30-day window.
Treat your departure year as a part-year close. Reconcile every account through your last US day, separate pre-departure income from anything that arrives after, and keep the receipts that support each deduction in one folder you can hand over. If you already keep your books in plain text, this is nearly free: your ledger is the statement, version-controlled and auditable down to the transaction. The Beancount documentation shows how to structure income and expense accounts so a departure-date cutoff is a one-line query rather than a weekend of spreadsheet archaeology.
Simplify Your Financial Management
Leaving the country is stressful enough without rebuilding your finances from scattered statements at an IRS appointment. Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data — no black boxes, no vendor lock-in. Get started for free and keep departure-year books you can close with confidence.
