No, FATCA is not only for U.S. citizens. The law reaches every “U.S. person,” a tax category that also covers lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and foreign nationals who spend enough time in the country to qualify as resident aliens under the Substantial Presence Test.1Internal Revenue Service. FATCA Information for Individuals Certain foreign corporations, partnerships, and trusts get pulled in too, once a U.S. person holds a significant stake. The common thread is U.S. tax status, not the passport in your pocket.
Who Counts as a U.S. Person
The IRS uses “U.S. person” as the gatekeeping term for FATCA. Three groups of individuals fall inside it:
- U.S. citizens, including those living outside the country.
- Lawful permanent residents (green card holders).
- Foreign nationals who qualify as resident aliens under the Substantial Presence Test.
Anyone in one of those categories has worldwide financial assets that are potentially reportable on Form 8938, attached to the annual tax return.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6038D – Information With Respect to Foreign Financial Assets And even if you never file that form, foreign financial institutions are separately required to identify accounts held by U.S. persons and report them directly to the IRS.3Internal Revenue Service. Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S Taxpayers Your foreign bank may be sending your data whether or not you know FATCA exists.
Citizens Living Abroad Are Still Covered
The United States taxes on citizenship, not residence. A citizen born in Ohio who has lived in Germany for 20 years remains a U.S. person with full FATCA obligations. Moving abroad does not change this, and paying taxes to a foreign government does not eliminate it.
Citizens overseas do get higher Form 8938 thresholds. A single filer whose tax home is abroad reports when specified foreign financial assets exceed $200,000 on the last day of the year, or $300,000 at any point during the year. For married couples filing jointly abroad, the numbers are $400,000 and $600,000.3Internal Revenue Service. Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S Taxpayers To use these higher thresholds, your tax home must be in a foreign country and you must have been present abroad for at least 330 days in a consecutive 12-month period. Miss the 330-day test and you file under the lower domestic thresholds regardless of where you live.
Green Card Holders Are Treated Like Citizens
Holding a Permanent Resident Card makes you a U.S. person for tax purposes, full stop. The IRS treats green card holders identically to citizens for FATCA disclosure: the same Form 8938 rules, the same thresholds, the same penalties.4Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Tax Residency – Green Card Test
Where permanent residents get tripped up is on the way out. Your FATCA obligations do not end when your card expires or when you stop living in the country. Under the green card test, you remain a U.S. resident until one of three things happens: you voluntarily abandon your status in writing, USCIS administratively terminates it, or a federal court judicially terminates it.4Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Tax Residency – Green Card Test
Voluntary abandonment requires filing Form I-407 with USCIS.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-407, Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status USCIS forwards your name and filing date to the IRS, and depending on how long you held the card and the size of your assets, you may face an expatriation tax. Letting the physical card lapse while spending time abroad does nothing to end the tax obligation.
The Substantial Presence Test for Non-Citizens
Foreign nationals who are neither citizens nor green card holders can still become U.S. persons through physical presence alone. The IRS runs a weighted calculation across three calendar years, and you meet the test if both conditions below are true:
- You were physically in the United States for at least 31 days during the current calendar year.
- Your weighted day count equals or exceeds 183, using all days in the current year, one-third of the days in the prior year, and one-sixth of the days in the year before that.
Hit both thresholds and you’re a resident alien subject to FATCA.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7701 – Definitions
The math can run tight. Someone who spends 120 days in the U.S. each year for three consecutive years calculates 120 + 40 + 20 = 180 weighted days, and stays just under the 183-day line. Four more days in the current year flips them into resident status. During an audit the IRS will reconstruct the count from passport stamps, airline records, and other evidence, so keeping careful travel records matters.
Exemptions That Keep Non-Citizens Out
Several categories of non-citizens can exclude days from the Substantial Presence Test, and sometimes those exclusions keep a person from ever reaching the 183-day threshold.
Students, Teachers, and Diplomats
Holders of F, J, M, or Q visas who comply with the terms of their visa are treated as “exempt individuals,” meaning their days in the U.S. don’t count toward the test.7Internal Revenue Service. Substantial Presence Test Teachers and trainees on J or Q visas get the same treatment. Foreign government officials on A or G visas are also exempt, other than the A-3 and G-5 classes.
The student exemption has a time limit. After you’ve been an exempt individual for any part of more than five calendar years, you lose the automatic exclusion unless you can show the IRS that you don’t intend to reside permanently in the United States.8Internal Revenue Service. Exempt Individual – Who Is a Student A graduate student who arrived on an F-1 visa in 2020 would start counting days in 2026. File Form 8843 with your tax return to document exempt status.
The Closer Connection Exception
Even if you technically meet the 183-day threshold, you can claim a “closer connection” to a foreign country and avoid resident alien status. You must have been present in the U.S. for fewer than 183 days in the current year, maintained a tax home in a foreign country for the entire year, and had a closer connection to that country than to the United States.9Internal Revenue Service. Closer Connection Exception to the Substantial Presence Test The IRS weighs where your permanent home is, where your family lives, where your belongings are, where you vote, and where you hold a driver’s license. You claim the exception on Form 8840. If you’ve applied for a green card or have an adjustment-of-status application pending, you cannot claim the closer connection exception at all.
Tax Treaty Tie-Breakers
Someone who counts as a tax resident of both the U.S. and another country under each country’s domestic law is a “dual resident.” Many U.S. income tax treaties include tie-breaker provisions that assign residency to one country. If the treaty assigns you to the foreign country, you’re generally treated as a nonresident alien for income tax purposes and file Form 1040-NR with Form 8833 attached.10Internal Revenue Service. Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
One catch matters for anyone asking this question about FATCA specifically. Winning the treaty tie-breaker for income tax purposes does not eliminate your FATCA obligations. If you qualified as a resident alien under the green card test or the Substantial Presence Test, you remain a “specified individual” for Form 8938 purposes even after electing treaty-based nonresident treatment. Form 8938 gets attached to your 1040-NR. The treaty changes how your income is taxed, not whether your foreign accounts are visible to the IRS.
FATCA Also Reaches Some Foreign Entities
The rules are not limited to individuals. Foreign corporations, partnerships, and trusts must identify whether any “substantial United States owner” holds a stake. For a corporation, that means any specified U.S. person who owns more than 10 percent of the stock by vote or value. For a partnership, more than 10 percent of the profits or capital interests. Trusts have their own rules tied to whether a U.S. person is treated as an owner or holds more than 10 percent of the beneficial interests.11Legal Information Institute. Definition: Substantial United States Owner From 26 USC 1473(2)(A)
The enforcement lever on the institutional side is blunt. When a foreign financial institution doesn’t cooperate with FATCA reporting, a withholding agent must deduct 30 percent from any “withholdable payment” sent to that institution from U.S. sources, including interest, dividends, and other periodic income.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1471 – Withholdable Payments to Foreign Financial Institutions That’s why banks around the world now ask new customers whether they’re U.S. persons.
What Triggers Actual Filing Once You’re Covered
Being a U.S. person under FATCA is not the same as owing a Form 8938. The obligation kicks in only when the total value of your specified foreign financial assets crosses dollar thresholds that vary by filing status and residence.
For taxpayers living in the United States, the thresholds are more than $50,000 on the last day of the year or more than $75,000 at any time during the year for single filers (and married filing separately), and more than $100,000 or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.13Internal Revenue Service. Do I Need to File Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets For qualifying filers abroad, the numbers rise to $200,000/$300,000 for single filers and $400,000/$600,000 for joint filers. The “at any time” test is the one that catches people off guard: a brief spike in value during the year can trigger the requirement even if the year-end balance is modest.
A separate report, the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114), applies to foreign financial accounts once the aggregate balance crosses $10,000 at any point during the year.14Internal Revenue Service. Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) The FBAR is filed with FinCEN, not the IRS, and filing one form does not satisfy the other.15Internal Revenue Service. Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements Anyone the FATCA rules reach as a U.S. person should check both.
Why the Answer Matters: Penalties
Being classified as a U.S. person and missing the filing carries real consequences. Failing to file Form 8938 triggers an initial $10,000 penalty. If the IRS sends a notice and you still don’t file within 90 days, an additional $10,000 accrues for each 30-day period of continued noncompliance, up to $50,000 in additional penalties.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6038D – Information With Respect to Foreign Financial Assets If you underpaid tax because of unreported foreign assets, the accuracy-related penalty doubles from the normal 20 percent to 40 percent of the underpayment.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty
The statute of limitations extends as well. It stays open until three years after you actually file Form 8938, and if you omit more than $5,000 in income connected to foreign assets, the IRS gets six years to assess additional tax.17Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938 Never file the form and the assessment window effectively never starts. FBAR penalties run on their own track: up to $10,000 per non-willful violation, and for willful violations the greater of $100,000 (adjusted for inflation) or 50 percent of the account balance at the time of the violation. In the most serious cases, willful failures can lead to criminal charges for tax evasion, and those charges apply equally to citizens, green card holders, and resident aliens.
Which is the practical point behind the question. FATCA doesn’t check your passport before it applies. If you hold a green card, if the Substantial Presence Test math puts you over the line, or if you own a meaningful stake in a foreign entity, you’re inside the system just as surely as any citizen.