Form 8843 is due on the same date as Form 1040-NR, the nonresident alien income tax return. For the 2025 tax year, that means April 15, 2026, if you received wages subject to U.S. income tax withholding, or June 15, 2026, if you did not. The deadline is the same whether you attach Form 8843 to a tax return or mail it on its own because you had no U.S. income.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals With a Medical Condition
Which Deadline Applies to You
The Form 8843 deadline follows the Form 1040-NR due date, and which 1040-NR date applies depends on one thing: whether you had U.S. wages subject to withholding.
- April 15. You received wages subject to U.S. income tax withholding, or you maintained an office or place of business in the United States. The return, and any attached Form 8843, is due the 15th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends.
- June 15. You had no U.S. wages subject to withholding and no U.S. office or place of business. The deadline shifts to the 15th day of the sixth month after year-end.2Internal Revenue Service. Taxation of Nonresident Aliens
Most students and trainees with no U.S. earnings fall into the June 15 group. If either date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
The same rule governs filers who owe no tax and have no return to submit. The form’s instructions require standalone filers to send it “by the due date (including extensions) for filing Form 1040-NR.”1Internal Revenue Service. Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals With a Medical Condition So even if Form 8843 is the only piece of paper you’re sending the IRS this year, your personal deadline is still April 15 or June 15 depending on the withholding question above.
Extensions
You can push the Form 8843 deadline out by six months by filing Form 4868 before your original due date. Form 4868 covers Form 1040-NR, and because the standalone Form 8843 deadline is tied to the 1040-NR due date “including extensions,” a valid Form 4868 extends your Form 8843 deadline too.3Internal Revenue Service. Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return The extension buys time to file, not time to pay. Any tax owed is still due on the original date.
What Happens If You File Late
There is no monetary penalty for filing Form 8843 late, and no penalty for failing to file it at all.4Internal Revenue Service. Completing Form 8843 The consequence is quieter but often more expensive: you lose the right to exclude your days of U.S. presence from the substantial presence test. Those days then count toward the 183-day threshold in the IRS’s three-year formula, and if they push you over, the IRS can treat you as a resident alien and tax your worldwide income.5Internal Revenue Service. Substantial Presence Test
For a student who has spent several years on an F visa, that swing can be dramatic. A full academic year alone can easily add up to 250 days of physical presence, and Form 8843 is the only mechanism for taking those days out of the count.
Late filing can still be excused if you show reasonable cause. The IRS looks at whether you acted responsibly before and after the failure, whether you tried to prevent it, and how quickly you corrected it once you knew. First-time filers and those with a clean compliance history generally fare better.6Internal Revenue Service. Penalty Relief for Reasonable Cause
If You Missed a Prior Year
File the missing Form 8843 now and attach a signed statement explaining why it’s late. Send one form per year missed, and one form per person; each family member on a dependent visa needs their own. Getting the paperwork on record protects your exempt-individual status for those years even though the deadline has passed.
Where to Send It by the Deadline
If Form 8843 is attached to a Form 1040-NR, mail the whole package to the address in the 1040-NR instructions. For returns without a payment, that address is Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, TX 73301-0215, USA.7Internal Revenue Service. International – Where to File Forms 1040-NR, 1040-PR, and 1040-SS
If you’re filing Form 8843 on its own with no tax return, use the same Austin service center: Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, TX 73301-0215, USA.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 8843, Statement for Exempt Individuals and Individuals With a Medical Condition Check the current year’s instructions before mailing in case the address changes. The IRS does not confirm receipt of Form 8843, so if timely filing matters, send it by certified mail with a return receipt and keep the postmark. The postmark date is what the IRS treats as your filing date.