Internal Revenue Service
Revenue Ruling

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 Rev. Rul. 54-87

1954-1 C.B. 155

Sec. 1
Sec. 2
Sec. 871

IRS Headnote

A foreign student studying in the  United States for a degree which requires temporary residence in the United States for a minimum of 2 years will be classified, for Federal income tax purposes, as a resident alien.

Full Text

Rev. Rul. 54-87

Advice is requested relative to the status for Federal income tax purposes of foreign students studying in this country.

In many instances foreign students, both graduate and undergraduate, combine a part-time job with their study program. Some of them bring their families with them to the United States.

Section 39.211-2 of Regulations 118 provides in part that an alien actually present in the United States who is not a mere transient or sojourner is a resident of the United States for purposes of the income tax. Whether he is a transient is determined by his intentions with regard to the length and nature of his stay. A mere floating intention, indefinite as to time, to return to another country is not sufficient to constitute him a transient. If he lives in the United States and has no definite intention as to his stay, he is a resident. One who comes to the United States for a definite purpose which in its nature may be promptly accomplished is a transient; but if his purpose is of such a nature that an extended stay may be necessary for its accomplishment, and to that end the alien makes his home temporarily in the United States, he becomes a resident, though it may be his intention at all times to return to his domicile abroad when the purpose for which he came has been consummated or abandoned.

Accordingly, it is held that a foreign student studying in the United States for a degree which requires temporary residence in the United States for a minimum of 2 years will be classified, for Federal income tax purposes, as a resident alien during the period of such residence.