Form 1040-C: The Sailing Permit for Departing Aliens

A green card holder booking a one-way flight out of the United States, or an H-1B worker heading home after a layoff, rarely stops to ask the IRS for permission first. Under IRC Section 6851(d), permission is exactly what the law still asks for. The provision requires a "certificate that he has complied with all the obligations imposed upon him by the income tax laws" before an alien departs, and Treasury Regulation 1.6851-2 has applied that rule to resident and nonresident aliens alike since 1961. The statute itself was last amended in 1976, the regulation in 1994, and the IRS keeps issuing new instructions for the form that implements it, the most recent version dated January 2026. Almost nobody leaving the country has heard of the sailing permit, and the requirement in place since 1961 catches far more travelers than the exemption list suggests.

What Is the Sailing Permit, and Which Aliens Does It Cover?

It is the certificate IRC Section 6851(d)(1) requires before an alien leaves the country, and the statute makes no distinction between someone visiting for a season and someone who has held a green card for a decade. Treasury Regulation 1.6851-2(a)(1) applies "to departures of aliens, whether resident or nonresident," so the rule reaches a green card holder relocating abroad on the same terms it reaches a nonresident business traveler. IRS Topic no. 858 states the same rule in general terms, that a resident or nonresident alien departing the United States usually has to show compliance with US income tax law before leaving.

The certificate has to be presented at the point of departure under the regulation, and an alien who shows up without one becomes subject to examination by an IRS officer right there. Nothing about the underlying statute has changed since Congress amended it in 1976, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made no change to Section 6851 either. The IRS still revises the Form 1040-C instructions every January, most recently for 2026, applying a requirement that predates most of the visa categories it now reaches.

Which Aliens Are Exempt From the Sailing Permit Requirement?

Publication 519, chapter 11, carves out six categories, and each one is narrower than it first sounds.

Someone claiming an exemption has to be able to support it with identification or proof of the underlying authority, per Publication 519. Everyone outside those six categories needs the certificate, which means an H-1B specialty occupation worker, an L-1 transferee, an O-1 or E visa holder, and a green card holder headed abroad for good all fall on the "needs a permit" side of the line. None of them appear anywhere in the exempt list, and no length-of-trip exception exists for them. A permit issued without jeopardy covers every departure in the tax year, but a short vacation by a non-exempt alien is not itself an exception to the rule.

Should You File Form 2063 or Form 1040-C?

The choice between the two forms depends on whether there is taxable income to report and, for a resident alien, whether the departure puts collection at risk. Trip length has no bearing on it.

A signed 1040-C, or the detached certificate on Form 2063, is the permit itself, certifying that obligations "have been satisfied according to available information." Neither form settles the question with finality. Nonresident aliens cannot file Form 1040-C jointly under any circumstance, and if one spouse is a resident alien, the couple can file jointly only if both reasonably expect to qualify for a joint return at year end and their tax years end at the same time. If both spouses are aliens and both are leaving, Publication 519 requires both to appear at the appointment in person.

When and Where Do You Get the Sailing Permit?

Publication 519 sets the window at "at least 2 weeks before you leave the United States," and the certificate "may not be issued more than 30 days before you leave." The 1040-C instructions phrase the same rule the other way, telling filers they cannot apply earlier than 30 days out and should visit a Taxpayer Assistance Center at least 2 weeks, and no more than 30 days, before departure.

The IRS's own page on the sailing permit warns that some offices may not have an opening inside that required window, which makes the phone call the first task on the list. Bring a passport with the green card or visa, two years of prior US returns, tax payment receipts, records supporting deductions or dependents, employer wage statements or a self employment income and expense statement, proof of estimated tax payments, property sale documentation, scholarship or treaty benefit paperwork, an airline ticket, and proof of a taxpayer identification number, either a Social Security card or the notice showing an ITIN. Anyone still waiting on an ITIN through Form W-7 should resolve that before the appointment, because the instructions list proof of your TIN among the papers to bring.

If you show the IRS that you intend to return and that your departure does not jeopardize collection, the permit issues on Form 1040-C without paying the tax shown, though all past due returns and tax must be cleared first and the Form 1040-C must include all income received and reasonably expected for the entire year of departure. A bond under Treasury Regulation 301.6863-1 is available in place of payment where the tax is due, sized to the tax plus interest to the date of payment. A permit granted without a termination assessment covers every departure in that tax year, so a business traveler making repeat trips does not need a fresh certificate for each one.

Is Form 1040-C Your Final Tax Return?

No, and the instructions say so twice. On page 1, the form itself carries the caution that Form 1040-C is not a final return, and the instructions repeat that the annual return, Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR for a citizen or resident, Form 1040-NR for a nonresident, or a dual status return where the year splits between the two, is still due after the tax year closes. Any tax already paid with Form 1040-C carries forward as a credit against that later return.

The certificate itself is not a closed book either. The instructions state that "the issuance of a certificate of compliance is not a final determination of your tax liability," and if it later turns out more tax is owed, the alien has to pay it. Nor does the IRS write a check at the appointment. There is no refund mechanism at departure, so an overpayment on Form 1040-C comes back only through the annual return filed after year end, months later than the trip itself.

What Happens to a Green Card Holder Who Leaves for Good?

A green card holder giving up residency permanently runs into a second, unrelated set of rules on top of the sailing permit. Anyone with no definite plan to return has to notify the Department of Homeland Security of the end of residency and file Form 8854 if they held lawful permanent resident status in at least eight of the last fifteen tax years ending with the year residency ends, excluding any year they were treated as a treaty resident of another country without waiving those benefits.

Abandonment itself happens through Form I-407 or a letter to USCIS or a consular officer, and Publication 519 is explicit that residency continues for tax purposes until proof exists that the letter was received. Our guides to Form I-407 and green card abandonment and to the treaty tie breaker in an exit tax situation cover that side in depth, and the substantial presence test guide is the place to start when residency status itself is the open question, before exit tax planning is even relevant. None of this Section 877A analysis substitutes for the sailing permit appointment. A long term resident heading to the airport still needs the Form 1040-C clearance on its own separate timeline, distinct from whatever Form 8854 eventually shows.

Is a Sailing Permit Checked at the Airport?

The regulation says the certificate "must be presented at the point of departure," and an alien who arrives without one is, by the text of Treasury Regulation 1.6851-2(a)(1), subject to examination right there by an IRS officer. What the IRS does not publish, anywhere we could locate, is how often that examination actually happens, whether Customs and Border Protection or an airline checks for the certificate as a routine matter, or how many permits get issued or enforced in a given year.

The public record does not settle how often that gate check happens. It does document the tax exposure sitting behind the requirement. Section 6851(a) lets the IRS make a termination assessment and demand immediate payment of the current and preceding year's tax if it believes an alien is designing to depart quickly, and Section 6331(a) permits an immediate jeopardy levy in that situation, subject to the review procedure in Section 7429. No specific dollar penalty for skipping the permit itself turned up in any primary source. The exposure that already exists is the accelerated collection machinery, on top of the annual return and payment duty every departing alien still owes.

The Sailing Permit Belongs on the Departure Checklist

The sailing permit is easy to miss because nothing about modern air travel points to it, and no airline confirmation email mentions it. A filing requirement from the 1960s does not soften because the IRS updates the form instructions every year. For a resident or nonresident alien who does not land in one of the six exempt categories, that combination means a Taxpayer Assistance Center appointment belongs on the departure plan itself, inside a window that starts 30 days out and closes 2 weeks before the trip.

Lock in the Taxpayer Assistance Center appointment before the flight, since that two week window closes faster than most travelers expect. Our international tax team handles the visa exemption analysis, the Form 2063 versus Form 1040-C decision, and the Section 877A exit tax questions for anyone giving up a green card at the same time, and our tax resolution team steps in if a departure already triggered a jeopardy assessment. Have questions about a sailing permit, a departing alien clearance, or what happens if you already left without one? Contact TS CPA for a free consultation. We respond within the same day.

Official IRS and Government Sources

• IRC Section 6851, Cornell Law School LII
• Treasury Regulation 1.6851-2, Cornell Law School LII
• IRS Publication 519, US Tax Guide for Aliens
• IRS, Instructions for Form 1040-C
• IRS, Departing Alien Clearance (Sailing Permit)
• IRS Topic No. 858, Alien Tax Clearance
• IRS, Form 1040-C, PDF
• IRS, Form 2063, PDF
• Rev. Proc. 2025-32, 2026 Inflation Adjustments
• Rev. Proc. 2024-40, 2025 Inflation Adjustments