Pre-Immigration Tax Planning
The day you become a U.S. tax resident, your worldwide income, your foreign companies and your trusts come under U.S. rules. Most of the planning has to be finished before that day.
We plan the move for founders, executives and families: when residency starts, what to sell or restructure first, and what to report once you arrive.
U.S. residency is a tax event, and it arrives on a date.
A green card makes you a resident from the day you enter on it. Without one, the substantial presence test counts days: 183 over a weighted three-year window, with at least 31 in the current year.
Before that date, gains can be realized at home-country rates, companies can be restructured, trusts can be settled and gifts can be made outside the U.S. system.
After it, the same steps are taxed and reported in the United States, often at higher rates and with penalties for missed forms.
The thresholds that define the move.
IRS figures for residency and reporting.
Day counting has exceptions for certain visa holders and for closer connection to another country. The exceptions are claimed on a form, not assumed. Sources: IRS, Substantial Presence Test; IRS, Rev. Proc. 2025-32; IRS, Instructions for Form 5471; IRS, Instructions for Form 3520.
What pre-immigration planning covers.
Residency start date
Visa type, entry date and day counts, so the residency date is chosen rather than discovered.
Gains and basis
Realizing or stepping up built-in gains before residency, where the home country permits.
Foreign companies
Controlled foreign corporation and passive foreign investment company analysis, with elections and restructuring before arrival.
Pre-arrival trusts and gifts
Trusts settled and gifts made while still a nonresident, designed to hold up after the move.
Estate tax exposure
Domicile planning and the shift from a $60,000 exemption to the full U.S. exclusion.
First-year compliance
FBAR, Form 8938, Forms 5471, 8621 and 3520, calendared from year one.
How the engagement runs.
Ideally started six to twelve months before the move.
Inventory
Assets, companies, trusts, income sources and the home-country tax position.
Date
Residency start date set with immigration counsel and travel plans.
Restructure
Elections, sales, gifts and trusts completed before the date.
Arrive
First-year returns and information filings prepared with your accountant.
Lawyers who plan the structure and defend it.
Structure before the move, the investment or the sale.
Residency timing, entity choice, trusts and elections are decided together, with the home-country result in view. We coordinate with your accountants and counsel abroad so the plan works in both places.
Compliance and controversy in the same hands.
Foreign asset reporting, penalty exposure, streamlined and voluntary disclosures and IRS examinations. The firm also litigates and arbitrates, so a plan is written knowing how it will be tested.
Planning after arrival is damage control. Planning before it is design.
The order of steps matters as much as the steps.
- Start before the visa is issued, not after
- List every foreign company, fund and trust you hold or benefit from
- Coordinate with home-country advisers on exit tax and timing
- Keep a travel log; days in the United States count
- Assume a visa and tax residency start on the same day
- Receive a large distribution from a foreign trust after becoming resident without advice
- Keep a foreign holding company untouched and hope it does not matter
- Treat the first U.S. return as routine
From the firm’s writing.
U.S. Pre-Immigration Tax Lawyer for AI & Software Founders
Holding companies, IP and timing before the move.
Read the articleU.S. Pre-Immigration Tax Planning: What to Know Before You Move
Residency, gains, trusts and reporting in plain language.
Read the articleU.S. Pre-Immigration Tax Planning: the $60,000 Estate Tax Exemption
Why domicile changes everything.
Read the articleFrequently asked.
On the first day you are present as a lawful permanent resident, or when you meet the substantial presence test: 183 weighted days over three years with at least 31 in the current year. Some visas and a closer connection to another country can change the result.
Often yes, if the home country taxes the gain lightly or not at all. The United States does not step up basis on arrival, so pre-move gain is taxed later at U.S. rates unless it is realized first. Each asset is reviewed.
If U.S. persons own more than half of it, it becomes a controlled foreign corporation. You may be taxed on its income each year whether or not it is distributed, and you must file Form 5471. Elections before the move can change the result.
Yes, and it is one of the most effective steps. A trust settled while you are a nonresident can hold assets outside your U.S. estate. The design must anticipate the grantor becoming a U.S. person.
Yes. The residency date depends on the visa path and travel, so tax and immigration planning are coordinated from the start.
Other areas of the practice.
Inbound and outbound services, from pre-immigration planning to offshore compliance. Back to the overview.
Moving to the United States?
A confidential consultation before the visa is issued. We will tell you what should happen before the move and in what order.