Leaving the United States

Three moments. Mixing them up is how a return or a refund gets missed.

1. 1
   Before the flight, or in the first weeks — As soon as you have an address in Israel, send Form 8822 to the IRS: the online account does not accept a foreign address. Tell the state you are leaving. Ask the bank whether the account can stay open. Enroll in STEP. If you have Medicare Part B, decide with Social Security before you drop it.
2. 2
   The spring after the year you left — Form 1040 on worldwide income. The foreign earned income exclusion (Form 2555) or the foreign tax credit (Form 1116) apply only if you qualify — in the year you move, many people do not yet. FBAR if your accounts outside the United States went over $10,000 at any point in the year.
3. 3
   Every year after that, for as long as you keep citizenship or the green card — An Israeli salary is still reported to the United States. The exit tax does not start because you boarded a plane. It starts if you give up citizenship or a long-term green card.

The United States taxes its citizens, and green card holders, on worldwide income, wherever they live. Moving to Israel does not end the return. What changes is how you keep the same income from being taxed twice.

• Report the addressForm 8822. A foreign address cannot be entered in the online IRS account. Allow several weeks.
• June 15, on one conditionIf, on the regular April due date, you live outside the United States and your main work is there too, Publication 54 gives an automatic extension to June 15. Attach a statement to the return. Interest on tax you have not paid still runs from April.
• Form 2555: the exclusionIt covers pay for work done abroad, not rent, dividends or a pension. For tax year 2026 the cap is $132,900 per person. It is adjusted every year: the figure in force is on irs.gov. You have to file the return to claim it. You need a tax home abroad, and either 330 full days in a 12-month period or a full tax year as a bona fide resident. In the year you move, the exclusion is only for the days you qualify, and many people do not meet the test yet.
• Form 1116: the creditIt credits Israeli tax paid on the same income. You do not claim both reliefs on the same dollars. An accountant who knows both systems chooses.
• The treaty does not cancel the returnThe US–Israel income tax treaty can limit double tax on some income. It does not remove the 1040.
• FBAR, FinCEN Form 114If the total of your financial accounts outside the United States went over $10,000 at any single moment in the year, you report them to FinCEN, not on the tax return. Israeli accounts count.
• Form 8938, as wellA separate report, with higher thresholds once you live abroad: more than $200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time if you do not file jointly; double that on a joint return. Both forms can be due together.
• The exit tax is not the flightIt applies if you give up US citizenship, or give up a green card you held for 8 of the last 15 tax years, and you meet one of the covered-expatriate tests (net worth, average tax, or you cannot certify five years of returns). Form 8854. The thresholds are on the IRS expatriation page, and they move. Most people who leave and keep the passport never file it.
• Green cardAliyah is not a short trip. A long absence can be treated as abandoning the card even if you never file a form. A re-entry permit is for a temporary stay abroad. Before you rely on the card, see an immigration lawyer. If you do give it up, the expatriation rules above may apply.
• The state you leaveIn the year you move, you still file with that state. Some keep treating you as a resident while your home, driver's license or voter registration stayed behind. Ask that state's tax agency before you assume the flight closed it.

Medicare does not pay for ordinary care in Israel. Cover after you arrive is the Kupat Holim.

• MedicareOutside the United States, Medicare does not pay for ordinary care. The narrow exceptions (a border, a very specific emergency) do not cover a life in Israel.
• Part BIf you drop it and enroll again later, the SSA pamphlet says the premium is 10% higher for each 12-month period you could have been enrolled and were not. Decide before you cancel. In Israel, the Federal Benefits Unit is at the US Embassy in Jerusalem. The Tel Aviv branch does not handle Social Security.
• Social SecurityA US retirement benefit can keep being paid in Israel. Report the move to SSA. Work in Israel does not count toward US eligibility: there is no US–Israel totalization agreement. The rest is the pension guide.
• State unemploymentThose benefits assume you are available for work in that state. Do not build the first months in Israel on them.

You do not have to close every account. One US account still open receives an IRS refund and a Social Security deposit. Some banks refuse customers who live abroad, or require a US address.

• Ask before you leaveWrite to the bank while you still have a US address. Ask whether the account can stay open once you live in Israel, and on what terms.
• Keep a single oneThe one that will receive a tax refund and, later, a pension.
• Do not leave an account nobody can reachUpdate the address they will accept, and who to contact. An account they can no longer match to a person is often frozen just as the refund arrives.

There is no American equivalent of a mandatory five-year register. Identity paperwork goes through the US Embassy in Jerusalem and its Tel Aviv branch, by appointment.

• STEPThe Smart Traveler Enrollment Program is free. It is how the embassy can reach you in an emergency. It is not mandatory, and it is not a residence status.
• PassportRenewal is by appointment in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, no longer at a post office in the United States. Appointments are booked online. Booking one is free: a third party is not required.
• A child born in IsraelThe Israeli birth certificate does not document US citizenship. You apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or a US passport, at the embassy. Transmission of citizenship depends on how long the US parent was physically in the United States before the birth. The consulate decides. There is a fee, listed on the embassy page. Do not leave it until you need a passport in a hurry.
• VotingAn overseas ballot goes through your last state of residence, via the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP).

This page is the United States, because the United States keeps taxing you after you leave. The other English-speaking countries do not use these forms.

• United KingdomOnce you are non-resident, the UK does not tax your Israeli salary the way the United States does. The NHS does not cover routine care once you move abroad. The forms on this page are not yours.
• CanadaIn the year you stop being a Canadian resident, Canada can tax a deemed sale of some property. That is a Canadian departure tax, not the US exit tax. Provincial health coverage ends. Confirm with the CRA.
• AustraliaTax residency and Australian Medicare follow Australian rules. You do not file a 1040 because you read this page.
• What you do shareThe Aliyah path from the United States, Canada and the UK (Nefesh B'Nefesh, the flight) is the USA & UK Aliyah guide, not this one.

• A US pensionReceiving it in Israel, and the fact that Israeli work does not add to it, is the foreign-pension guide.
• Tax in IsraelThe 10-year exemption is for foreign-source income. Pay earned in Israel is not wiped out by that exemption, on the Israeli side or the US side. Detail: the 2026 tax guide.
• The Kupat HolimThat is what covers care after you arrive. Signing up is not a US step.
• The flight and Nefesh B'NefeshOrganising the move from the United States, Canada or the UK is the USA & UK Aliyah guide.