I moved to the U.S. and still own my foreign company. What changes?

Establish when residency begins

Your immigration visa and your federal income tax residency are different questions. The green card and substantial presence tests can establish residency, with exceptions and first-year rules requiring separate review. A year of arrival can be dual-status rather than a full resident year. Certain elections may change the period treated as resident. Map your travel history, immigration dates, and filing choices before deciding which foreign income belongs on the U.S. return.

Revisit the company’s classification and ownership

Your company does not automatically become a domestic corporation because you move. However, your new U.S. status can change its owners’ reporting categories and whether it is a controlled foreign corporation. Determine U.S. entity classification, voting and economic rights, and direct, indirect, or constructive ownership. Becoming a U.S. person while holding a substantial interest can itself be relevant to Form 5471 filing categories, even if you did not buy additional shares after arriving.

Analyze retained earnings and ongoing activity

Salary, dividends, and business income require the correct timing and classification. Certain CFC income can be included currently under Subpart F or the applicable tested-income regime without a dividend. The treatment of existing earnings and later distributions requires records of earnings, basis, and previously taxed amounts. Moving does not generally provide an automatic fair-market-value basis reset for foreign shares. Working for or managing the company from the United States can also create separate U.S. business or payroll questions for the company.

Coordinate information returns and planning

Review Form 5471, potential Form 8938 reporting, and FBAR obligations over personal and company accounts. These have distinct triggers, and no single form replaces the others. Assemble reliable financial statements and foreign tax records before filing rather than relying only on local taxable profit. Pre-arrival planning may preserve choices that become harder afterward, but post-arrival restructuring or entity elections should also be modeled before implementation because they can trigger tax rather than merely simplify paperwork.

Common mistakes

• Using the visa approval date as the automatic tax residency start date.
• Assuming only money transferred to a U.S. bank is taxable.
• Restructuring the company before checking U.S. tax consequences.

Filing requirements

• Identify the applicable Form 5471 categories for the transition year and attach required schedules to the appropriate income tax return.
• Review Form 8938 thresholds and file any required FBAR separately with FinCEN.

Potential penalties

• Missing foreign-company disclosures can produce significant penalties even when the first-year income tax is modest.
• If the move occurred in an earlier unfiled year, evaluate correction options before filing incomplete returns.

Related IRS forms

• Form 5471
• Form 8938
• FinCEN Form 114

What to consider next

• Build a residency timeline and ownership chart covering the move.
• Collect prior company financials, capital records, distributions, and account statements.
• Have Chirino USA review transition-year reporting and future planning before changing the structure.