Payroll Services

Payroll Services
for Nonresident Employees

International employees are exempt from FICA taxes, but most payroll providers charge them anyway. That’s up to $7,650 per employee, per year in overpayments. AccuPay specializes in nonresident payroll, stops the overcharging, recovers what you’ve already lost, and keeps you audit-proof.

Is Your Payroll Provider Costing You Thousands on Every CPT or OPT Hire?

Under IRC Section 3121(b)(19), nonresident employees on F-1, J-1, M-1, or Q-1 visas are exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes for their first five years in the U.S. That’s 7.65% savings on every dollar of wages, for both employer and employee.

But most payroll platforms aren’t built for this. They apply standard domestic defaults from day one, and they never track the five-year exemption window. The result:

You overpay 7.65% in employer-side FICA taxes

on every qualifying employee, every paycheck.

Your employees take home less

because 7.65% is incorrectly withheld from their wages.

Your quarterly 941 filings contain errors

that create mismatches the IRS can flag.

When the five-year window expires, nobody flips the switch

creating underwithholding risk and potential penalties.

For a company with just ten qualifying employees earning an average of $100,000, that’s over $150,000 in unnecessary taxes every year. This isn’t a rounding error, it’s a systemic failure by providers who weren’t built to deliver payroll services for nonresident employees.

About Accupay

Our founder, Felix Mwania, came to the U.S. on OPT and experienced the broken nonresident tax system firsthand. Incorrect withholding, confusing forms, payroll providers who simply couldn’t help.
He built AccuPay to fix that.
Nonresident alien FICA compliance one of our core competencies.

20+ years of payroll and HR services experience

Small Disadvantaged Business and Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)

Powered by iSolved HCM—a leading human capital management platform

Nationwide service for commercial businesses, government agencies, municipalities, and charter schools

90-Day Double Money-Back Guarantee on compliance results

Steps to Compliant International Payroll

The Forensic Payroll Audit

We review your current and historical payroll records, identify every misclassified nonresident employee, and calculate the exact overpayment down to the quarter.

Recovery and Correct Configuration

We file amended 941-X returns, recover overpaid taxes, issue corrected W-2cs, and reconfigure your payroll with the correct exemption settings going forward.

Value

We automatically transition employees when their exemption expires, track visa status changes in real time, and maintain a complete document vault so every future audit is push-button ready.

The Accupay Difference

What's at Stake: The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong

From your first campaign hire to final election-day bonuses, our services handle everything:

Ongoing FICA overpayment of up to 7.65% per qualifying employee, money that goes to the IRS and never comes back without filing amended returns.

Underwithholding penalties if your system fails to resume FICA when the five-year exemption expires.

Employee frustration from smaller paychecks—and the risk of losing top international talent to competitors who get the details right.

What Compliance Looks Like with AccuPay

From your first campaign hire to final election-day bonuses, our services handle everything:

Immediate savings: 7.65% returned to both employer and employee on every qualifying dollar of wages.

Recovered capital: Look-back audits that identify and reclaim overpayments from prior tax years.

Audit-proof records: Every I-20, EAD card, I-94, and W-2c stored in a secure digital vault.

Peace of mind: Automated tracking, proactive status transitions, and a team that understands every nuance of nonresident alien taxation.

See the Savings: FICA Exemption by the Numbers

These numbers represent real savings. The FICA exemption eliminates both the employee’s share and the employer’s matching share:

Name	Annual Employer Savings	3-Year Savings
1 OPT employee @ $75k	$5,737	$17,212
1 STEM OPT engineer @ 100k	$7,650	$22,950
10 employees @ $ 100k avg.	$76,500	$229,500
20 employees @ 120k avg.	$183,600	$550,800

Based on 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500 and combined FICA rate of 7.65%. Figures reflect employer share only; employee savings are equal.

Download the Free Guide

Get our complete Comprehensive Guide for Payroll Services for Nonresident Employees, a detailed walkthrough of the legal fr amework, the five-year rule, the refund recovery process, STEM OPT obligations, state tax considerations, and a practical HR compliance checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the FICA exemption apply to state and local taxes?

No. The FICA exemption applies specifically to federal Social Security and Medicare taxes. Most states, including California, do not recognize the federal exemption for state disability insurance or state unemployment insurance. Employers should verify the rules for their specific jurisdiction.

What happens when an employee changes from F-1 to H-1B status?

FICA withholding must begin immediately. The moment an employee’s status changes to H-1B, they are no longer exempt, regardless of how long they have been in the U.S. The exemption is strictly tied to the F, J, M, or Q visa categories.

Can we recover overpaid FICA taxes from previous years?

Yes. Employers can file Form 941-X for each affected quarter to claim a refund or credit. The statute of limitations is generally three years from the original filing date. If the employer cannot issue a refund, the employee can file directly with the IRS using Forms 843 and 8316. AccuPay handles both pathways as part of our look-back audit service.

Does having a Social Security Number make the employee subject to FICA?

No. An SSN is required for employment but does not determine tax residency. A nonresident alien on OPT with an SSN remains exempt from FICA during their first five calendar years in the United States.

How much does this service cost?

We price our services competitively because our value is in the long-term relationship. The savings we generate, often tens of thousands of dollars per year, far exceed the cost of our service. Every engagement is backed by our 90-Day Double Money-Back Guarantee.

What payroll platform does AccuPay use?

AccuPay operates on the iSolved HCM platform, which supports the specialized configuration, automated expiration tracking, and reporting required for nonresident alien payroll compliance.