AtlasTax is a platform designed to help F-1, J-1 & M-1 international students prepare their non-resident IRS tax forms. How might we help international students understand exactly which documents they need and complete their tax forms accurately without confusion?
A U.S. citizen earning under $15,750 doesn’t need to file. An 18-year-old international student with zero income still does, and one mistake can jeopardize their visa, immigration applications, and future employment.
The system exists, just not for them. Residents have TurboTax. Non-resident students are left with confusion.
1.2 million international students in the U.S. (2024/25 academic year). Nearly all carry annual IRS filing obligations. Almost none have a simplified tool built for them.
Initial research involved 12 interviews with F-1 and OPT students.
“It would be ideal to have a tax-filing experience where they know all the dos and don’ts, and we can just click submit.”
F-1 student interview“The hardest part of filing taxes is compiling all tax forms.”
Survey respondent“Sprintax does not consider my tax treaty. What happens when I graduate?”
OPT student interview
Empathy map, synthesized from interviews
Who I’m designing for: F-1 and OPT students who don’t know which form applies to them, and who are afraid one mistake will affect their visa. Everything in the flow is built for that fear.
Forms scattered across university portals, employers, and banks. Students spend hours finding documents they didn’t know existed.
Most don’t know their residency status, which form to file, or what a tax treaty means for them.
Fear of a mistake that affects visa status causes students to avoid filing entirely or panic through it at the last minute.
Two main competitors (Sprintax and TurboTax) dominate the space and neither was built for non-resident students.
| Product | Non-Resident | Tax Treaty | Student-First | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AtlasTax | F-1 · J-1 · M-1 | Guided treaty + 1042-S | Yes | Planned flat fee |
| Sprintax | Yes | Manual | Text-heavy | $100–150 |
| TurboTax | Residents only | No | No | $0–120 |
| H&R Block | Primarily residents | No | No | $35–85+ |
| CPA | Yes | Yes | Manual | $200–400 |
| VITA | Depends on the University | Yes | Manual | Free |
Smart Onboarding
Students answer 10–15 questions to determine their correct filing path. Visa type, income sources, residency status, all used to personalize the experience.
Upload Documents
A personalized checklist shows exactly which documents are needed. Upload income, education, visa, and supporting forms. Uploaded documents are intended to auto-fill via OCR.
Forms Generated
AtlasTax is designed to prepare the correct IRS forms automatically. Review, download, sign, and mail to the IRS. The goal: no manual data entry, no transcription errors.
Homepage
Q&A onboarding
Q&A onboarding 2
Document checklist
Filing
Round one was think-aloud testing with 3 people. Each session turned up a problem that would have broken the flow.
Watch think-aloud sessionWhen users selected income related questions, the screen jumped to a new question with no warning, breaking the expected pattern. Users thought it was a bug.
Added a popup heads-up before any additional question appears. The flow now matches the pattern users have built throughout the rest of the onboarding.
After uploading documents, users had no way to actually file. They also had to open every category individually with no sense of overall progress.
Added a “FILE 2025” button once documents are uploaded, plus a “Download Checklist PDF” option. Green checkmarks make completion clear.
Users were unsure what some questions meant and why they were being asked. The flow assumed prior knowledge, making users less confident in their answers.
Added a brief explanation for each question and a link to a verified source for context. Users can now understand the purpose of each question and answer accurately.
Students upload SSNs, visa documents and income forms, all tied to their immigration status. So for every document decision, I asked: would a student trust this with that?
Documents are designed to be processed through OCR to auto-fill forms. The goal is fewer manual entries and less sensitive data typed or copied by hand.
The onboarding flow only asks for what's needed to determine filing status; no unnecessary fields, no data collected "just in case."
Before AtlasTax goes live, uploaded documents need encryption and access controls. That comes first in the build.
15 F-1 students tested the high-fidelity prototype on their own and answered a survey afterward. Because testing was unmoderated, these numbers are what testers reported, not what I observed. They estimated the flow took about 10 minutes on average, and no more than 20.
“This is exactly what we needed. It breaks down the complexity in a way I actually understand.”
Round 2 usability testing participantTesters still asked “then what?” after FILE 2025, since it didn’t lead anywhere. The 3 who rated it very difficult got stuck at document upload, and 2 comments called the dropdowns hard to use.
Added a Forms Generated screen after FILE 2025, so the flow ends with forms ready to review. The checklist dropdowns get fixed in the Claude Code build. Neither change has been tested yet.
After round one, selecting scholarship opened the same follow-up questions for all visas. But scholarships are taxed differently for F-1 and J-1 students, so one generic follow-up wasn’t enough.
Scholarship now has its own set of questions for F-1 and J-1 students, the visa types where scholarship rules matter most. The questions change based on the visa chosen at the start.
Note: this is an ongoing project. These changes were made to the high-fidelity prototype after round two, and the experience is still being refined.
Starting on paper to explore structure without committing to visuals. Three sketch sheets, then digital wireframes, then high-fidelity.
Onboarding Q&A + checklist
Homepage explorations
Deadlines + learn screen (Feature was cut)
Mid-fidelity wireframes
Taxes already stress students out, so the design system is meant to feel calm.
Design system, color, type, illustration, brand
Testers saw taxes as impossible. Asking one question per screen, in the right order, is what made the flow manageable, and it took several rounds to get that order right.
Three think-aloud sessions in round one showed the flow dead-ended after document upload. In round two, my FILE 2025 fix only moved the dead end, because the button didn’t go anywhere yet.
14 of 15 testers said the flow reduced their anxiety about filing. For students worried about their visa, how the flow feels matters as much as whether it works.
Users understood the SSN and treaty questions. They just didn’t know why we needed the answers. A one-line explanation and a source link fixed it.
The pitch highlighted how specialized the F-1 visa tax flow is. As a designer, my next challenge is exploring how this onboarding system scales to broader non-resident tax scenarios without adding cognitive load.