Hate to say it, but your friend clearly had no idea what he was talking about. The short answer is that if one is a "bona fide resident" of a foreign country for one full tax year then they qualify for the income exclusion. In that case there is no written limit on the number of days one may spend in the USA. If one is fortunate enough to have 60 days of vacation, one could spend all 60 in the USA without losing their foreign earned income exclusion. Emirates' actually has Americans that commute back to the USA quite often and spend over 30 days in the USA every year. They still qualify for the exclusion because they are bona fide residents of the UAE.