Cross Posted from Brock. The United States Department of State has announced they charging $2350 U.S. to relinquish unwanted American citizenship.
From a post by Eric at Brock:
Closely following on the heels of their previous announcement that the $2,350 fee for renunciation — twenty times as high as in any other developed country — “protects” the human right to change nationality, the folks at the State Department have announced that they’ll be extending that “protection” to people who relinquished U.S. citizenship under 8 USC § 1481(a)(1) through (4) and seek to obtain Certificates of Loss of Nationality documenting that fact as well.
In the latest Schedule of Fees for Consular Services to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday (80 FR 53704, 53707), Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy or one of his ghostwriter minions proclaims:
Currently, nationals who renounce nationality pay a fee of $2,350, while nationals who apply for documentation of relinquishment of nationality by the voluntary commission of an expatriating act with the intention to lose nationality, do not pay a fee. However the services performed in both situations are similar, requiring close and detailed case-by-case review of the factors involved in a request for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality, and both result in similar costs to the Department.
In the past, individuals seldom requested Certificates of Loss of Nationality from the Department to document relinquishment. Although the Department was aware that an individual relinquishment service was among the most time consuming of consular services, it was rarely performed so the overall cost to the Department was low and the Department did not establish a fee. Requests for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality on the basis of a non-renunciatory relinquishment have increased significantly in recent years, and the Department expects the number to grow in the future, causing the total cost of this service to increase. At the same time, the Department funds consular services completely from user fees. The Cost of Service Model continues to demonstrate that such costs are incurred by the Department when accepting, processing, and adjudicating relinquishment of nationality cases; therefore, the Department will collect a fee from all individuals seeking a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. Taking into account the costs of both renunciation and non-renunciation relinquishment processes, the fee will be $2,350.
If you do not need a CLN in the first place, nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act requires you to obtain one to document your loss of US citizenship, and people who relinquished before 4 June 2004 did not have to report their relinquishment to the State Department in order to end their status as U.S. tax subjects either. However, FATCA regulations and IGAs require people with U.S. indicia to show their banks a CLN or provide a “reasonable explanation” of why they do not have U.S. citizenship.
See this earlier post for discussion of what banks might accept as a “reasonable explanation”, and let us know if you find a bank which will accept the absurd price-tag as an explanation of why you don’t have a CLN.
crap, my procrastination has just cost me my chance at a CLN from relinquishment. I do not have $2350, and it’s unlikely I can save that up even in 2 or 3 years, which is probably what they’re counting on. I only hope that if I get queried by my bank that my explanation of why I’m not an US citizen is enough for them. Or, I guess, really, they send on my info to the IRS and I just never go into the US again. Not a big loss, in my eyes.
@Outraged That is $2350 U.S. Which makes it over $3000 Canadian.
Has your bank asked where you were born?
No, but I haven’t had anything to do with them in a couple of years. No new accounts, etc. The test will come when I go to renew my mortgage, I guess. The thought is definitely stress inducing…
I guess I missed something back in grade school, my understanding was that slavery was abolished under President Lincoln?? So why do I now have to cough up $2350. to by my freedom? No one ever told me I was the property of the US Government. I mistakenly believed their lies that I was born into a free democratic society.
Guess I should have seen this coming, I remember being outraged at an early age when I learned that you can buy a piece of property in the US, and they’ll even give you a piece of paper that says it’s yours. But if you can’t pay the taxes on that property forever, guess what? You find out it was never really yours in the first place.
Those greedy old idiots in Washington can kiss my lily white butt.
Jonathan,
Our US public education failed us in many ways.
I never learned anything about US CITIZENSHIP-based taxation — did you?
Also was told that I would lose my US citizenship when I became a Canadian citizen in 1975 so, surely, that was true? Seems not as I didn’t get (back then) that Certificate of Loss of (US) Nationality. I have it now though — at a great cost from retirement funds but continued worry about my Canadian-born son who never lived in the US nor had any benefit from. Will they suck $$$ from what is to be left to him (with a developmental disability so not allowed to renounce a US-deemed US citizenship)? That will also suck $$$ out of the country of his birth and, as far as I’m concerned, his only citizenship – Canada.
Ah, the so exceptional USA.
@ JonathonInCostaRica
Perhaps you won’t be surprised to read that there are some who believe that the USA is not a country per se but a private corporation. Lisa Guliani is one of these:
http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/us_corporation.htm
Does it help to think of yourself as the property of a private corporation rather than the U.S. government? Probably not. A slave is a slave is a slave, no matter his master.
BTW, Canada is traded on the US Stock Exchange and registered as :
I don’t know about other so-called nations.