More and more Americans want to renounce their US citizenship, but the procedure drags on for years and is not cheap

It is known that millions want to become US citizens. But there are people who are trying to renounce it - and doing so is no less difficult. About 30 citizens living abroad were unable to pass the interview to renounce their citizenship during the pandemic, reports TheGuardian.

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In recent years, Michael has come to view the United States, a nation of which he has been a lifelong citizen, as an abusive parent.

“I can acknowledge my past involvement with this person, but at the same time I want nothing to do with him,” he said.

Michael - not his real name because he requested anonymity to avoid hate speech - found dissatisfaction with his home country reaching a breaking point in 2020. The chaotic end of the Donald Trump era, coupled with the injustices brought about by the Covid pandemic, caused him to change his mind about being an American.

“The coronavirus made me realize that in the United States, unless you are part of the wealthy elite, you have to take care of yourself with little to no help from the federal government,” he said. “The farcical presidential campaign made me realize that I don’t want to be a member of a society in which my vote doesn’t matter because of gerrymandering or the Electoral College.”

And so Michael decided to renounce his US citizenship. Having moved to Finland 10 years ago, he broke the ties that officially bound him to a country whose values ​​he no longer recognized.

That's when Michael's problems began. He found that, along with thousands of other US citizens living abroad, he was trapped.

On the subject: Wealthy Americans Massively Renounce US Citizenship

For nearly two years since the pandemic hit in March 2020, most US consular missions around the world have suspended expatriation services for those wishing to renounce US citizenship. The US Embassy in London, the largest of its kind in Western Europe, announces on its website that it “cannot currently accept applications due to renunciation of citizenship” and cannot say when services will resume.

The US State Department says that renouncing citizenship requires a personal interview with a government official, and given the coronavirus, this is too risky.

Moreover, giving up is not as easy as throwing away your passport. This is a lengthy legal process that requires paperwork, interviews and money. Due to an increase in the number of US citizens willing to renounce their citizenship, the US Department of State raised the surrender fee from $ 450 to $ 2350, which is about five times more than the average in other high-income countries such as the United Kingdom, some citizens those with a high income may be required to pay a capital gains tax called an “exit tax” (officially called an expatriation tax).

The delays have led to an increase in the number of disaffected citizens. According to some estimates, among the 9 million US citizens living overseas, there may be up to 30 people who would like to start the opt-out process but cannot.

Joshua Grant is one of them. He was born and raised in Selma, Alabama until he moved to Germany in 2021 to learn the language.

He still lives in Lower Saxony and married a German citizen last year. Grant, 30, feels ready to acquire German citizenship, but under German law he must give up his American passport. Easier said than done.

He submitted a bunch of documents to the US Embassy in July 2020. Nothing happened. He wrote emails to the embassy staff, but no response.

He contacted the office of Alabama Senator Richard Shelby. They turned it over to the State Department, which in turn turned it back to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which mentioned the pandemic.

“It's very tiring. “My whole life in Germany is on hold,” he said. “It’s funny: people in Germany tend to view the US as a liberal country where the rule of law has been established, but I can’t even find anyone in the US government to talk to.” "

Nine US citizens overseas who are unable to renounce their citizenship have now filed a lawsuit against the State Department in federal court in Washington. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by the French group Association of Accidental Americans, compares the situation to feudal times.

“It appears that the United States is determined to prevent its citizens from exercising their natural and fundamental right to voluntarily renounce their citizenship,” the report said.

Some people want to renounce their US citizenship because the government makes life more burdensome for Americans overseas. In 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was passed, which requires foreign banks and other financial institutions to report to the IRS any clients they suspect are American.

The US is also one of only two countries (the other is Eritrea) that taxes people based on their citizenship rather than where they live. This forces Americans abroad to declare their global income to the IRS, which may have tax consequences.

The impact of this burden is reflected in the number of people renouncing citizenship every year. It remained relatively stable at less than 2000 between 2010 and 1000, but after FATCA came into effect, the number rose sharply to a peak last year of nearly 7000.

Some of the potential objectors are “accidental Americans” who received citizenship because they were born in the United States, although they have lived their entire lives elsewhere.

This label can be applied to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was born in New York but has not lived in the US since the age of five. Johnson renounced his citizenship in 2017, saying that several years earlier he had been outraged that he had to pay the US tax authorities the profits from the sale of his London home.

Marie Sok, the first woman to run for president of the Gambia, was recently forced out of the race after she received no response to her request to renounce US citizenship from the US embassy.

In a video posted on Facebook, she explained that the Gambian electoral law requires presidential candidates to have one Gambian citizenship.

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James - also not his real name - was born in Texas but has not lived in the United States since he was four years old. He now lives in Singapore.

He was disappointed when he learned that since his son was born outside the United States, he would not be eligible for US citizenship, and nevertheless, due to James's citizenship, he would be treated as if he were a US taxpayer. It struck him as a modern form of taxation without representation.

“Double standards really irritate me,” he said.

Over the past year, he has tried unsuccessfully to call an official who will help him renounce his citizenship.

“I never asked for US citizenship, and now I’m not even allowed to renounce it,” says James.

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