Renouncing your US Citizenship

For those of you who have considered renouncing your US citizenship may know that it has become ever more difficult to do so. A process that used to take a few months is now taking well over a year. Post covid, the US Embassy in London had only started to take requests for the renunciation interview last summer. There is no given time frame of when you will receive your appointment date, but we know it is taking longer than a year for the interview confirmation to come through. Due to this many who had considered renouncing their citizenship have since changed their mind. Others who are desperate to give up their citizenship have even considered travelling abroad to make an appointment with a US consular service that have a quicker turnaround.

There has however been some positive news for those still considering renunciation. Following the ongoing case against the US Department of State by the Paris based Association of Accidental Americans, the US state Department announced that it intends to reduce the fee is charges for renunciation to $450. The current fee is $2,350 and is the highest fee charged by any nation for the voluntary renunciation of citizenship, with some countries charging nothing for the right to expatriate. It is not yet clear when the change of fee will be implemented. Fabien Lehagre, founder, and president of the Association of Accidental Americans commented: “The State Department’s statement is extremely encouraging and tacitly acknowledges that this legal challenge has and will accomplish what it set out to do. By lowering the fee to $450, the U.S. government is showing that the right of voluntary expatriation is not to be trifled with and deserves the utmost protection. Time will tell how the government will formulate and develop the new fee and my organization intends to continue to campaign against any fee or restriction on this sacred right of renunciation.”