State Department slashes fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450
WASHINGTON– The State Department has reduced the fees for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship by about 80 percent.
After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship, the department published a final rule in the Federal Register on Friday that reduced the cost from $2,350 to $450.
The new tax, which came into force on Friday, had been promised for 2023 but was never implemented. The cost is now the same as when the State Department began asking Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.
Renouncing U.S. citizenship can be a long and intense process. Applicants must repeatedly confirm in several written and verbal attestations to a Department of State consular officer that they understand the implications of this approach before being permitted to take a formal oath of renunciation. It must then be examined by the ministry.
The fee was increased from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover administrative expenses, as the number of people seeking to renounce their citizenship increased in part because of new U.S. tax reporting requirements for American expats, angering many.
The dramatic fee increase has drawn significant opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people living primarily overseas whose U.S. citizenship is solely because they were born in the United States.
The association has filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of these fees, including one, still pending, that argues there should be no fee for renouncing one’s citizenship.
“The Association of Accidental Americans welcomes this decision, which recognizes the need to make this fundamental right accessible to all,” said its president, Fabien Lahagre, in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy. »
In court, the association said that since the 2023 fee reduction was announced, at least 8,755 Americans have paid the full $2,350 to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide figures for the total number of Americans who renounced their citizenship.
