The U.S. has just announced that it has lowered the fee to renounce American citizenship to $450, down from $2,350. That's a $1,900 discount, folks!
It was free to renounce citizenship before 2010. Then a $450 fee was introduced, and then the price was raised to $2,350 in 2015.
Either way, the fees seem to have been mostly driven by financial and administrative costs.
Per The New York Times article:
Renouncing U.S. citizenship was free until 2010, when the State Department first instituted the $450 administrative fee. It acknowledged that amount covered "less than 25 percent of the cost to the U.S. government" to process and certify loss of nationality, but kept it at that price in part to keep from discouraging those who sought to use the service.
But a sharp increase in requests - driven in part by foreign banking requirements instituted in 2010 - led the State Department to increase the fee to $2,350 in 2015, to cover the full processing costs.
Most Americans only really choose to renounce their citizenship for financial reasons-I know it is really tempting-since it is still one of the few nationalities that get double-taxed abroad (most expats only pay taxes in the locality they live, Americans get the privilege of that and paying it back to Uncle Sam).
These really only reflect those that have permanently left the country, and usually have built a family and/or a business abroad.
It is also usually people with money, since the threshold for the foreign earned income exclusion for 2025 is $135,000 to qualify for the double taxation.
There was a time and a period in my life where I had been outside the United States for so long where I thought there was a good chance I would never come back. That was, until my grandmother got sick.
On the the other hand, my best friend married an Australian, moved to Melbourne, and had two kids. Both of us were living the other path the other one hadn't taken.
Personally, I don't think it makes sense to renounce U.S. citizenship for fun: It really feels akin to cutting off your own parents. You may hate them, but for the most part, you do what it takes to make it work.
Plus, administrations do change.
Plus, imagine needing a visa to enter the country that you grew up in!
