The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.
After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.
The new fee, which took effect on Friday, had been promised in 2023 but had never been implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.
Sort of. If you are smart enough to leave, that’s one less voter they have to deal with.
There’s also a whole other slew of issues that affect Accidental Americans usually having to do with non-filed taxes, meaning the whole process also recoups from global earnings that have had zilch to do with the US through tax traps. Making it easier to apply for means they can get a few bucks more, and I suspect the people processing those requests are at the ICE level of quality. William Barr’s daughter, Mary Barr Daly, ended up being placed as a senior adviser to FinCEN, which is closely involved in this process, and she has her own history of exercising her position in let’s just say the traditional Republican manner.
To be fair, both parties have been at fault for the US’ Eritrean system of citizenship, neither really cares, although I suspect with how many bridges they are burning they are seeing the writing on the wall and would rather get something from the people trying to leave “the right way” while their demands on the global banking system are still respected.