State Department slashes fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has cut pay for Americans by nearly 80% if they formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.
After years of legal battles with various groups representing Americans who want to renounce their citizenship, the department published a final rule in the Federal Register on Friday that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.
The new fee, which took effect on Friday, was promised to be implemented in 2023 but was never implemented. The cost now is the same as when the State Department began requiring Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.
Renouncing US citizenship can be an intense and lengthy process. Applicants are required to repeatedly confirm, through multiple written and oral statements to a Department of State consular officer, that they understand the consequences of this step before they are allowed to take a formal oath of renunciation. It then needs to be examined by the ministry.
The fee was increased from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover administrative costs as the number of people seeking to renounce their citizenship increased in part due to new U.S. tax reporting requirements for American expats that angered many.
This dramatic wage increase has faced serious opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Incidental Americans, which represents people living mostly abroad whose U.S. citizenship derives solely from being born in the United States.
The association filed numerous lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee; one of which was a pending case arguing that there should be no cost to giving up one’s citizenship.
“The Association of Incidental Americans welcomes this decision, which recognizes the need to make this fundamental right accessible to everyone,” its president, Fabien Lahagre, said in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of relentless legal action and advocacy.”
In court, the association said that at least 8,755 Americans have paid the full $2,350 fee to renounce their citizenship since the 2023 announcement that the fee would be reduced. The State Department did not provide a figure for the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship.
