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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/americans-queueing-up-renounce-citizenship-dictatorship>
"When Margot went to renounce her US citizenship earlier this year, she wasn’t
able to do it in the UK, her home of 30 years. The waiting list to renounce US
citizenship at the London consulate is more than 14 months. It’s a similar
story in Sydney and most major Canadian cities. Many European cities currently
have six-month waiting lists.
So Margot found herself in the lobby of the consulate in Berne, Switzerland.
One wall was covered by a picture of Boston Harbour, where she was born. The
other had three portraits: Donald Trump, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, their faces
glistening – to her mind, with sadistic triumph (the lighting may have been a
factor). Momentarily, she felt caught in a vice: everything she loved about her
nation; everything she hated. Then she went in, swore under oath that she knew
what she was doing, wasn’t being coerced, and wasn’t renouncing her citizenship
for the purposes of tax avoidance. The official’s tone was neutral, slightly
bored.
The questions are read from a laminated card, the oath is perfunctory, your
passport is retained – you can ask for it back, with holes punched in it to
represent its cancellation, after your request is approved.
In the 00s, the numbers of US citizens renouncing were in the hundreds
annually; since 2014, they’ve been in the thousands. This is expected to be a
bumper year (matching 2020’s 6,000-plus) because the US government’s charges,
after a protracted group legal battle, have been reduced from $2,350 to $450.
Neither figure comes close to the true cost of renouncing if you get a lawyer,
which, with no complications at all, will cost $7,000 to $10,000, says
Alexander Marino, who heads Moody’s, the largest renunciation law practice in
the world.
But why would anyone want or need to renounce their US citizenship in the first
place? Americans have long joked about pretending to be Canadians when they’re
abroad, just out of embarrassment at hailing from a country that’s notably
arrogant or exceptionalist. But recent developments in the US – its
atmospherics, its internal divisions as well as its foreign policy – are of a
different order of magnitude. Mary, 73, moved to Canada in 1987 and became a
dual citizen in 2006, without ever thinking she wanted to renounce. The turning
point, she says, “was literally the night of the 2016 election. I was at my
son’s house. By midnight it was looking like, ‘Oh my God, the man’s going to
win.’ I finally fell asleep – vodka can only do so much – then I woke at 2am,
the house next door had a huge screen, and all it said was: ‘Trump, Trump,
Trump.’”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
