"
Accidental
" Americans, living abroad but facing administrative hassles because of their nationality at birth, filed a complaint on Monday, November 8 against the US State Department, accusing the restrictions due to the pandemic of making it impossible for them. steps to give up being Americans.
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The soil law in force in the United States automatically grants American nationality to almost anyone born in its territory. But a 2010 US law, supposed to make life more difficult for Americans who go abroad to evade taxes, has resulted in tens of thousands of "
accidental
"
Americans being forced
left very young and no longer attached to their country of birth, to declare their income in the United States and, if necessary, to pay taxes there.
For them, this law "
has turned American nationality into a financial nightmare,
" reads the complaint filed in a Washington court by the Association of Accidental Americans and Nine People Concerned.
In a press release, the president of this French association, Fabien Lehagre, believes that this “
leaves almost no other choice for accidental Americans than to renounce American nationality
”.
300,000 accidental Americans in Europe
However, the association, very active on the judicial front in France as in the United States, disputes the difficulty of this approach.
A complaint, still ongoing, notably contests the fees of $ 2,350 claimed by the State Department to renounce nationality, while this service was free until 2015.
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In the new complaint, she claims that the suspension of consular services in most U.S. embassies since the start of the pandemic has made it nearly impossible to see its members' requests succeed, violating their fundamental right to relinquish their nationality. "
In other areas, during the Covid-19, the federal government found the means to guarantee the constitutional freedoms of its fellow citizens, while protecting public health
", according to the text. “
The world in the age of Covid-19 has become more flexible, and the US government must do the same.
The association demands the immediate resumption of this service.
The "
accidental Americans
" are estimated at 10,000 in France and more than 300,000 in Europe.
Citing figures from the US tax authorities, the complaint claims that a record 6,000 Americans renounced their nationality in 2020.