Up to 30,000 people, among the 9 million Americans living abroad, want to renounce their citizenship but, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, they have been unable to complete that administrative process.
For almost two years, most of the United States consular offices in the world have suspended their expatriation services due to COVID-19, causing
frustration and anger
in those who wish to renounce their citizenship, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Joshua Grant, 30, born and raised in Selma, Alabama, explains that his entire life is "on hold" in Germany because
the US embassy in that country has not responded to his request to renounce
nationality since July 2020.
"It's very tiring," says Grant, who can't get German citizenship until he gets rid of his American passport.
Grant says he sent all the necessary paperwork, that he has written emails to the embassy and that he has even contacted the office of Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, but to no avail.
"It's funny: people in Germany tend to see the United States as a liberal country where the rule of law was established, but I can't even find someone from the government to talk to," Grant says.
Nine US citizens living abroad and in similar situations
have sued the State Department in federal court in Washington
, according to the aforementioned media.
[Biden Launches Strategy for Millions of Immigrants to Become US Citizens]
The lawsuit, filed on their behalf by the French-based Association of Accidental Americans, compares the situation they face to feudal times.
"The United States appears
bent on preventing its citizens from exercising their natural
and fundamental right to voluntarily renounce their citizenship," the lawsuit says.
Others, like Michael [not his real name, but he wants to protect his identity, according to the aforementioned newspaper], want to stop being Americans because they do not feel represented or identified with what has happened in recent years in the country.
"The coronavirus made me realize that in the United States, if you are not a member of the wealthy elite, you are left to your own devices with virtually no help from the federal government," says Michael, whose decision was accelerated when Donald Trump became president in 2016. .
A high tax burden
Another reason that motivates you to want to get rid of your nationality is the high tax burden for those who live abroad.
In 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was passed, which requires foreign banks and other financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
any client who they suspect is American.
The United States is one of only two countries (the other is Eritrea) that taxes people based on their citizenship and not where they live.
That forces Americans abroad to report their income to the IRS, with potential tax implications if they fail to meet their tax obligations.
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The number of people who have given up being Americans held steady between 2000 and 2010 at less than 1,000 people a year, but after the FATCA came into force it skyrocketed to
a high of nearly 7,000 last year.
Since James [assumed name] found out about this four years ago, he has wanted to renounce his citizenship, but to no avail.
He was born in Texas, but has lived in Singapore since he was little.
[The IRS will give a surprise refund before the end of 2021]
His biggest disappointment came when he learned that since his son was born outside of the United States, he would not be entitled to citizenship, but at the level of taxes he would be treated as if he were an American taxpayer.
"
The double standard bothers me a lot,
" he explains, "I never applied for US citizenship, and now I'm not even allowed to renounce it."
