The up-to-date database resides in Part 2 (link at the bottom of this page).
Above is a link to data we are compiling on Relinquishments and Renunciations — a work in progress. This corresponds with the Consulate Report Directory (in sticky post below), tracking individual experiences for each Consulate, along with a timeline chart.
Note: We are using numbers instead of blog names for this public posting so there will be no compromise of private information. Your facts will help give a snapshot of relinquishment and renunciation activity and where that occurs.
Please submit information in the comments here (or someone can contact you privately). Thanks for all your help on this.
COMMENTS ARE CLOSED FOR Relinquishment and Renunciation Data (as reported on Isaac Brock), Part 1.
Part 2 is now open for your comments. Thank you.
I’ve submitted scans of all forms and personal documents via e-mail to Halifax and will go there for my first meeting on March 26. I was told that CLN will take about a year due to current high level of renunciation.
Hi All,
Last week I e-mailed the US Embassy in Bern for information concerning renouncing US citizenship. A day later I recieved an e-mail with 5 attachments:
a) Renunciation letter
b) Renunciation Questionnaire
c) Renunciation Info Sheets
d) DS-408
e) DS-4081
I’ve shared them at:
https://docs.google.com/#folders/0B57nRWnlKoc8VjdiQzlyVTJUN2kzdVB4NmdYNnZ5Zw
I found this statement in the Renunciation Info Sheets:
“………Because renunciation is a serious matter to be undertaken soberly and advisedly, persons contemplating renunciation are advised by U.S. consular officers to consider the matter carefully and, if they chose to proceed, to come back to the U.S. embassy or consulate after a period of reflection.”
As far as I still understand the English language “are advised” means you don’t have to go a second time. I guess you just have to insist upon only go once.
SORRY I posted the wrong link 🙁
I hope this one works:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B57nRWnlKoc8VjdiQzlyVTJUN2kzdVB4NmdYNnZ5Zw
I showed up for my first appointment with all forms filled in. But they still made me come back a second time. It made me angry until I realized it was just part of the process.
Each Consulate office seems to modify to suit their needs. Since I had to travel over 1,000 kms it was done in one appointment. Bad enough that I had to travel but to ask me to come for 2 appointments would be crazy.
I only had one appontment at the Copenhagen embassy. I don’t know if that is standard practice for them or if it is because In my initial email to them I stated that I was aware of all the consequences, ramifications, fees and IRS forms and that I had already weighed my decision carefully. And they sent me all the forms to look over in an email. So there was absolutely no reason for me to go twice.
@Bruce, @rødgrød, @peg11, @Rick Blaine, @RoseA
Thanks for the additional helpful information.
All of the info submitted will be in a back-up file and the public document will be less detailed.
We asked the US Embassy in Stockholm when the next available appointment was and how long it took to get the CLN from Washington. This is the answer we got back. It totally ignored our questions.
———————————–
Dear Sir/Madam:
Renunciation of U.S. citizenship is a very serious and irrevocable exercise and should therefore only be undertaken after serious consideration of its consequences. Please read more about the procedure and consequences on http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html.
If you are still interested in renouncing your U.S. citizenship after reading this information, let us know and you will be scheduled for a visit at the embassy for a consultation. Please see our website for our opening hours: http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/consulate/am_cit_index.html.
Thereafter, if you remain interested, you will be scheduled for another appointment where you formally renounce your U.S. citizenship. The fee to renounce U.S. citizenship is $450.
We hope this information will be of assistance.
————————————-
A friend of ours renounced last December. In Stockholm, there is one large room where everybody sits in rows of chairs with Windows A and B on one side of the room and another window for visas on the other side of the room. There is no privacy.
She was called up to Window B and asked to recite the oath of renunciation there in front of all the visa applicants. She did it, but she did notice all the visa applicants staring at her like she was from outer space. She could only smile knowingly. She still has not received her CLN.
@Lisa
Thanks for info from Stockholm. Can we put you down as in progress and have you update us as it proceeds?
Can we add your friend’s renunciation last December? If so, did that person have one or two appointments to do so?
Good luck!!
I will check with my friend. I do not know how many appointments she had, but I do know they were kind and moved hers up when they had a cancellation so she could be done in 2011. Put her on the list. It is for real.
We are still sitting on the fence for personal reasons. Will advise as our situation becomes clearer.
@Lisa – Thanks very much.
test
@Lisa – in Calgary the renunciation was done in a somewhat open area. The Consul was behind glass and I was in an open room – essentially a cubicle with walls to the ceiling. I do not know if others could have heard the Consul but they definitely would have heard me. The renunciations are processed at a different time than visas so there was only one other person there who had the appointment after mine.
Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.
There is an UPDATED pdf shown now.
@usxcanada
(1) Point of interest – all possible locations for Canada are already represented, except for Quebec City.
QUEBEC CITY ADDED.
(2) The renounce/relinquish distinction is interesting only as indication what applicant thinks possible or would like to do.
Ultimate determination will be made in Washington DC by Dept. of State. Consulate requirement for completion of both DS-4079 and DS-4081 appears to be standard practice.
WE THINK THIS IMPORTANT – HAVE PUT A NOTE IN FOOTER.
(3) Appointments will normally be either 1 or 2. That means #1 Vancouver is already 2 because a second will be required?
#1 REFERS TO THE PERSON (OR WHERE 2 PERSONS, #1, #2) – AT THIS POINT WE WANT TO KEEP THOSE PAIRS ON THE SAME LINE (USUALLY A Mr. and Mrs.)
(4) Suggestions
– Establish two columns for Date info: Date1 and Date2 (2012.12&2013.05 gets to be a lot of characters).
WE’LL KEEP ONE COLUMN FOR CONSERVATION OF SPACE AND PUT *AND COMMENT IN “NOTES” COLUMN.
– Consistently use two digits for month.
WE WILL DO THAT.
– Separate column for number of appointments not necessary.
– Record paired renunciations on adjacent separate lines and mark with asterisk or something if that fact seems significant.
#1 REFERS TO THE PERSON (OR WHERE 2 PERSONS, #1, #2). WE’LL ASTERISK AND PLACE A COMMENT IN “NOTES” COLUMN.
@a broken man on a Halifax pier
Adobe Professional is cost prohibitive for me, so for now we’ll stick with the less professional pdf.
The regulations require the oath to be made orally, and for the renunciant to at least be encouraged to raise his right hand. (There is also a superstitious insistence insistence on the flag being present – the renunciant *must* renounce the United States in the presence of its flag.) In Toronto it was an exercise in pushing forms back and forth under the glass, which was fine with me. There was at least one other renunciant, but also people there for passport renewals and so forth, and I can see how it would lead to a weird atmosphere.
calgary411 and pacifica777 – Thanks so much for getting this organized. I’ve already found some good tips in the comments. The “list” will be a good place for us to see how things are going for others and to help us understand our own journey a little better. I hope to be one of the “statistics” before too long.
What about wait times between requesting an appointment and actually having an appointment?
For Calgary, I called in October 2011 and received an appt 5 weeks later.
re wait times — I remember someone at the other forum saying they had asked Vancouver for an appt but by the time they heard back they had already contacted Calgary and went there and renounced!
Thanks, Peg. Wait time from request to appt is very important. We will be adding this.
@peg11
I think that may have been Lovecheese. Thanks.
For now, I’ll stick that in the NOTES column. Thanks, peg11.
Interesting post on Phil Hodgen today.
Don did a survey, phoning 5 European embassies, to find out wait times for booking renunciation appointments, and provides observations about his phone calls as well as the wait time info.
http://hodgen.com/phils-blog/
In Toronto, about two weeks. Today (March 15) there are two available slots still for Monday, April 2. Toronto no longer makes a distinction between renunciations and other consular matters – just make the appointment and show up. They used to (until last fall) have separate days for renunciants and everybody else. I wonder if the change is related to moving away from making people take the oath orally, which helps them run the third floor without conflict and weirdness.
@all
Does anyone know if you are “relinquishing” based on an expatriating act, performed in the past – do you still have to swear the “renouncing” oath at the consulate? That would seem redundant, if you previously “renounced” when you became a citizen of another country.
@A Broken man on a Halifax pier @ all
Interesting. I think it depends upon which vice consul you get in Toronto. Having read from perhaps you and others (on the old Expat Forum), I expected just to sign the oath and go. Instead, he asked me to raise my right hand and repeat the oath. I looked around to see if there was a flag but I didn’t see one; if I were more of a smart-a** I would have insisted! 😛 There is semi-privacy in that the open waiting room is off to the side; the only people in that section are USCs waiting for USC services. The visa applications take place on the first floor, so no “foreigners” actually hear this. But other USCs can clearly hear; I heard one fellow starting the relinquish process and did ask him if he contributed to the forum; he said he did not.
There is virtually no wait time in Toronto. When I had my first appointment on Nov 30, I immediately booked for the next week, though I cancelled that appointment in order to be sure. The Toronto calendar is easily viewed on line-they post it per month and so far, it depends at what point in the month one wants. But as Broken man says, two weeks is probably max.