27. December 2013. Translated by SwissPinoy from annabelle
Alice Neuhaus (27), Photographer, explains: How is it really, to voluntarily discard the US passport?
I only spent the first three years of my life in the USA. As such, discarding US citizenship should be staged emotionless. What can one actually feel for a country in which one did not grow up? When I was still a child, my family moved in a rhythm of every four years, internationally. From this, evolved the question to which country I feel that I belong. I was a dual citizen through the European heritage of my parents and my birth in the USA with both passports being a symbol of my rootlessness.
Nevertheless, the day that I discarded my US citizenship was my saddest. After all, US citizenship was my only nationality for the first 12 years of my life and I was greeted with “welcome home” whenever I travelled to the States. Banal, but this feels good when one is constantly on the move. Having to fill out a form to abandon a part of one’s identity feels like betrayal, like something that is right in the mind but wrong in the heart.
The appointment at the American embassy is led with a 45 minute telephone interview, in which I had to explain why I didn’t want to be an American anymore. The passport, for which I was previously envied, has now become an obstacle. I felt myself as being disadvantaged in Switzerland. It is a current form of racism. Over and over again, I was the objective of principle-rants to the tax dispute between the United States and Switzerland. I was denied banking services because I was required as a US citizen to give information on my financial matters for the purpose of reducing local bank risks. Other dual citizens also have problems finding employment in Switzerland since they are required to report to the US the business accounts that they would manage.
Being required to pay taxes to the US government never bothered me, even though I don’t live there. Yet, the many deadlines, obligations and laws that I was unaware of made me feel insecure and the growing hostility against Americans made me angry. I’m not responsible for American law and its financial system.
The waiting list in Bern to renounce US citizenship is one year. Since I’ll be going to an embassy in a different country, the wait time will be reduced to three months. I read forum contributions by other dual citizens and have had long conversations with Americans living abroad in Switzerland. Each one tells me something differently: One is US taxable seven years after renouncing, another says ten years and again another claims that one would be prohibited from traveling to America. In the meantime, I know two things for sure: If and how long there will be a tax obligation depends upon one’s financial situation. And, I can travel to America like any other tourist.
At the US embassy, patriotism is hanging in the air. Americans are heartily welcomed. I described my concerns to the lady at the counter – and I am no longer a member. It is as if I changed teams with half a sentence. I was questioned by the general consul, paid near 400 Euro and confirmed twice that I was aware of the consequences of this action: All American citizenship rights would be revoked. I’m not allowed to vote in America, cannot stay there indefinitely and am not allowed to work there. Are you sure? The general consul asked.
If I’m not too young to make such a decision? I’m not sure. I live in Switzerland and feel good here. I don’t want to move anywhere. The general consul believed me. That is important because not everyone who wants to renounce is allowed to. The request will be revoked if the belief exists that one is evading taxes or the law. Three months later, the stamped invalid US passport and loss of citizenship papers lay in my mail box. I should feel relieved. Yet, I’m simply sad that I felt forced to decide between the nation where I live and work, and the land where I was born.
@Em
I am with you all the way how you feel.
Being in Canada 44 years, more than 2/3rds of my life has made me much more Canadian than American. I have relatives who hate me and my liberal progressive views. I am a traitor. ALL My friends are in Canada .
I have many memories and influences of America. Major one is Music. Which greatly influenced me. Growing my travelling with my family never was further than a 2 hour drive. The ocean and the boardwalk are fond memories as infrequent as I saw them in my youth and later when first married. My grandparents food which is European. My grandparents work ethics. Jy fond memories are of my grandparents and cousins and auntmand uncles, most are now dead.
Circumstances made nearly deaf so I had my own world where I traveled through reading. I actually stopped being “American” When I read about the rest of the world. I became an alien in my own home I grew up with my parents and siblings. My view was not theirs.
I travelled in later years and visited parts of the USA as a tourist. I never felt the desire to move back. I will not miss it and won’t go back even with a CLN. FATCA is the nail in the coffin. I am me the one who chose to be Canadian with no doubts or regrets. FATCA made me request my CLN to protect myself in my late years. I worked hard in Canada, along with my late husband. The USA gave us nothing but a birth certificate and basic education.
It’s amazing how in 1972 Reinhard Mey had a response to Annabelle … for those of your understanding German, and with some imagination, know that he was spot on: http://bit.ly/1dnYfjC
Thank you for that quote AnonAnon re;
“… [M]ost Americans don’t actually experience life as international … The United States therefore remains mired in a series of myopic considerations, even though it is still the only world power and exercises huge military leverage across the globe….”..” (by Tony Judt).
I think it is a very valuable reminder. And, if many US born residents are living close to or under the poverty line http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-usa-economy-poverty-idUSBRE98G0PN20130917 just trying to hold on day by day, and to eat and afford shelter, then what real opportunities or immediate need would they have to develop any meaningful experience or knowledge of anywhere outside their vicinity? So many are just trying to exist. They cannot afford to travel even to other parts of the US, much less outside of it. Passports are quite expensive to obtain for a whole family relatively speaking, so even cross-border N.A. travel is a luxury http://travel.state.gov/passport/fees/fees_837.html . And how many are able to visit even Canada or Mexico unless living very near the borders?
I know it is also due to outlook; an inward looking gaze, lack of curiousity and not just lack of opportunity. I’m thinking of an academic who worked in Canada but commuted back home to the US everyday. This person had US flags and paraphernalia decorating their workspace, and had a very US-centric worldview despite having a specialty that required knowledge of several languages and at least a passing interest in non-N.American culture. They travelled on vacation away from N.America. The US patriotic decorations were perhaps a comfort, or a declaration, signal or a message to others (both the other fellow US persons, and the non) or all of the above. That did not speak to me of an outward looking approach though – particularly because the individual returned to the US at the end of each day – they were not actually ‘abroad’ in any real sense.
@President l’Amateur: Thank you. Fiction tells a story more truthfully than fact, n’est-ce-pas?
I had been reflecting on the SCOTUS’ decision in “Citizens United,” and how it seems to have overwhelmed the immune system of the democratic process and lead to our present situation. Your story made me think of that again!
@Vote in 2014: Thanks for the info.
@badge – I’m sure some USG official would boast that more Americans than ever now have passports and fail to mention that passport controls were put into place to visit Canada and Mexico etc when none were required before!
@ Em. Did you know that Canada actually has a provision whereby a person who renounces their Canadian citizenship (for example to naturalize as a citizen of a country which does not tolerate dual citizenship) that person is later allowed to regain Canadian citizenship? None of this “if you renounce it is irrevocable” like in the US. Canada recognizes that there may be very good reasons why a person might decide to lose Canadian citizenship.
Who knows, maybe Ted Cruz will come scampering back with his tail between his legs!
@ maz57
Yes I know that in real life Canadian citizenship is easy to renounce and easy to resume. I was just trying to imagine that Canada was behaving like the USA in order to get a feel for Alice’s situation. If Canada signs a go-along to get-along IGA with the USA then I will consider that to be a major betrayal. I would attempt to reverse the situation by supporting a class-action lawsuit (mentioned that in my last letter to Flaherty) but if that failed I would have to conclude that my country had decided that I was of no value, merely fodder for the FATCA monster to divert it from devouring the Canadian banking system.
I cannot put myself in the author’s shoes, despite being born in the US. I have no memory of living in US, and no allegiance to the US (my parents were Canadian).
If my Canadian citizenship was in jeopardy, or if I had to give it up, I would be devastated. If you asked me to define myself, the first word out of my mouth would be Canadian. Not female, not mother, not wife…Canadian.
@ The Mom
I don’t think I could define myself. If someone suddenly asked me, “Quick, what are you?” I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t think of saying, “I’m a Canadian.” More likely I would stammer, “I’m a person.” I’m just me, (in reverse — em/me), one person on a planet with 7 billion other persons. Unfortunately, others seem to be all too eager to define me, as it suits them — alien, US person for tax purposes (ONLY tax purposes), Canadian tax payer and maybe someday soon, FATCA fodder. I really think WhatAmI picked the name I should have thought of. More today, than ever before, I am very leery about awarding my unquestioning allegiance to a country because there isn’t a country on this planet that isn’t capable of either doing despicable things or supporting countries that do despicable things.
@Gordian:
Any so-called “pangs of regret” will disappear entirely once the CLN arrives.
@Don:
The US needs its expats more than expats need the US. But the expats will be all gone before the US figures it out.
bubblebustin -your usual wisdom.
” First of all, the person/entity that has caused the harm must take responsibility for what they’ve done. Secondly, they must repent their actions. Thirdly, they must make restitution, not always possible, but at least to the best of their ability.”
totally agree. also feel very close to what annabelle decribes-grief and sadness but RELIEF.
new year’s resolution: stay out of the way of blind rhinos!
Did Sir Winston Churchill not once say something to the effect that … the US will try every other possibility before eventually arriving at the right one ….. If Sir Winston was correct then perhaps there is hope that the US will wake up and repeal FATCA ….
@Nervousinvestor, I believe things will get worse before they finally get much better. I suspect that they will eventually repeal or at least modify FATCA to help make life easier for Expats. I will be in a quandary if Congress were to eventually issue an official pardon and offer us our citizenships back with family still over there… I feel just like Crystal London in that I have experienced grief but mostly relief.
I’ve passed through the stages of grief we discussed in the early days of IBS and as explored by USCitizenAbroad renounceuscitizenship http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/collective-psychotherapy-u-s-citizens-outside-u-s-not-what-they-take-from-you-its-what-they-leave-you-with/ , and I feel only relief at having expatriated, – and resentment, and anger that I was forced to give up my birthright at great and useless cost, in order to live a normal life, and to protect my Canadian family.
In the early days here at IBS, I wrote that I felt claustrophobic – and enslaved/shackled/burdened/oppressed by my now toxic US citizenship and I couldn’t wait to renounce/relinquish. Well, as least part of the relief I craved then is mine, and I regret only the necessity that forced me to undergo this senseless and convoluted process – but would have done it years ago had I known how extortionate and confiscatory the US has become towards those living abroad, and how much the US Canada tax treaty did NOT cover. I regret the useless and senseless loss of a significant portion of my legal local post-tax family savings to disproportionately high professional fees – (which bought me much far less than the promised perfectly prepared forms and reports that I contracted for) submitted in order to prove to the US what is entirely obvious – I owe them zero US taxes, I am barely taxable in Canada, and I am not a money laundering, tax evading, drug lord terror funder criminal. Something which Canada could have attested to – since I am compliant here, this is not the Wild West, I live in a developed society with layers of legal and financial oversight already, and am an unremarkable person living legally and doing ordinary banking and saving in the country which is my legal and permanent home – Canada.
The US does not deserve my allegiance, and shows no signs of being concerned about this issue and the way it is treating those it deems to be ‘US taxable persons’ abroad – raising penalty revenues in the utter absence of US taxes assessable, elevating the paranoid and warped ideology of the fathers of FATCA over due process, disregarding the preeminence of assuming innocence before guilt, demonstrating no concerns about proportion, justice, ethics and any consideration about how CBT and FATCA and FBAR prevent those abroad from having ordinary legal local economic lives outside the US. To no real gain or purpose. And the disingenuous 2008 campaign promises of the Obama campaign and the Democrats have been proven to be worthless – they are not and were not ever truly interested in US citizens abroad, except in so far as we may be a source of taxes, penalties and donations. In fact, both major parties could care less about the fact that more than half of the US states do not even let us register and vote from abroad without a period of US residency – yet we and our ‘US taxable’ children born abroad are doomed to be US taxable and penalizable until death and beyond.
I felt a great weight lift with my expatriation. I wouldn’t take back US citizenship if it was offered, and even if FATCA was repealed. The callous injury and betrayal, the extraterritorial arrogance reveals the true nature of the US, and lifts the curtain on its core belief that might makes right. As I have said before, this is a message to the rest of the world – if this is the way that the US (a ‘democracy’) treats those it considers to be citizens, then what can you expect of it in relation to the non-US inhabitants of the rest of the globe?
@badger
And what sort of example does it give to every other nation of the world, as far as acceptable behaviour goes? It’ll be every nation for itself and for its own interests. Greed, greed, greed and rampant nationalism. Developing nations be damned. Then again, maybe it’s always been that way as you say, and the curtain is only now being lifted on it.
@maz57
Please, no no no, not ever. No way that man is a Canadian!
@Tricia
As my 13 year of granddaughter says:
“EW!”
@bubblebustin
HA! It took me a minute……..but I get it.
BTW, no way you have a 13 year old granddaughter. I just don’t believe it.
@Don,
re; …”I’m sure some USG official would boast that more Americans than ever now have passports and fail to mention that passport controls were put into place to visit Canada and Mexico etc when none were required before!”…
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/05/how-is-it-really-to-voluntarily-discard-the-us-passport/comment-page-2/#comment-929994
Yes, and that was achieved due to necessity. And has restricted some of the casual crossborder tourism and commerce that border communities historically engaged in. People are not about to pay large sums and navigate extensive paperwork in order for each member of a group of family and friends to get the requisite passports just to spend the day in a US town to eat, shop and sightsee as they used to do on a whim – in addition to the heightened unpleasant attitude that now often accompanies crossing in either direction – even for US and Canadian citizens.
In addition, the demand for travel into the US only using a US passport – regardless of other citizenships – and even for casual land crossings by foot or car, means that it became almost a form of entrapment after the fact – some here only got the US passport because they were forced to by US border guards, and thus had trouble getting CLNs and proving that they had renounced US status decades ago when it was automatic on swearing the Canadian citizenship oath. The use of the US passport was considered evidence of an intent to retain US status. There are border communities where one side of the street is Canada and the other is the US and crossing is essential to daily life http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/n-b-man-in-border-dispute-should-have-special-rights-american-neighbour-1.704163 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/residents-cross-canada-u-border-marked-flower-pots-162155148.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/americas/18border.html?_r=1& .
@ Em
I agree with your comments. My life has become a surreal nightmare fighting an invisible creature I call Fatca. With each passing day he looms larger and more terrifying. Nobody sees him or understands his threat but me, certainly not my friends, family or neighbors. My behaviour’s now considered eccentric. I call for those around me get politicaliy involved and demand more from their government. “We won’t get good government because we deserve it, we’ll get it when we fight for it”, I preach. It falls on deaf ears. People are quite content to be led by the Judas Goat.
Fatca shapes my world view. I no longer identify as a proud Canadian. Canada is not the safe haven I believed it to be. I regard government with contempt, disdain and suspicion, they’re a pool of bad actors who are there only to serve their own interests. Shame on me for not waking up sooner as it seems too far gone to rein them in.
Who is deserving of my allegiance?
a)Canadian Government
b)Queen of England
c)USA
d)none of the above and you can kiss my ass
@badger – The US and Canada should have an open border similar to the Schengen area in Europe. In Europe you can drive from Lisbon to Tallinn without ever showing your passport or border check. The trouble is the Americans won’t trust the Canadians to secure the ‘border,’ and perhaps the Canadians don’t want American criminals having unfettered access to Canadian and poor Americans emigrating north looking for new horizons and Canada having to give away some sovereignty to achieve an open border. There’s mistrust on both sides. In Europe they’ve achieved (although they still bicker) something than two countries seemingly more similar. DC boneheads.
@Tricia
Thanks. It’s not for lack of stress:-)
Hey Everyone, I threw FATCA on AM980 at 2 PM today on the Andrew Lawton show. They were talking about the trust in the banks based on a couple from BC and I got in! If you get a chance, go to their site and the audio clip should be posted.
Sorry all, AM980 is in London Ont.
@Native Canadian
I am tuned in but they are not talking about banking now. How was the discussion between you and them.