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.
AM980’s latest podcast is from the 2nd. We’ll have to watch for today’s to be posted.
badger, you would be surprised what people are willing to do to spend a few hours to cross the border to go to the mall, shopping outlet, grocery store etc.
I have a friend in Vancouver – a lawyer even – who is applying for a Nexus card simply to cut a minor bit of time off her frequent border crossings for mainly shopping purposes. Judging from the responses to her indecision about how to answer some of the questions on the app (I would image the “Have you ever taken drugs?” turns into quite the morality play for some folks), most of her friends have Nexus cards.
Just for fun, I checked out the Nexus card applications and a few sites about the process. In theory, it’s a joint venture between Canada and the US but the reality is that it’s the USG’s baby and they will decide if you get one and if you can keep it. And it’s not science. It’s an art on a decidedly uneven playing field where Border Guards are gods and ordinary people better not fess up to the occasional joint during university whereas Justin Trudeau can walk around discussing his rather paltry history of pot smoking with the media for weeks and be assured that he will be allowed to cross the border at will (because denying enter to someone who could be the Prime Minister someday would be awkward).
To get a Nexus, you have to turn over all sorts of personal id to the US govt, be fingerprinted and endure two interviews with Customs on both side of the dividing line. If you want to use your Nexus to fly – iris scan.
And all of this info is stored in Vermont, which is where the card is issued.
I was reading the minutes of the last meeting between the Immigration Minister and the House’s immigration committee and my goodness was it eye-opening in terms of what the Canadian govt is bending over to do to make sure the Americans feel more secure with us as their neighbor. Trust? You hit that right when you said there is none.
Canada and the US are not good friends or even particularly happy neighbors. It’s more like the relationship you have with the person you get stuck sharing a locker with during high school.
@ Yoga Girl
And that locker mate has very stinky socks.
@northenstar It was a show about someone who was tricked by a bank and car dealership into a 25% interest loan making the car costing over double when the deal was over. I called in to say it was nothing for the bank to go ahead knowing it was wrong in the first place and this won’t stop with the implemtentation of Fatca, several people will get screwed over the same way. At least they didn’t shut it off on me, it went on the air. This is the same guy I wrote to twice already and heard nothing from. He does know my name though, and I bet he’s putting 2 and 2 together on this one. I am tired of Chorus, Bell Media owning all the radio stations and shutting them up on Fatca and Quebecor and Canwest shutting up the newspapers, Unless we are all prepared to go all out(and I am) on this, we have no prayer of getting them to say anything. This is being done deliberately. Kinda makes you wonder why some groups of people do extreme things to get their word out. We really need ideas(legal ones) here on how to force the media to see this for what it is and (will be) if the Government signs a deal with USA. Everyone on here is trying so hard to educate others and doing an incredible job. I so wish this could get the attention it deserves and give Canadians what they need to see this as the “no brainer” saying NO to Fatca can be. Jim Flaherty said today he expects interest rates to go up next year, yeah, to PAY FOR FATCA. Thanks to IBS we are uneducated, but with no help from the media, Canadians will believe this BS and have no idea of the true costs of Fatca until it’s too late…… burns me up!
Thanks to IBS we are educated but with no help from the media, Canadians will beleive this BS and have no idea of the true costs of Fatca until it’s too late……. sorry, can’t go back and edit my mistake………..
@Em
You’re cracking me up today!
@Yoga Girl
Rob Ford make Justin Trudeau look like a boy scout. I bet every border official know who he is. Canadians can be so naive about our stinky socked neighbour to the south.
@bubblebustin
Rob Ford is on Doonsbury home page. Under “SAY WHAT:
“I’ve been the best mayor that this city’s ever had. My record speaks for itself.”
—Toronto mayor Rob Ford, seeking re-election
http://doonesbury.slate.com/
The Homelanders I have talked to (or rather they talk to me about it) absolutely love Rob Ford. What about nominating Rob to run for President of the United States? Argue that he is so so exceptional that he (Rob Ford) MUST be a “natural born U.S. citizen”. He’s just too exceptional NOT to be!
Rob Ford appeared as the New Year baby in the Fisher comic for January 1:
http://www.fishercomic.com/2014-01-01
@USCitizenAbroad, I love your comment that he is so exceptional that he must be a natural born U.S. citizen.
I’m not surprised homelanders love Rob Ford. They elected an ”Affirmative Action” president. If you were privileged to witness the spectacle Obama made of himself at Mandela’s funeral you’d swear these two must be related.
bubblebustin, I have my doubts about his honor being turned away at the border too. Wealth, power and fame mean that you are subject to the same rules as the mere mortals.
I feel bad for the young lady who feels pushed out of the USC club though I can’t imagine having that much attachment to a place I barely lived and only holiday’d in but perhaps it is a result, as she points out, of moving around so much as a child and teen.
I am mostly just resentful of having to bother with giving it up. I could have easily acquired Canadian citizenship and simply forgot about the American part where it not for the harassment and the threat to my spouse. The latter is the real deal-breaker however. As if I would ever chose a passport over my husband.
@Don, the US wants impunity to operate on Canadian soil and wants to be exempted from following Canadian law. Harper is busy harmonizing the border – and the US seeks to have American personnel on Canadian soil – following US laws, not Canadian ones http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/30/border-security-us-police-legal-exemptions_n_3678240.html . Does this mean that Harper intends to allow the secrecy and lack of accountability that the Patriot Act and Homeland Security to rule on the Canadian side of the border? The US though shows that it does not care about due process, or civil or human rights https://www.aclutx.org/2013/12/18/aclu-of-texas-and-new-mexico-sue-feds-hospital-for-invasive-cavity-searches-of-woman-at-u-s-mexico-border/ . So harmonization of the border would erode Canadian quality of life and allow for *this to become routine (see below):
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/01/laptop-searches-at-us-border-not-ok-say-cbc-news-readers.html
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259996772/electronic-rights-at-the-u-s-border-what-they-can-search
http://rt.com/usa/court-upholds-laptop-border-searches-041/
https://www.cba.org/CBA/practicelink/tayp/laptopborder.aspx
@YogaGirl,
I also know people with the Nexus card, but I am very surprised that someone would agree to: …”To get a Nexus, you have to turn over all sorts of personal id to the US govt, be fingerprinted and endure two interviews with Customs on both side of the dividing line. If you want to use your Nexus to fly – iris scan….”
Do people not care about the control of their own personal and biological information? With the US, there is no control, no accountability, no recourse. Who would give that up just for some added ease of crossing for recreation or shopping? And if there is an error, or a mismatch, or a mistake, where is the recourse? Who’re you going to call – IF you’re allowed to call anyone?
On another related angle, I heard today that the Russians are into collecting and archiving everyone’s data at Sochi http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10359587/Russia-planning-near-total-surveillance-of-visitors-athletes-at-Sochi-Winter-Olympics.html
Reminds me of the NSA http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/02/aclu-appeal-nsa-bulk-phone-record-collection .
@all
I am starting to understand why many people want to go off into the woods and live off the land and don’t want internet, or I phones . There may be a time when we may have to make the choice to not have any kind of communications that we can be tracked and watched from .
I know I won’t be ever crossing the border again. Going through a Nexus security check is laughable. I never went to the USA to shop.. If I did some traveling I might have bought something but never went for a weekend or day to shop. I do have friends who do.
Looks like Orville’s 1984 is here . I sure wish we could have a stranger in a strange land come among us.
@northernstar
Thanks for the hilarious typo! Is that Orville, as in Redenbacher – guess how many kernels in a batch of popcorn, 1984?
@bubblebustin
OH my! Oops. I meant Orwell as in George. Thanks for noticing. I had a good laugh too.
badger and northernstar, I had never really looked into the Nexus. It’s apparently quite easy to have it confiscated at the border too. Bring in any kind of “counterband” for instance like fruit and they will take it and you will be banned from ever getting another one b/c you will no longer be a “trusted traveler” aka Stepford citizen.
My husband periodically threatens to pack us off onto a secluded acreage farther north. Somewhere that no one will be interested in going and we can just sit out the rest of our lives. Sometimes I am tempted because I don’t have much illusion that any of us have anything approaching real privacy. Not like when I was a kid. The world is so different now.
Sochi. Who in their right mind would want to be there?
@yogagirl
Having food items confisgated at the American Border is nothing new nor is it unique to passing through the Nexus line. Our picnic basket was apprehended at the American border because it contained ham and cheese sandwiches and our fruit didn’t have labels. They claimed it was an effort to prevent “Mad Cow Disease”
@ Yogagirl
Disregard previous comment I just woke up I thought your comment was concerning the food being confisgated not the Nexus card. I should have a coffee before checking the IBS. One other point re. Nexus.
An aquaintance admitted to crossing the border using the Nexus line accidently. They detained her read her the riot act and threatened to ban her from crossing the border in the future.
@ All
Here’s a link to the CBC’s story that aired last night. “Couple feel ‘robbed’ by bank car loan”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/couple-feel-robbed-by-25-interest-td-car-loan-1.2483342
@Disgusted, no worries. I knew what you were talking about. With the Nexus card though it seems like one of those things where if you make a mistake, it might be a stern lecture, a no big deal or a revoked card and banned for life.
That is the way so much of the USG’s rules and laws feel like anymore. Anything could or might not or probably will happen depending on who you are, where you are and possibly the alignment of the planets at the time. And I think it’s by design. You can’t frighten people properly into submission by being straight forward, and the border really frightens me. I am in knots before a crossing, which may be due to my complete lack of trust in the USG these days but also because I don’t truly believe that Canada wouldn’t simply turn its back if I or my child should be caught up in some ridiculous imaginary incident.
It’s sad when I can neither fully trust my native land or my adopted one, and that’s where were are heading, imo.
@Yoga Girl
Chris Hedges would agree with you in “The Last Gasp of American Democracy”:
“The goal of wholesale surveillance, as Arendt wrote in “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” is not, in the end, to discover crimes, “but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population.” And because Americans’ emails, phone conversations, Web searches and geographical movements are recorded and stored in perpetuity in government databases, there will be more than enough “evidence” to seize us should the state deem it necessary. This information waits like a deadly virus inside government vaults to be turned against us. It does not matter how trivial or innocent that information is. In totalitarian states, justice, like truth, is irrelevant.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_last_gasp_of_american_democracy_20140105
Could anyone do me a favor? Call this number: (888) 736-5551 This is the DoJ hotline to report a potential civil rights violation. The number is posted here: http://www.justice.gov/crt/complaint/
Call about “citizenship status discrimination”.
The first time that I called, the Civil Rights Division of Employment Litigation said that “citizenship status discrimination” complaints are restricted to US jurisdiction. The woman was very annoyed with my questions but tried to help. She claimed that their web sites mentions the jurisdiction restriction: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/emp/ (I haven’t found anything yet)
The second time that I called, I got transferred 5 times until I landed at the Department of State.
The third time that I called, I was told that I must be a member of an organization. I said that I was calling on behalf of 7.5 millions Americans living abroad. After a long moment of silence, maybe 5 minutes, I then got transferred to a phone that rang and rang with nobody picking it up.
I already have a written statement from HUD, from 2012, documenting that they don’t help Americans living abrad.
What is your experience? Here is a link describing citizenship status discrimination: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/htm/Webtypes2005.php
@ Yoga Girl,
I can’t relate to that, either. I lived in the US, very happily, for my first 18 years and felt no sense of sadness or loss (more like a fair trade), relinquishing my US citizenship a few years later, not an emotional experience at all. (This was 35 years ago. Of course when I got my CLN last year, after this present-day US-caused turmoil in my life, that was emotional – pure unmitigated joy!)
So, I can’t imagine such an attachment in the circumstances she describes either – though I guess some people would think it odd that I felt absolutely no sense of loss or sadness.
I knew I could always visit the US as a tourist but I felt it had finished its role as part of my life. So, I have visited the US (though now, since 2011, I have really lost my desire to visit that place.) Anyway, when I terminated my contract with the US, there was nothing for me to be sad about and nothing for me to resent – also no sense of relief or joy (unlike today).
I think also one big difference in general is that I wasn’t pressured into it by US policy (or pressured by anything) – but I think many, though not all, people today who renounce/relinquish, they don’t really want to but the US is basically forcing them to do it, so it’s an inner conflict.
This one is classic:
FATCA “may not treat individuals differently because of their place of birth, country of origin, ancestry, native language, accent, or because they are perceived as looking or sounding “foreign.” All U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and work authorized individuals are protected from national origin discrimination.”
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/osc/htm/Webtypes2005.php
It says “All U.S. citizens”. Where is “All” defined as “US jurisdiction”?