Confirming reports passed on by commenters at the Isaac Brock Society, DiploPundit points to a State Department interim rule just placed on public inspection for printing in tomorrow’s Federal Register, which raises the fee for renunciation of U.S. citizenship (but apparently not relinquishment) to US$2,350, more than twenty times the average level in other high-income countries. As they state:
[D]emand for the service has increased dramatically, consuming far more consular officer time and resources, as reflected in the 2012 Overseas Time Survey and increased workload data. Because the Department believes there is no public benefit or other reason for setting this fee below cost, the Department is increasing this fee to reflect the full cost of providing the service. Therefore the increased fee reflects both the increased cost of the provision of service as well as the determination to now charge the full cost.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”, while the Expatriation Act of 1868 says that renunciation of citizenship is “a natural and inherent right of all people” and that “any declaration, instruction, opinion, order, or decision of any officers of this government which restricts, impairs, or questions the right of expatriation, is hereby declared inconsistent with the fundamental principles of this government”.
As of press time, the State Department has not yet commented on whether it sees “public benefit” in other human rights such as freedom of election or freedom of marriage, or whether anyone seriously believes that charging people a month’s salary to get a ballot paper or a marriage certificate would not restrict or impair those rights.
Practical effects
Because this fee hike apparently does not apply to relinquishments, ex-Americans who naturalise in most other countries will still be able to obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality from the U.S. government for no more than the cost of taking a day off work and driving or flying halfway across the country to the nearest consulate which isn’t backed up for months with renunciation appointments. (“Most other countries” means those which allow dual citizenship, like Canada and France, or those which forbid dual citizenship but allow new citizens to submit proof of loss of their former citizenship after the naturalisation ceremony, like Japan.)
However, Americans seeking to naturalise in countries which require new citizens to give up their former citizenship before the naturalisation ceremony, like Taiwan, or those who have been foreign citizens for decades or all their lives and never exercised any benefits of U.S. citizenship but now need to acquire a formal CLN (for example because their bank will discriminate against them if they don’t have one), will feel the full impact of the new fee hike, and also have to wait for months or even longer than a year for the State Department to give them a CLN before they can get on with their lives.
What changed?
The State Department has always claimed that processing renunciations has a high cost, but four years ago when they first introduced the renunciation fee, they at least pretended to take a very different attitude to the cost:
The CoSS demonstrated that documenting a U.S. citizen’s renunciation of citizenship is extremely costly, requiring American consular officers overseas to spend substantial amounts of time to accept, process, and adjudicate cases. A new fee of $450 will be established to help defray a portion of the total cost to the U.S. Government of documenting the renunciation of citizenship. While the Department decided to set the fee at $450, this fee represents less than 25 percent of the cost to the U.S. Government. The Department has determined that it must recoup at least a portion of its costs of providing this very costly service but set the fee lower than the cost of service in order to lessen the impact on those who need this service and not discourage the utilization of the service, a development the Department feels would be detrimental to national interests. See 31 U.S.C. 9701(b)(2).
They also note the per-hour cost they use to calculate the new fee:
The Department previously charged a consular time fee of $231 per hour, per employee. This fee is charged when indicated on the Schedule of Fees or when services are performed away from the office or outside regular business hours. The CoSM estimated that the hourly consular time charge is now lower. Accordingly, the Department is lowering this fee to $135 per hour.
This implies that they take about seventeen employee-hours to process each renunciation (assuming that none of the fee goes to other expenses such as travel or printing). Oddly enough, in their 2012 Paperwork Reduction Act filings on Form DS-4079 (which is filled out by both renunciants and relinquishers), the State Department indicated that the cost for processing the form was just $33 per hour. I don’t understand how these two estimates relate to each other.
To explain the new fee hike, the State Department point to procedures (such as the pointless and repetitive double in-person appointment system) which are required neither by the Immigration and Nationality Act nor the Foreign Affairs Manual, nor used by any other countries:
For example, consular officers must confirm that the potential renunciant fully understands the consequences of renunciation, including losing the right to reside in the United States without documentation as an alien. Other steps include verifying that the renunciant is a U.S. citizen, conducting a minimum of two intensive interviews with the potential renunciant, and reviewing at least three consular systems before administering the oath of renunciation. The final approval of the loss of nationality must be done by law within the Directorate of Overseas Citizens Services in Washington, D.C., after which the case is returned to the consular officer overseas for final delivery of the Certificate of Loss of Nationality to the renunciant. These steps further add to the time and labor that must be involved in the process.
As demonstrated by the experience of other countries, the State Department could greatly lower their costs by simplifying their procedures, but apparently such a common-sense step has not occurred to them.
But look on the bright side! 31 USC § 9701 says that “[e]ach charge shall be … based on … (A) the costs to the Government; (B) the value of the service or thing to the recipient; (C) public policy or interest served; and (D) other relevant facts.” Given how valuable a CLN has become these days, imagine how high a fee they could charge for it if they set the price based on its value.
Timeline for fee hike and comments period
The State Department ends with an excuse for why they can’t be bothered to tell us about the fee hike more than two weeks in advance, while keeping renunciants waiting for dozens of times that long to get the CLNs in the first place:
The Department intends to implement this interim final rule, and initiate collection of the fees set forth herein, effective 15 days after publication of this rule in the Federal Register …. The Department is publishing this rule as an interim final rule, with a 60-day provision for post promulgation comments and with an effective date less than 30 days from the date of publication, based on the “good cause” exceptions set forth at 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B) and 553(d)(3). Delaying implementation of this rule would be contrary to the public interest because the fees in this rule fund consular services that are critical to national security, including screening visa applicants.
You have until 4 October to submit a written comment on this rule. I will update this post with a link to the docket page on Regulations.gov once the fee hike is officially published.
This is a clear violation of the Expatriation Act.
On another note, the Government of Canada should pay this fee for all Canadian Citizens who need to renounce because of the IGA they signed!!
I think this notice would be a good thing to send to MPs.
I think words fail all of us. That is such a lot of money for ordinary people, ordinary families. A clear chilling effect on the exercise of their right to expatriate. Definitely reminiscent of the Soviet Union.
Nice find, Eric.
If you look at the execution fee cost for a passport that is $25, on http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/costs.html which states: *The passport execution fee is charged to passport applicants applying on Form DS-11 to recover the costs of executing the passport application, such as administering the oath, verifying the applicant’s identity, and transmitting the applications. The execution fee must be paid at the time of application execution.
then they estimate it costs 94x more to execute an Oath of Renunciation. than a passport. Are they saying if it takes 5 minutes of a consul’s time to execute a passport, then it take 470 minutes to process a renunciation?
Is anyone still mad at me for celebrating the burning of the White House 200 years ago?
This is basically another fine tacked on to those who would have the gall to renounce US citizenship. I would love to see a very detailed breakdown on what the exact costs are to merit this price. Exactly how many hours does the officer have to spend reading the renunciation papers??
Also did any of you see the news that IRS has an all time low level of staffing due to budget issues and reduction in funding (especially after they pissed off the Republicans by their biased extra auditing of the Tea Party). This skeleton staff will never have the resources to pursue small time cases. They ought to be going after the big time corporations who gain huge financial benefit from USA population but pay the least in taxes.
@RMA: sometimes this stuff just lands in our laps: DiploPundit linked to an Isaac Brock Society post so I saw the pingback. I had no idea this fee hike was coming so quickly. Also looks like pacifica found it before me, so there’s some other discussion on the giant “media articles open for comment” thread.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-45/#comment-2781604
Regarding the cost/time, State said in the same notice
In other words, it seems they are saying it takes them about 17 hours of time to process a renunciation. I don’t really understand why their hourly per-employee fee is so high. For processing form DS 4079, they say it only costs them $33/hour.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/07/04/state-department-cuts-estimate-of-form-ds-4079-filers-by-25-since-2007/
@Eric, the 2,378 estimated renunciations in that chart doesn’t match the other stats. either.
If this particular punishment becomes fact, is there another Supreme Court case on the horizon for Mr. Bopp? Sure sounds ‘restrictive’ (not to mention ‘cruel and unusual’).
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | U.S. Consulate Appointments: Toronto is booked up — no problem; you can go somewhere else, ADDING TO YOUR EXPENSE for the whole U.S. expatriation experience
I can say without doubt, no way I could afford that! If they want to cut cost here is an idea. As soon as a US expat votes in another country they are no longer a citizen of the US. How much will that cost them? ZERO. This is how some countries do it. So glad I got out when I could.
Am I the only person for whom this calls to mind when and why East Germany built their Wall back in 1961?
Couple that with today’s other news that residents of Massachusetts and eight other states may not be able to board a US domestic flight on the strength of their driver’s license, never mind even set foot inside federal office buildings in their own nation’s capital, while residents of other states can do both on the strength of THEIR driver’s licenses, and then think about the internal mobility restrictions that used to exist in the former Soviet Union and East Bloc countries.
And no I’m not a right-wing tea bagger, I’m a former liberal Democrat and current member of the NDP.
The US under Obama has penetrated deeply into George Orwell territory.
State Department’s justification is pure BS. They are simply taking advantage of the increase in demand to renounce US citizenship. Demand for CLNs goes up, the price goes up with it. I seriously doubt that USD 2,350 will hold for long. CLNs are a new growth commodity and just beginning to enter a super cycle.
@meridian
The Republicans have a right to be pissed off. Lois Lerner’s dog has not only eaten her e-mails and the emails of others who were connected with targeting Tea Party groups, but it has now surfaced that her dog had even managed to eat her Blackberry as well. Imagine that?
The Lois Lerner cover-up has reached a level of absurdity of a Mr. Bean show.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/27/lois-lerner-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed-after-start-congressional-probe/
To put US$2,350 in perspective:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/24/news/economy/americans_lack_emergency_funds/index.htm
So what are you supposed to do if you are like those 50% of people and cannot afford to renounce, cannot afford the expense to relocate yourself and your non-U.S.-citizen spouse to the U.S., and cannot afford the expense for an accountant to file 3520s for you on a mandatory retirement account you cannot close? Apparently your only option to comply with U.S. tax law is to get one of those State Department “repatriation loans” and go be homeless in the U.S.
@Schubert
“And no I’m not a right-wing tea bagger”
You will see, it will be the right-wing tea baggers who are most sympathetic to expats. Eg. Rand Paul, Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell to name a few.
This could be why the consulates slowed down their renunciation bookings — to take advantage of the up-coming price increase. Ka-ching!!! It’s another arrow in Jim Bopp’s lawsuit quiver but colour this one blue because it’s going to be hard on those who need/want to exit but can’t afford to now.
Criminal. I regret registering my children’s birth at the US embassy. Another example of handcuffing.
Its criminal to first pass all these Iga agreements that imply you need a con then raise the fee so high most expats can not afford
This is just going to play into the homelander myth that expats are rich and US citizenship is more valuable than any other.
Change – you can’t be leavin’
The table located within the Federal Register preview document shows that the State Department estimates it will process 2,378 renunciation applications per year.
That provides an indication of the number of appointments they plan on booking and is perhaps an indication of a pre-planned quota for renunciation appointments.
How else can the number of renunciants be kept down other than by restricting the number of renunciation appointments available and raising the renunciation fee?
I noticed that there is an opportunity for comment, and it would be very appropriate for American Citizens Abroad to submit a comment re this proposed increase. If anyone has a connection to ACA please bring this to thier attention. This fee hike increase by State just illustrates the lack of any brains on the part of the USG –
Does this mean that the price of counterfeit CLNs is going to go up too? 🙂
@Innocente – you watch the USG will move the goal posts demanding the banks collect CLN serial numbers to cross match.
does anyone know if we book our appointment before the fee goes up will we still pay the old fee?
the US applied trade sanctions against the USSR for impeding emigrations
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa070.pdf