Consulate Report Directory (Brockers Describe their Consulate Meetings) and CLN Delivery Time Chart Part 2
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Wonder what really happens at the consulates? Find out in the Isaac Brock Society’s Consulate Report Directory, currently 279 pages of first-hand accounts of renunciation/relinquishment appointments, arranged by consulate location, along with further information and links to the required Dept of State forms and the Dept of State manuals used by the consulates in processing CLN applications, with an appendix containing a timeline chart (booking-meeting-CLN) as reported by consulate location.
The Directory is updated as consulate visit stories are posted on the website.
You can post here or elsewhere on the site (we’ll keep an eye out for them). Some comments may be excerpted or condensed slightly in the consulate reports. The original posts and comments remain on their threads are not edited.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences…and keep ’em coming! It’s a new experience for everyone and your information is really helpful.
To change or delete your report in the Directory, you can post the change as a comment on this thread or e-mail Pacifica@isaacbrocksociety.ca
Click here for the Consulate Report Directory
Notes:
Consulates are listed alphabetically by country and the Directory’s table of contents links to each section (they don’t look like links, but they are.)
This thread is a continuation of Consulate Report Directory Part 1, which contains earlier discussion on this topic, 929 comments from its inception in March 2012 through February 2013.
To Book an Appointment and/or Request Information from your Local Consulate:
This post by Eric, Almost No US Citizenship Renunciation Appointments Left During 2016 in Dublin, contains a chart of links to the consulates’ website pages on renunciation/relinquishment, for info on booking appointments and/or requesting information at your location. (The title highlights Dublin, but the charts, article and discussion cover consulates around the world.)
The only significant question will be Are you sure?. Other than that you are not obliged to say anything. Keep it simple. Don’t mention taxes. The consular officials are well aware of what’s happening.
About a month ago I had a Brock post (for which comments are closed) detailing the experience of a young adult person attempting to renounce U.S. citizenship in Canada.
Personally I feel that the intense grilling by the Vice-Consul was clearly inappropriate, but others will disagree.
The good news is that the person (who was worried) has just received a CLN, and I have updated my post to disclose this.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2019/03/07/young-adult-person-subjected-to-intense-grilling-at-u-s-consulate-in-canada-during-request-to-renounce-united-states-citizenship/
Hi Brockers. You probably remember me as the one asking all the quesitons and getting myself so pent up and nervous late last year and you all helped me through what I was led to believe was a complicated process by law condors and various legal companies. I did not use anoy of them after finding this site. I was going to post on the Renunciation blogg that you used to access on the right hand side bar but it says no comments now can be added so that is very sad as it gave me the channel to ask my friends here who all helped me what to do and how to go about renouncing and the fears I had, Hedie, Embee, Portland. Barbara, Birdperson, Duchesse,UKRose,Plaxy, Medea Fleecestealer,Nonymous, Jane, Nononymous, Maz57, Mollie W,Norman Diamond, Former Patriot, Watcher and many others who I am truly gratelful to you all and very much appreciate how this site and you have hellped me through the process that at first seemd so comlicated. I want to give others the courage to go forward too
OK here we go. I was a naturalized citizen and Britsh citizen. I eqnuired at the London Embassy the fomrs needed in my case to renounce in November last year 2018. Sent off e mail to the renunciations department. They were very helpful and told me I did not have to complete the DS4079 form only the questionaire as that is not required to renounce. I sent off only two forms they required to renouce. One was the “questionair” form. A single sheet asking for periods of residence and the , last address in the USA, current address and place of birth and naturalization place. The other form was the “Informal acknowledgemen”t form and again a single sheet along where you circle yes no answers. I sent via e mail copies of my US passport and my British passport & in my case copy of my naturalization certificate. I applied in November 2018 and within 24 hrs had an appointment for late January 2019. I renounced in late January. The process was smooth. Arrived at the new London US Embassy went through security it was very quiet. Went up to designated floor and was given a number. Sat down with others there. There were maybe 15 others just in my time slot. Families, single people, couples, accidentals, some who had left years ago, some who had left when 3 years old all different. I was callaed to first window and was asked to go through the forms (Standing in a sort of booth open at back to the rest of the room with the officer or clerk on the other side behind bullet proof glass) Sat down again. Called to pay window paid my $2,350. Sat Down again was called to another window to pay for courier fee for approval and CLN to be delivered and was given form to fill out for delivery adddress and paid courier fee of £8.75(cheapest choice). Sat down again. Final call was to a consular officer. Again you stand in a sorrt of open booth with them behind bullet proof glass. Went through documents in front of me. Officer asked me if I wished ot make a statement I said no. Officer made me read through the infomral acknowledgement from and then out loud to him, the wording about wishing to renounce etc. Signed various forms in front of officer, as he asked me to do. After I thought the process was oevr the consualr officer said to me “Why are you are taking this actin today to renounce and what is the reason”? I was pre-prepared as others in the wating area had also been asked and so were taling about this to others. In my caseIi said i no longer wanted to live in the USA and wanted to simplify my life and no longer wanted to live there. He said that was fine and i understand. He was not pushy or rude and very polite. He then siad to me that I would no longer be able to enter the USA without applying for a visa waiver or visa and would be then an Alien. The process was irrrevocable. As I was about to turn and leave the booth he said to me ” “we are sorry to see you go” which was rather upsetting really. I then left. That was late January and my CLN and letter from the embassy has arrived this week. From the renunciaiton interview to receipt of CLN just over 2 1/2 months. What I was led to beleive by lawyer condors was a very complicated task was in fact a simple task doing this myself however without you all I would not have got as far as I did nor would I have known what to do or what to expect or what to prepare for, so THANK YOU ALL of you! I am eternally grateful to those that went before me on this site, in leading me through this challnging period of my life.Please bring back the side bar thread aboout renouncing as that is where I asked and got most help with my questions and the invalubale support I received from other Brockers on here. Words cannot explain how thankful I am to you all. With love and eternal thanks Kabby.
Hi Kabby
So glad to know all went smoothly, enjoy your freedom. My consular official also said that “we are sorry to lose you”, I felt like saying that it the US who was responsible for driving me away, but I said nothing.
Thanks for your feedback . Just a quick question,
do you know if the other 15 or so were there to renounce or did some have other business there?
Hi Heidi. The other 15 were all there to renounce for sure! We all talked even though we gigled we maybe being bugged. One was a family of 4 but mainly couples or single people, Vaarious ages form 20′s to 60′s as far as I could tell. All different natioanalities too Greek, British etc and other EU citizens who were renouncing. Accidentals, some married non US citizens, soome who had left years ago, some born there never lived there. We all formed quite a bond as we were all nervous especially when one came back to the sitting area and said be prepared they are going to ask you why you want to renounce, but as the process went on it was all very smooth. You can have heard a pin drop though in there but once peole were done they were out of there! Not bad just under 2 1/2 months from start to finish. Actual CLN was approevd in less than 2 months from date of renunciation to approvale by the sate dept in DC but then it took a couple of weeks to receive the CLN from the embassy in London along with the letter saying her eis your loss of citizenship.. Very effecinet though I msut say the whole thing. Heidi you have been so helpful as others have, so thank you from the bottom of my heart agaiin. I have to now wait till next year to file the final forms so I wil be around for some time. God belss everyone on here
“You probably remember me as the one asking all the quesitons and getting myself so pent up and nervous”
“The one”? One one among many ones. I also still think it was silly to close the sidebar on questions about renunciation. Newcomers who have questions will come here and get the impression they have to go elsewhere.
@Kabby
You bet they eavesdrop and monitor you while you are sitting there. Apart from everything else they will be paranoid even after all that entrance security that someone will be there to do them some harm!
I had to kick my spouse who was also renouncing when spouse made some derogatory comment on the two rogues whose photos we had to stare at while waiting!
@ Kabby
Yay you! Congratulations! It’s Interesting to me that at one consulate (out of hundreds), on one day, there were 15 renunciants and yet the worldwide official renunciation numbers listed each quarter only total about 1000 on average. Even if your consulate only processes renunciants once a week and let’s say averages 10 renunciations those days, it alone would be producing at least 100 per quarter or 400 per year. The official renunciation numbers seem very fishy to me. BTW there were 10 at the Calgary consulate the day my husband did the deed 5 years ago. One got cold feet and went off for a rethink though. Glad your head stayed clear, your heart stayed strong and your feet stayed warm. You are free!
So they’re not the slightest bit sorry for making our lives a living hell while we’re citizens but when we finally renounce to escape the b.s. suddenly they’re “sorry to see us go”. What a screwed up system.
Glad our Brock” “motley crew” was able to help and it all worked out, Kabby. Congrats!
“The official renunciation numbers seem very fishy to me.”
No kidding. But even though your analysis was impeccable, I’ll repeat my devil’s-advocate explanation for the official numbers.
People who renounce because of coercion from the government, because they can’t stand the abuse, don’t belong on a list of people who voluntarily choose to renounce.
@Kabby, so glad to hear it all went smoothly and yes, it is that simple.
As a British citizen you’ll just need to apply for a ESTA should you ever want to visit the States again which again is fairly simple, if a bit time consuming.
Now go out there and enjoy life at a Brit only.
Hi does anyone know if it is better to renounce at Marseille or Paris US Embassy please? Thanks very much
@florian
You could email them and ask for an appointment to see how soon one would be available, if they offer one or two appointments or if they need form DS 4079 completed, that form is confusing and officially should not be required for a simple renunciation.
@Florian
Remember that you can renounce at any US Embassy, so if London offers a better timescale, you could pop over to England to do it.
London is where I went. There was only one interview. They did ask for the DS4079, which I completed because I was hoping that they’d accept I’d relinquished US citizenship back in 1993 when I became British. They didn’t, and the form was destroyed.
My Renunciation Experience – Melbourne, Australia
In June 2018 – I sent my request for “the next available appointment to renounce” and attached electronic copies of the documents they require. Six minutes later I received an “auto response” thanking me for my email and saying they would respond within 2-3 working days. The email also said “Please do not send your e-mail inquiry more than once as duplicate inquiries will delay our response time.”
44 days later they emailed me to inform me they’d scheduled my interview for the morning of the previous Thursday. Right. Are we talking time travel? About 15 minutes later, there was a second email informing me they’d scheduled my interview for the upcoming Thursday morning (same time as specified for the previous week’s interview).
I wasn’t able to go. I replied and requested a rescheduling. Again I got the auto-response email saying they’d reply within 2-3 working days. After another 56 days my phone rang and a very polite woman who identified herself as associated with the consulate informed me that a second appointment had been scheduled for Thursday of the following week. She said I’d be receiving an email and must reply to that email to accept the appointment. If I could not attend, the next available appointment date would be in January 2019. This much-anticipated email arrived 3 days later. The text of the email instructed me to reply by email to accept the appointment and also said “If you do not confirm your attendance within 24 hours, your appointment will automatically be allocated to another renunciant. Your name will go back on to the waiting list until another appointment is available.”
I wasted no time in accepting the appointment.
The day finally arrived – October 2018. I walked into the consulate building to find a long wide hall. There were two very long queues of people on one side, and at the back of the hall a guard seated at a desk. I approached the guard, explained I had a renunciation appointment and asked if I was supposed to join one of the queues. “No,” was the response – and he directed me to a side door leading into the security screening area.
Other than the security guards (half of whom were snarly – the others were polite, though), everyone I dealt with was professional and pleasant.
After clearing security (and leaving my handbag behind) I was escorted to the 6th floor. There I was told where the toilet and water fountain are (I’m mentioning this because OzTeddies reported there weren’t any facilities available in 2012) and directed to take a seat at the back of a large room to the right of the elevators. In front of the chairs stood a queue of about 30 people and four or five service windows (like you’d see in a bank). It was apparent the queue wasn’t moving very fast. After a couple of minutes, a loudspeaker announced my name and directed me to a booth (a small room with a door) just past the queue. The people in the queue definitely noticed me walking past them to the booth. I handed over the items I’d been told to bring to the clerk I found there. He directed me to go to the cashier window and pay the fee. The cashier was pretty obviously irritated that I chose to pay in cash. I’ve never seen anyone count money so slowly – it was almost comical. I was finally handed 2 receipts (customer and consulate copies) and I returned to the booth. The clerk took both receipt copies and instructed me to go back to where I’d been sitting and wait. About 3 mins. later the loudspeaker again called my name and instructed me to return to the booth. As I passed the folks in the long queue again, I overheard a couple of people asking “who the hell is (insert my name here)”.
The interview with the consul went pretty quickly. She asked me to close the door. I was asked to affirm that I understood the consequences of my actions, that I was doing it of my own free will, and so on. I signed a couple of forms to this effect. She asked me why I was doing this and jotted down my response. I was to recite oath of renunciation. One thing I hadn’t expected was the consul telling me I must look at the 7-foot American flag on display behind her as I recited the oath. She began reading it (for me to repeat after her). I said the first line and then interrupted her to say “You told me I’m to look at the flag while I do this, but I can’t see it because you’re standing in the way.” She chuckled a little when she realized she was, in fact, completely blocking my view. She stepped aside and we continued.
All told, it went by quickly. I was in the building less than 40 minutes.
On the six-month anniversary of my consulate appointment I was still waiting for my CLN. I email’d the consulate and requested a status update. Other than the usual auto-response, I heard nothing.
On the 7-month anniversary (May 2019), I email’d again, forwarding a copy of my first email and expressing my concern that my case might have been mislaid or lost.
The next day my CLN arrived in the mail. It was mailed (express post) the day they got my second status request. It had an “approved” stamp on it showing a date in March.
Just as an aside note – my name does not appear on the government’s published list of people who have renounced.
@Liz of A
Congratulations on your renunciation and thank you for your detailed report.
I must say it sounded Monty Pythonesque to have to ‘unswear’ allegiance to the flag of the US , but nothing surprises me….each report we have seems to include a different experience , I am sure we are not high on the list of importance back at the State dept and there seems to be an element of incompetence in dealing with many cases. I was told I would get my CLN in 3 weeks, but it took 4 months because they had omitted to include my Naturalization cert, even though I had offered it twice at the renunciation!
I took 9 months to appear on the list, some have been well over a year.
Anyhow, enjoy your freedom.
@ Heidi
Thanks for explaining some of what you’ve seen with the State Dept.’s lists not being complete. I noticed there’s a list of famous people who’ve renounced on Wikipedia – and the list includes the year of renunciation and then the year/quarter they show up on the list. Yes – I can see there are people there who weren’t on the State Dept. list until 3 years after the fact!
Freedom – yes. I’m in the middle of finishing my 2018 taxes, and thanking my lucky stars that after this I’ll never have to file another FBAR, and won’t have that creepy invasion of my privacy hanging over me year after year. And although I have income from the US, and will continue to pay taxes there because of that, I should no longer need to hire expensive specialists to handle what used to be a difficult, confusing, and complicated tax return. Life will be simpler – and less expensive to boot.