Consulate Report Directory (Brockers Describe their Consulate Meetings) and CLN Delivery Time Chart Part 2
If clicking on a link brought you to the wrong page on the comment thread, click here to go to the current page.
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.)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
If clicking on a link brought you to the wrong page on the comment thread, click here to go to the current page.
Thanks, Mikko.
I renounced yesterday, 17 November, at the Stockholm embassy. I believe the security check took almost as long as the renunciation. Being Friday there was no one in the waiting room. Went to one window and showed the originals to the forms I scanned and previously sent in before getting the appointment date. Then sent to another window to pay my penalty $2350. Then to another window within a room. I was asked if I wanted to leave a statement which I declined, just said “It was a long time coming”. I was also asked if I wished to talk this over with the Consul, I declined. Had to go through the forms that I already read at home. The I took the oath of renouncing my nationality. All this took less than a half an hour.
@ Marsha,
Congratulations and thank you for letting us know about your experience at the Stockholm embassy, which I’ll add to the Directory. Glad to hear it went well.
Anyone know the wait times on Toronto?
As of a few weeks ago,Toronto was 4 to 5 months. However, Ottawa and Montréal were shorter at 2 to 3 months and Vancouver at 3 to 4 months. As for the rest of Canada, Halifax tied with Toronto at 4 to 5 months and Québec City was at 5 to 6.
Are these wait times from the time that you get a response from the consulate with an appointment date or from the time you send off your documents? How long does it usually take to hear from the consulate once you send all your forms in?
@ Canadian1234,
I got the wait times from the central booking system robot at CanadaCLNInquiries@state.gov , the one that sends an automatic reply with forms, instructions and wait times. I presume it to mean the wait time between sending in your forms and having your appointment. I e-mail the robot every couple of months to find out what the booking delays currently are and if they’ve made any recent changes to procedure.
Re: “How long does it usually take to hear from the consulate once you send all your forms in?”
I don’t know, as I took care of mine in 2012. But probably some people with recent experience will answer this.
Hello,
I emailed my documents to the London embassy in mid-November 2017 and received a response the next working day, with the renunciation appointment scheduled for mid-December. Everyone was polite and professional on the day and the whole thing took no more than an hour. Now waiting for the CLN to arrive. Has anyone else has renounced in London recently, and if so, how long did it take to receive your CLN?
Many thanks
Sent in my documents as required via email to Renunciations[q]state.gov on 06.03.2018 in order to get an appointment for renounciation in Frankfurt, Germany. Have not received a reply yet. On the Frankfurt embassy website it states that appointments are made through this email communication.
Has anyone got any experience with the waiting time from Frankfurt till appointment was sceduled?
Had appointment at Frankfurt embassy today at 11:30 am. Everything went very smoothly.
Small wait at entrance, got a number, then waited and was called before time as I was slightly early.
First payed fee of 1998 € in cash and then signed the documents before the vice consul who also read me the statement of renouciation. I did not have to repeat it, only affirm it. He asked me to explain in my own words why I would like to renounce and on hearing that I have never lived in the US and have filed for German citizenship simply nodded. I was also kindly asked to inquire in case the delivery of the CNL takes longer than 8 weeks so that they could follow it up.
Everyone was very friendly, no questions asked. Not a mention about taxation or such.
I entered the embassy waiting room at 11:06 am and was back at my vehicle at 11:48 am.
I got two letters in German and English stating that I have renounced my US citizenship and a receipt for the fee.
Received my (2350 Dollar worth) CNL on 17.07.2018. All in all and besides the costs, this was a very hassle free process.
Will get my “Einbürgerungsurkunde” for Germany within the next three weeks.
No one ever asked my anything related to taxes. Only a bunch of tax return filing companies …..
That’s because they can’t and shouldn’t. All they can do is tell you you might have some outstanding US tax issues to deal with.
Let´s see now, you cannot catch up on “your” taxes without a Social Security card, and to get to the U.S.A. you MUST have a U.S.A. passport if you are infected with U.S.A. citizenship, and to get a U.S.A. passport, you must have a Social Security card.
They don’t say this on their website because they don’t want Brockers to see it. They hand it out to people reporting to obtain USA passports in Santo Domingo, so I scanned it and uploaded it
http://ohiovoters.info/images/img217.jpg
Apparently the SSN requirement on passport applications is not correct. Those without an SSN can still enter all zeroes and receive a passport. This according to Keith Redmond (over at the FB group) who took up the issue with the State Dept and SSA, and claims that consular posts will be instructed accordingly. For what it’s worth.
Applied for my appointment at the London Embassy on 6 August (had to email all documentation over to them), and received my appointment for 6 September by email the next morning.
The London Embassy is easily reached, in a lovely location by the Thames. The building is also rather light and airy, and feels much more welcoming than the previous embassy.
I had hoped to argue for a backdated relinquishment to 1993, when I took on British citizenship. However, I had a very unpleasant experience the second time I entered the USA on my British passport (shouting immigration official) and then a further angry person when I visited the London Embassy in 2008 about my citizenship. I was basically cowed into taking out a US passport. I wrote a statement about this, but the vice consul said he didn’t accept it and would not support my application for relinquishment. As I couldn’t afford to pay the fee a second time, I agreed to renounce.
Renouncement was in a ‘privacy booth’. Vice consul was very pleasant and helpful. Due to my upcoming trip to the USA, he agreed to ask for the CLN to be expedited. My hand shook a bit when I signed the document, and I apologised, saying, ‘I thought I’d done all this in 1993. It’s a bit hard doing it a second time.’
When I was about to leave, he took on a thoughtful expression and said, ‘I often see happy things happening here, like people coming to register their children as US citizens. I hope you will see this as a happy day as well.’ I nearly broke down at this kindness.
The whole experience was quite calm and professional and, as I said, included an utterly unexpected comment. I did not provide a statement with the renunciation (I told him the one which had gone with the application for relinquishment could now be destroyed along with the DS4079).
A final note. The vice consul told me that I would be turned down for an ESTA, so I should apply for a visa as soon as possible, bearing in mind my upcoming trip to the USA. (My US passport was due to expire before the trip.) However, 36 hours later, I did apply and was successful in obtaining an ESTA with my UK passport, despite a USA place of birth.
By the way, this is the quote engraved on the wall in the lobby:
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F Kennedy
@BirdPerson,
Sorry you were not able to get them to recognize your relinquishment, but given the circumstances it sounds like a good choice to have gone ahead with the renunciation and get immediate certainty and closure. This vice consul sounds like a really pleasant guy to deal with – I like his attitude. Really good, though, that you knew the score about ESTA! And good to read that you’ve got your ESTA approved already. Thanks for sharing your story and I’ll add it to the Consulate Report Directory.
Update. I received my CLN today. The form was stamped on 12 September. The embassy official was true to his word and the form was expedited.
This option (asking for an expedited CLN) might be useful for others to know.
I don’t have time to follow some enormously busy topics such as this but looked because of a particular commenter named in the sidebar. Just above that though, there was this spectacular comment:
‘Let´s see now, you cannot catch up on “your” taxes without a Social Security card, and to get to the U.S.A. you MUST have a U.S.A. passport if you are infected with U.S.A. citizenship, and to get a U.S.A. passport, you must have a Social Security card.’
If you try to catch up on US tax filings after renouncing or relinquishing, attach a Form W-7 application for ITIN, and attach a certified true copy of your Canadian passport or the equivalent kind of notarized copy of your country’s passport.
But that’s not the spectacular part. This is:
‘They don’t say this on their website because they don’t want Brockers to see it. They hand it out to people reporting to obtain USA passports in Santo Domingo, so I scanned it and uploaded it
http://ohiovoters.info/images/img217.jpg‘
Look at requirement number 5 of a child’s first passport or requirement number 6 of an adult’s first passport.
If your mother’s pregnancy and your birth were outside of the US, your application for a first US passport at the US embassy in Santo Domingo will be rejected.
For the cost of a plane ticket to Santo Domingo and the fee to apply for a US passport, you will be free. You will not even have to catch up on US taxes.
If this discussion continues in a less busy topic, I’ll be able to follow it.
Norman Diamond:
“For the cost of a plane ticket to Santo Domingo and the fee to apply for a US passport, you will be free. ”
Free from what? You’d still have a US birthplace and no CLN.
“You will not even have to catch up on US taxes.”
“Even”?!!!!
As soon as you renounce, you can open a bank account, showing the receipt as proof that you’re a non-US-citizen waiting for a CLN. Problem solved. Taxes shmaxes.
“If your mother’s pregnancy and your birth were outside of the US,”
‘You’d still have a US birthplace’
A fake birth certificate might say so. So use a real birth certificate.
Help me out here. If the person wasn’t born in America, why is s/he flying to Santa Domingo to not get a US passport?
‘Help me out here. If the person wasn’t born in America, why is s/he flying to Santa Domingo to not get a US passport?’
I answered it in the comment that you replied to.
“http://ohiovoters.info/images/img217.jpg‘
Look at requirement number 5 of a child’s first passport or requirement number 6 of an adult’s first passport.”
Though I didn’t fully answer your new question, so here’s the necessary addition. If the accidental American was born outside the US to parent(s) who qualified to transmit the infection, then if they apply for a first US passport at a US embassy other than Santo Domingo, they might get the unwanted passport instead of a rejection.
I just don’t see what the problem is? What problem would be fixed by applying for a US passport and getting refused?
If a person gets born in America, they’ve got a FATCA problem. They need a CLN.
If a person doesn’t get born in America (and doesn’t have other “indicia” on file), they don’t have a FATCA problem. They don’t need a CLN.
I can’t see why either of these two hypothetical individuals would want to apply for a US passport and get rejected.