If you arrive here through an old link, please click here for the Current Thread.
Wonder what really happens at the consulates? Find out in the Isaac Brock Society’s Consulate Report Directory, currently 274 pages of first-hand accounts of renunciation/relinquishment appointments, arranged by consulate location, along with links to further information and the required Dept of State forms.
Reports are 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
2013.02.12. As of today, this discussion now continues at Part 2. Please click here to go to Consulate Report Directory (Brockers describe their Consulate Meetings) Part 2.
@freeatlast and Waldemar22, Further info received:
In June 2012 a Canadian renouncer was given two receipts for the $450 fee. The first receipt was what any credit card holder has a right to require, a bare statement of dollar amount taken, and was handed back by a cashier. The second receipt, with more detail, additional specifications including “RENUNCIATION OF USC” and “Consular Officer” and “ALL TRANSACTIONS FINAL — NO REFUNDS” was handed back by the official administering the oath of renunciation, together with comment emphasizing that it would be the only interim documentation provided.
(To All: This could be valuable to you, so recognize that fact and take good care of this flimsy little square of paper with a staple hole ripped into it).
*I am frustrated by the lack of consistency of action by the consulates. I was not given any copies (I did ask), and have no receipt for payment of the fee as they said that would come after the CLN was mailed from Washington. I think someone who renounced in Toronto after me (Jan) did pay the fee………
Hi, nobledreamer.
I think you got in before the requirement of the up-front payment of the $450 fee. You absolutely came away with nothing, which is appalling. The tiny receipt the US Consulate now gives out showing one’s up-front payment is something valuable, knowing we cannot get a copy of what we’ve signed at our renunciation appointments. How controlling is the US!
*Just to let you know that the daughter that renounced at the same time that I did in Calgary (not my daughter with the disability that as her legal guardian, I was denied the right to do so) just received her CLN by registered mail today. At least two of us are out!
@Cecilia.
Double congratulations!! Thanks for the update.
@calgary 411
“Did you by chance get a receipt for the $450 fee? That could also be used as part of the proof that you had the renunciation appointment.”
They only process the 450$ when they approve the CLN (or so they told me). That is why they want your credit card info and you can’t pay cash (supposedly). I thought this was perhaps a way to check your bank information and make sure you were filing a FBAR or something…
So if they have not approved the CLN you will not see the charge.
I actually saw the charge come through, and I was ecstatic because I knew it must have been the approval. One way you can find out if your CLN is on the way in the mail! Indeed the charge was on the same day as the stamp on the CLN.
@freeatlast
The $450 fee is now (since February 2012) required up-front, at the time of the renunciation appointment and
a receipt has been (in Canada) and should be (hopefully) given showing “… more detail, additional specifications including:
as handed back by the official administering the oath of renunciation, together with comment emphasizing that it would be the only interim documentation provided.
This is from the US Embassy’s “Renunciation Letter, March 2012”:
“On July 13, 2010 the Department of
State implemented a fee of $450 (dollar bills printed before 2000 not accepted)
for administrative processing of formal renunciation of U.S. citizenship. On the day of your appointment you should pay
with cash (U.S. dollars or Swiss francs; the equivalent Swiss franc amount is
based on an average exchange rate, not the daily rate used by banks and post
offices) or a major credit card (except EC/Maestro/Post Card) presenting a
valid passport.”
*It showed up on the credit card statement as a company in the Carolinas – DW couldn’t figure it out at all – neither could I for a minute. They charged C$450, since the dollars were at par.
I guess the logic of “ALL TRANSACTIONS FINAL — NO REFUNDS” is that while they could reject your renunciation (in theory – I hope I seemed to be of sound mind, but you never know) the charge is for the consular officer’s time.
*
Nearly 7 months to the day after I renounced my US citizenship in Calgary I
received my notice that my CLN has been approved by the Department of State.
The notice came in a regular envelope with “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA –
OFFICIAL BUSINESS” in the upper left corner but the postmark was the
Calgary Consulate.
Now I must pay $450 and either pick up the CLN in person or have them mail
it to me.
I figured out over a month ago that it was in process because my Social
Security Number was invalid according to the IRS reps I spoke with regarding my
IRS returns.
*@Peg11, Wow Congratulations!!! Very Happy for you!!
Hey, Peg.
My sincere congratulations –I already have heard through the grapevine and have updated the Renounce & Relinquish database. We will be anxious to see how long it takes for you to get your CLN once you have further “paid for your freedom”. It has been wonderful to watch you move through the process from the expatforum times through to your success completion reported at Isaac Brock. Calgary is doing well in getting those CLN’s out which is nice to see. Wish I had met you when you were visiting from Winnipeg for your appointment.
Bouquets to the Calgary US Consulate for fair treatment to those coming through that office.
*Congratulations, Peg! Have a blast at your Canada Day party!
@calgary411
Do you think it might be possible for staff at Calgary consulate to come to Vancouver to do a few ‘training sessions’?
@tiger,
It sure would be professional for them to be held to treating everyone that comes in with some level of respect, and they should have procedures and outcomes that are consistent from one Consulate to another, from one country to another. Important in-service training would be a start. Mrs. A is no longer at the Toronto Consulate, but everyone there seemed to have a respectful experience in renouncing with her (I think she was a Canadian.). Perhaps she could give some in-service training. There have been good reports from Toronto as well. And, I thought Halifax was giving a respectful experience as well.
Thank you for your congrats! 9 months ago I learned of this mess and now am solely a Canadian citizen as I thought I was all those years…
I still don’t know if I could have relinquished rather than renounced because I thought I had obtained my Canadian citizenship in my 20s but it turns out that I was a dual citizen at birth. In my 20s I merely got the paperwork from the Canadian Gov’t confirming that I was a citizen. Interesting part is that when I moved to Canada as a child the border guards didn’t know about the dual part as I was made a landed immigrant.
Regardless, my mission has been accomplished. And having done all of the IRS returns, FBARs, OVDI opt-out myself I saved thousands so that will be some Canada Day party!
@ Peg 11 — Double congrats for becoming solely (or is that souly) Canadian AND for doing it all yourself !!! It breaks my heart though that you had to go through so much to be acknowledge by the USA for what you always knew you were — a Canadian! I’ll be waving our Canadian flag for you on Canada Day this year.
@ calgary411 — You wouldn’t happen to have a list of Brockers names (or nom de plumes actually) who have achieved what Peg11 did this past year would you? I’ll wave our flag for all — even those who are not Canadian (if they don’t mind). The only other flag we have is American and it won’t be flying here on “Independence” Day (unless it’s upside down — indicating distress). Thanks.
Peg11, that’s some incredibly complex situation just concluded. Can’t believe the hoops you must have had to jump through. Now that is an instructional story that begs to be told if/whenever you’d be willing.
Congratulations, and have one heck of a Canada Day!
I have to pay in cash like an arms dealer later this week – 383 Euros. They don’t accept Maestro or EC, which are of course the only cards that I have. At least I can pay in Euros and not have to buy dollars at a currency exchange, so that’s a plus I suppose. I just hope that I am given the elusive square receipt that everyone above is mentioning even if I pay with cash.
*@peg11
I wonder if I can ask you what the date is on your certificate of Canadian citizenship – is it your date of birth or is it the date of your application? Also, how long ago was this? I have a situation somewhat similar to yours involving birth in the US to two American parents, a later adoption my British stepfather who after that became a Canadian, and a raft of other paperwork complications leaving me with no clear idea of whether or not I can relinquish. Congratualtions to you and thanks for your help.
@Peg11
please accept my congratulations on receiving you CLN
Hopefully it means that all of our files have been speeded up*
@hijacked2012 – I had moved to Canada as a child as a Landed Immigrant. In 1991, as an adult, I filed the papers with the Canadian government to obtain Canadian citizenship. At the time my understanding was that I was ‘naturalized’ since both of my parents were Canadian citizens. I merely had to send forms, including the long form birth certificate, in confirming my parentage – no ceremony or anything — all done through the mail. My certificate of Canadian citizenship has “n/a” for the date which I wondered about but never asked about.
Last fall I learned that since I was born in the US to Canadian citizens I automatically received both citizenships at birth. That means that I did not need to get the sole US passport in the 1980s.
*@peg11
Thanks very much for your reply. I will persevere.
@Peg11, I went through a similar process, and have the same n/a on my certificate. I stand to be corrected here, but between 1947 and 1977 a birth needed to be registered within two years for the child to become Canadian. I was born in this period and my birth was registered and thus I was Canadian since birth. Births that were not registered resulted in the so called “lost Canadians”. Also in this time period it was general only the Father that could pass on citizenship to a child. If you birth was registered you should have been a Canadian citizen and not a landed immigrant. If the birth was not registered then you may not have been a lost Canadian at that time. The law has changed and Canadian citizenship has been retroactively restored to the time of birth for lost Canadians.
@TrueNorth – I was born within those years but have no way of knowing if my birth was registered as I cannot get that information from my parents. Regardless of when I obtained my Canadian citizenship I am now ONLY a Canadian 🙂