I describe this in more detail at the Overseas Exile blog, but here’s the issue in a nutshell.
For the first three quarters of this year the Federal Register has reported a little over 1,000 renunciations. However, one Swiss site reports that the US embassy in Switzerland has processed 411 US renunciations. This would mean that Switzerland, with somewhere between 2 to 5% of the world’s US expats, is reporting over 40% of the US renunciations. Perhaps the US expats in Switzerland have more wealth, but that 40% seems ridiculous.
However, Fox News has a story where unnamed “immigration officials” report a projected 8,000 US renunciations this year. If true, Switzerland will have approximately 5% of the world’s renunciations, a figure which makes much more sense.
So, how do we find out who these immigration officials are? Where did they get their numbers? Why is every indicator suggesting that US renunciations are increasing but the Federal Register reports that they’re way decreasing?