Some official movement (finally) towards re-instatement of the pre-increase $450 CLN fee. Reported by John Richardson. (posted with permission).
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October 2, 2023 – Notice of Proposed Rule Change
Okay, it’s official. Here is a link to the proposed rule change which is necessary to reduce the renunciation fee from $2350 to $450. Officially, the fee is NOT a fee to expatriate. Rather it is a fee to issue the “Certificate Of Loss Of. Nationality”. also known as a CLN.
There is a 32 day comment period and I strongly suggest that you DO comment!
I encourage you to read the Notice in. its entirety. But, I note that it includes the following:
In the years since the fee was increased, members of the public have continued to raise concerns about the cost of the fee and the impact of the fee on their ability to renounce their citizenship. While there is no legal requirement for individuals to declare their motivation for renouncing U.S. citizenship, anecdotal evidence suggests that difficulties due at least in part to stricter financial reporting requirements imposed by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Public Law 111–147, on foreign financial institutions with whom U.S. nationals have an account or accounts may well be a factor.
After significant deliberation, taking into account both the affected public’s concerns regarding the cost of the fee and the not insignificant anecdotal evidence regarding the difficulties many U.S. nationals residing abroad are encountering at least in part because of FATCA, the Department has made a policy decision to help alleviate at least the cost burden for those individuals who decide for whatever reason to request CLN services by returning to the below-cost fee of $450. Although the prior fee of $450 represents a fraction of the cost of providing CLN services, this change will better align the fee for CLN services with other fees for services provided to U.S. citizens abroad, including, for example, applications for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, which all are set significantly below cost, even as the costs of providing these services have fluctuated over time.
If you go to the following link you can submit a comment (and even email this to a friend).
Here is a pdf version:
From John R: “Officially, the fee is NOT a fee. to expatriate. Rather it is a fee to issue the “Certificate Of Loss Of. Nationality”. also known as a CLN.”
Should we state that the reason everyone has to even GET that stupid CLN is BECAUSE of FATCA forcing our local banks to require it!!!???
And from their BS document:
“Processing a U.S. citizen’s request for a CLN based on the performance of a potentially expatriating act provided by statute has always been extremely costly for the Department, requiring consular officers and employees overseas, as well as Bureau of Consular Affairs employees domestically, to spend *substantial time accepting, processing, and adjudicating these requests. ”
That explains why my daughter received her CLN in the post, TWO days after her renunciation appointment. They would have had to complete it the *SAME DAY as her renunciation for it to arrive by post in two days. Wow, soooooooo much time was spent! I sure hope no one broke their back, got callouses, or something like that with all of the adjudicating that must’ve occurred!
That entire document is ridiculous. I laughed out loud at this bit, “The Department’s estimate of the level at which U.S. citizens will not be deterred from taking advantage of the service was based on its extensive consultations with experienced consular officers and senior Department managers.”
Hey Bob? How much do you think we can shake them for to get out?
So much BS.
The good news: a fee reduction is in the works for getting a CLN when it is related to renunciation.
The bad news (for some): the proposal, when implemented, would for the first time formally authorize the charging of a fee for getting a CLN related to any other form of relinquishment.
So, if you’re eligible and want a CLN for performing some expatriating act other than renunciation (for example, you may have taken citizenship in another country with the intent to relinquish) you might want to request/demand your CLN for free before this change authorizes charging $450 for it.
If anyone wants to see that the warning above is true, leave a comment here with that request or read through the proposal and its many linked background documents paying special attention to the careful use of the words “renounce”, “renouncing”, and “renunciation” as authorization for charging of the service fee evolves through time.
I wanted to use the comments to ask if I could have my $1900 back, but it’s probably not smart to use my real name.
Re: “So, if you’re eligible and want a CLN for performing some expatriating act other than renunciation (for example, you may have taken citizenship in another country with the intent to relinquish) you might want to request/demand your CLN for free before this change authorizes charging $450 for it.”
The relinquishment-based CLNs have been $2350 for a while now. All CLNs were free prior to 2010, when DoS began charging $450 for renunciation-based CLNs. CLNs remained free for relinquishers until 2015. Then, at the same time that DoS raised the CLN fee to $2350 for renunciants, they also began charging relinquishers too.
At least they officially admit that the fee is for issuing the CLN, not the actual relinquishment. There are lots of folks (myself included) who lost US citizenship via taking citizenship in another country with intent.
I have no need for a CLN and won’t bother to get one unless they start handing them out online for free. (Well, I might be willing to pay something reasonable, like 50 bucks.)
But waste several days, travel halfway across the country, visit an embassy, suffer through all their ridiculous security protocol, and hand them a huge wad of cash for a stupid piece of paper? No way.
Apologies to all. There wasn’t sufficient research behind my incorrect comment above.
pacifica777 is broadly correct. For several years fees have been charged for all CLN processing. But if the Federal Register can be believed, it is not correct that “at the same time that DoS raised the CLN fee to $2350 for renunciants, they also began charging [other] relinquishers too.”
For renunciants, the $2,350 CLN fee became effective in early September 2015. 80 FR 51465
They were moving towards charging $2,350 for all relinquishment CLNs at this same time. But fee implementation wasn’t simultaneous. A September 2015 interim ruling statement confirms there was a time gap: “Currently, nationals who renounce nationality pay a fee of $2,350, while nationals who apply for documentation of relinquishment of nationality by the voluntary commission of an expatriating act with the intention to lose nationality, do not pay a fee.” 80 FR 53707
And if I’d read carefully, in the Federal Register document linked in the main post I’d have seen: “The fee for processing a request for a CLN under 8 U.S.C. 1481(a)(1)–(4) [relinquishments other than renunciation] was also set at $2,350 in 2018….”
I stand corrected.
So within a day of this news being released, Fabien Lehagre’s group began preparing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the estimated 30,000 people who paid the higher fee. I personally would love to receive a refund.
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/04/renounce-american-citizenship-passport-fee-lawsuit
And one more article:
https://dnyuz.com/2023/10/06/former-americans-who-gave-up-their-citizenship-want-their-money-back/
The devil is whispering to me that maybe they’ll cancel the fee reduction in order to avoid legal problems like this.
How about removing the reasons for the waiting lists for a CLN in the first place? Any chance, huh?
@Mike
“How about removing the reasons for the waiting lists for a CLN in the first place? Any chance, huh? ‘
Nope. No chance.
Well, I just renounced today. Wish I’d seen this article sooner! Oh well, money well spent in my opinion.
I just received an appointment to renounce in Halifax on December 8. Wondering if I should cancel and start the process all over again to try to save the $1900 USD ($2600 CAD)?
@Hbee
If you’re not in a hurry to renounce – not bothered by filing or not filing US tax returns – then why ever not?
@Hbee,
I’d choose to go ahead on December 8th because they haven’t set the date for the fee to go down, and it seems as time goes on, the wait list gets longer.
Anyone have an idea how long the wait time is to get an appointment to renounce? I submitted the required documentation and got a reply on July 27, 2022. I haven’t heard anything since. Is this normal?
I received my appointment letter for Halifax more than a year after submitting my request. Probably depends on how busy the specific office is where you submitted your request.
If you contact the main e-mail address, they will confirm that you are on the waiting list, though they won’t predict when you’ll get an appointment.
This should have been the required headline for every newspaper/show so that all interested parties could respond. Instead, it’s reported in the fed-reg, which only us small fry even know about. THEN, they only give 30 days to submit? Oh FFS.
This was such BS! They’ve been ROBBING people blind claiming how much work it is to stamp a piece of paper and a passport. My daughter had her appt., and TWO days later, there was her self-addressed envelope with her cancelled passport & CLN! TWO DAYS. Wow, they must have sweated and run themselves ragged to get all of that stamping done in ONE day.
Utter bollocks.