The January 6, 2026 anniversary and a summary of this post:
January 6, 2026 marks the three year anniversary of the State Department promise to U.S. citizens. Specifically, the promise was to lower the fee to issue a CLN from $2350 to $450. It is now three years later and the fee reduction has not been achieved. I am not suggesting that the fee will never be lowered. Maybe the fee will be lowered. The process of lowering the fee is still “in the system”. As of late December 2025, RIN 1400-AF61, titled “Schedule of Fees for Consular Services–Administrative Processing of Request for Certificate of Loss of Nationality (CLN) Fee,” was in the Final Rule stage. This suggests that the fee reduction WILL become a reality. Yet, the failure to have lowered the fee suggests evidence of a continuing animus and indifference toward Americans abroad and certainly strengthens the arguments for renunciation.
On October 2, 2023 the State Department began the rule making process as described in the Federal Register.
The “rulemaking” process generated more than 800 comments . Generally the comments emphasized that the fee to issue a CLN was NOT the dominant problem. Rather the problem was the need for Americans abroad to renounce at all. Comment after comment linked renunciation to the difficulties of complying with US citizenship taxation and FATCA.
The claim that Americans abroad are being forced to renounce because of U.S. citizenship taxation and FATCA raises the question of whether these circumstances violate the constitutional principle in Afroyim v. Rusk. The teaching of Afroyim is that Congress is prohibited from engaging in conduct that results in the “forcible destruction of citizenship”. It is clear that the specific rules of U.S. citizenship taxation do force some (but not all) people to renounce. At the very least, the circumstance of U.S. citizenship, makes it unreasonably difficult for Americans abroad to live freely outside the United States.
Is the difficulty citizenship taxation per se or the specific rules of U.S. citizenship taxation?
Could citizenship taxation be retained but be changed into a method of taxation that is more like “Eritrean citizenship taxation” – only an excise tax or possibly a passport renewal fee? Perhaps the United States could look to “Eritrea” for an acceptable means to tax Americans abroad.
Anecdotal evidence makes clear that some people have delayed renouncing U.S. citizenship in the hopes that the fee for issuing the CLN will be reduced. Would a fee reduction trigger a stampede to renounce?
Those who do NOT wish to read further should (at the very least) read the comments from Americans abroad about why they are renouncing U.S. citizenship.
For those who wish to read further …
The complete post is lengthy, comprehensive and organized into the following parts:
Part I – Introduction and purpose
Part II: “Rulemaking” and the comments it generated
Part III: “Rulemaking” and the comments it generated
Part IV – The $2350 fee is the first of three “Exit Taxes”
Part V – The “comments” to the notice and what those comments suggest
Part VI – U.S. “citizenship taxation”, Afroyim and the “forcible destruction of citizenship”
Part VII – Why does the United States continue to abuse U.S. citizens abroad?
Appendix A – AI generated podcast summarizing the “notice” to reduce the fee for a CLN
Appendix B – Two recent podcasts discussing Afroyim v. Rusk
