keesio said:
I officially remove Natan from my comment.
Golly gee, is it official now?! ;D
keesio said:
Otherwise it is *usually* not a problem. As usual, there are no guarantees in life.
That is precisely the point. There are no guarantees in life -- especially when dealing with governments. It is always best to be fully briefed on one's options so one can make informed decisions. And for those who find themselves outside of the
usual, being told that what they're experiencing is
unusual is generally of little consolation.
Afterall, Canadian citizenship applications are
usually routine, but that doesn't prevent us from discussing RQs, ATIP & FOIA requests, refugee reavailments and many other aspects of
unusual non-routine processing. We do this to inform, to help others sidestep difficulties and be better prepared to overcome obstacles. The information I provide on maintaining U.S. citizenship is of no less value.
alphazip said:
Well, I know a number of people who are duals, including myself (though I never had to naturalize/take an oath) and my spouse, and we/they never had a problem with it. Everything I read these days concerns the problems people have trying to rid themselves of "U.S. person" status, not the opposite. In fact, it used to be that if a U.S. citizen reported that they had committed a so-called expatriating act, they could receive a Certificate of Loss of Nationality (https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/81609.pdf) without paying a fee. Now, that has been changed and such a person must make an appointment (i.e., get on a waiting list) and pay US$2,350, the same as those who want to renounce.
Does this (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/delays-costs-mount-for-canadians-renouncing-us-citizenship/article28688026/) make it sound like the U.S. government is trying to strip people of their citizenship? With high fees and red tape, it seems that the goal must be to keep Americans in the fold (and subject to U.S. taxation).
There are two ways a U.S. citizen can "voluntarily" lose American citizenship: (i) by
renouncing their citizenship before an authorized officer of the Dept. of State; and (ii) by
relinquishing their citizenship by committing (a) an expatriating act, (b) a potentially expatriating act with the intent to relinquish citizenship, or (c) behaving in a manner wholly inconsistent with an intent to maintain citizenship.
The recent stringent enforcement of U.S. tax law, and the regulations requiring foreign financial institutions to turn over records concerning U.S. Tax Persons to the IRS and the U.S. Treasury, threatens to expose expatriate Americans who have failed to file their taxes in a timely manner. (To be sure, few of these persons would have owed any taxes had they filed on time -- so we're essentially talking "form crimes" here.) The requirement to file taxes, regardless of where one resides or earns income, has been the law for as long as I can remember, but many Americans ignored this law. Now that they are being outed by their financial institutions, many have claimed that they relinquished U.S. citizenship when they committed a potentially expatriating act (e.g., becoming a Canadian citizen). The Dept. of State, embassies and consulates have been inundated with cases of those who insist they have relinquished their citizenship -- but oftentimes, they did no such thing, they are simply claiming to have done so to avoid penalties for failing to file their taxes in a timely manner. But the Dept. of State has to adjudicate each and every one of these claims. Who pays for this? This is why the fee has risen so sharply, both to pay for this service and to discourage frivolous claims of relinquishment. Currently, the Dept. of State is focused on resolving the overwhelming number of applications to renounce citizenship and the many claims of previous relinquishment. This backlog will eventually be cleared -- the American governmental bureaucracy is very efficient (easily amongst the most efficient on the planet). Once the backlog is cleared, the emphasis will no longer be on making it difficult to cease being a citizen -- the emphasis will shift.
When an American commits a potentially expatriating act, like naturalizing as a citizen of Canada, the Dept. of State can decide to examine that case at any time in the future. It could be that you made public comments that made an official angry, or that you have a relative that has become prominent or notorious -- you never know, and the Dept. of State does not have to explain
why it decided to look into your case. And let's be clear, it's unlikely that they will ever decide to look into your case. But if they do, what will they discover? Will they find words and deeds so consistent with your intent that they have no opening to challenge your position? Or will they find ample evidence to justify undermining your position?
Very few people are likely to be found to have relinquished American citizenship when they had no such intention -- but it has happened, and it has happened in Canada. It takes so little effort to make one's intentions clear and unambiguous that it is almost irresponsible to fail to do so.
