Renouncing US Citizenship

Renouncing US citizenship is the act by which a US national voluntarily gives up that nationality. The statute is 8 U.S.C. 1481(a)(5), part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides that a national loses nationality by voluntarily "making a formal renunciation of nationality before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in a foreign state, in such form as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State", and by doing so "with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality." Every element of that sentence does work: the act must be voluntary, the intent must be to relinquish, the officer must be a US diplomatic or consular officer, and the place must be outside the United States.

The formal legal term is renunciation of nationality rather than of citizenship, because US nationality is the slightly wider status; a small number of people, such as those born in American Samoa, are US nationals without being citizens. In ordinary use, and on this page, renouncing US citizenship means the 1481(a)(5) route.

Renunciation is one of seven expatriating acts, and the only one most people will ever consider. Section 1481(a) lists them: naturalizing in a foreign state on your own application after turning eighteen; taking an oath or formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state after turning eighteen; serving in a foreign country's armed forces where those forces are engaged in hostilities against the United States, or serving in them as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer; accepting certain foreign government offices; the formal renunciation before a consular officer abroad in paragraph (5); a formal written renunciation inside the United States before an officer designated by the Attorney General, which is available only while the United States is at war and only with the Attorney General's approval; and conviction for treason or certain related offenses. Every one of them requires the same two conditions in the opening sentence, voluntariness and intent to relinquish. That is why naturalizing in another country without meaning to give up US nationality does not cost anyone their citizenship; and voting in a foreign election is not on the list at all.

The procedure, as the State Department describes it. It begins with the person contacting a US embassy or consulate to request the service. The post provides information on the process and its consequences, and then the person completes two separate interviews with a consular or diplomatic officer. If they still wish to proceed after the first interview, they take the oath of renunciation in person before an officer at the second. The package, including a memorandum recommending approval or denial, then goes to the Department's Office of American Citizen Services for review, which decides whether the burden of proof has been met and whether the renunciation was voluntary and intentional. The regulation at 22 CFR 50.50 adds a specific content requirement: the renunciant must include on the form a statement that they "absolutely and entirely" renounce US nationality "together with all rights and privileges and all duties of allegiance and fidelity thereunto pertaining."

In-person appearance is required, and the Department has considered and declined to change that. Commenters on the 2026 fee rule asked the Department to allow renunciation by videoconference to save the cost of traveling to an embassy. It declined, citing security and fraud concerns and, specifically for this service, the need for the officer to assess in person whether the individual is acting voluntarily and understands the gravity of what they are doing.

The fee is $450, and this changed recently enough that most sources are wrong. Item 8 of the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, at 22 CFR 22.1, now reads "Administrative Processing of Request for Certificate of Loss of Nationality $450". The history is worth knowing, because it explains why the number in circulation is different. The Department set the fee at $450 in 2010, deliberately below cost, "in order to lessen the impact on those who need this service and not discourage the utilization of the service." Requests rose sharply between 2010 and 2014, and the Department raised the fee to $2,350 to match a cost-of-service study, extending that amount in 2015 to certificate requests arising from the other expatriating acts as well. In a final rule published March 13, 2026 and effective April 13, 2026, the fee returned to $450. The Department cited both the public's concerns about the cost and the tax-related difficulties Americans abroad encounter, in part because of the reporting requirements FATCA places on foreign financial institutions. The change was not made retroactive and the Department declined to refund the $1,900 difference to people who had already paid.

The Certificate of Loss of Nationality is the document that proves it, and the IRS gets a copy. If the Department approves, it issues a Certificate of Loss of Nationality and, under 22 CFR 50.50(b), copies go to the immigration authorities and to the person concerned. Internal Revenue Code section 6039G(d)(2) separately requires the Secretary of State to give the IRS a copy of every approved certificate, and 6039G directs the Treasury Secretary to publish in the Federal Register, within 30 days after the close of each calendar quarter, the name of each individual losing US citizenship. That quarterly list is why renunciations are publicly countable.

The burden of proof runs against the person claiming the loss happened. Section 1481(b) provides that where loss of nationality is put in issue, the burden is on the party claiming that the loss occurred, to establish it by a preponderance of the evidence. It also presumes that anyone who performed an expatriating act did so voluntarily, a presumption that can be rebutted by the same standard. In practice this matters most to someone trying to establish that a past act, such as naturalizing elsewhere decades ago, already ended their citizenship.

What renunciation does not do. It does not settle tax. US tax attaches to citizenship, so renouncing ends the obligation prospectively, but returns and reports for years already lived as a citizen remain due, and a separate expatriation tax applies to people who meet certain income, net-worth or compliance tests on the way out. It does not restore itself either: US law provides no general route back, so a renunciation should be treated as permanent. And it does not create a right to live anywhere. A person who renounces without holding another nationality becomes stateless, which is why posts raise the point during the interviews.

The sequence is: contact the embassy or consulate, receive the required information about consequences, attend a first interview, attend a second interview and take the oath in person, pay the fee, and wait for Washington to approve and issue the Certificate of Loss of Nationality. Under 8 U.S.C. 1481(a) nationality is lost by performing the expatriating act, not by the Department's later approval, so the operative date is the day of the oath rather than the day the paperwork clears.

A hypothetical illustration of the direct cost. Renouncing in 2024 would have cost the State Department fee of $2,350. Renouncing after April 13, 2026 costs $450, a difference of $2,350 − $450 = $1,900. Add a realistic travel component: someone living six hours from the nearest US consulate who makes two trips at roughly $300 each in flights and a night in a hotel spends about $600 on top, so the all-in out-of-pocket cost is on the order of $450 + $600 = $1,050, against roughly $2,950 for the same trips before the fee change. These travel figures are hypothetical; the $450 fee is the regulation's.

What the arithmetic leaves out is the part that usually dominates. Any US tax still owed for prior years is unaffected by renouncing, the final-year return is still due, and a person who fails the covered-expatriate tests faces the expatriation tax, which can be far larger than any consular fee. The fee is the smallest number in the decision.

Pros

• It ends the forward obligation to file and pay US tax on worldwide income, which is the obligation that follows US citizens wherever they live.
• It ends the associated foreign-account and foreign-asset reporting duties going forward, and removes the reason a foreign bank may decline to open an account.
• The procedure is defined by statute and regulation with published steps and a published fee, so the process itself holds few surprises.
• The fee fell from $2,350 to $450 effective April 13, 2026, so the direct administrative cost is now a small part of the decision.

Cons

• It is effectively permanent. There is no general route back to US citizenship, and the Department reviews each case precisely to confirm the person understands that.
• It settles nothing about the past. Unfiled returns, unpaid tax and unfiled foreign-account reports for prior years survive the renunciation.
• A person who meets the covered-expatriate tests owes the expatriation tax, which is assessed as though most of their property were sold the day before they left.
• It requires travel to a US embassy or consulate and two in-person appointments; remote appearance has been considered and refused.
• Renouncing without another nationality leaves the person stateless.
• Losing citizenship means losing the right to enter and live in the United States without a visa, along with consular protection abroad.