The US State Department reduces US citizenship waiver fees by 80% to $450

Washington (AFP) – The US State Department has reduced by 80% the fees imposed on Americans to officially renounce their US citizenship.

After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans who want to renounce their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.

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The new fees, which took effect Friday, were promised in 2023 but were never implemented. The cost now is the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to officially renounce their citizenship in 2010.

Giving up US citizenship can be an intense and lengthy process. Applicants must repeatedly confirm in multiple written and oral testimony to a State Department consular officer that they understand the implications of this step before they are allowed to take a formal oath of waiver. It must then be reviewed by the department.

The fee was raised from $450 to $2,350 in 2015 to cover administrative expenses as the number of people wanting to renounce their citizenship rose in part due to new US tax reporting requirements for American expatriates that angered many.

This large fee increase has drawn significant opposition from groups such as the French-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people who live mainly abroad and whose American citizenship is due solely to their birth in the United States.

The association has filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fees, including one that is still pending arguing that there should be no cost at all to renounce citizenship.

“The Association of American Coincidence welcomes this decision, which recognizes the need to make this fundamental right accessible to all,” its president, Fabien Lahager, said in a statement. “This victory is the direct result of six years of sustained legal action and advocacy.”

In court, the association said that since the 2023 announcement that fees would be reduced, at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide figures for the total number of Americans who have renounced their citizenship.