State Department Cuts Citizenship Renunciation Fee by 80%

The State Department has reduced by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship, lowering it from $2,350 to $450. The new fee took effect on Friday after years of legal battles with groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship.

The reduction was published as a final rule in the Federal Register and had been promised in 2023 but never implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging for renunciation in 2010. Renouncing U.S. citizenship involves an intensive process where applicants must confirm their understanding of the implications through multiple attestations before taking a formal oath.

The fee had been raised to $2,350 in 2015 to cover administrative expenses due to a surge in renunciations, partly driven by new U.S. tax reporting requirements for expatriates. This increase drew significant opposition from groups such as the France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which represents people living abroad with U.S. citizenship due to birth.

The association filed several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the fee, including one pending case arguing that there should be no cost for renunciation. Fabien Lehagre, president of the association, welcomed the decision, stating it acknowledges the necessity of making this fundamental right accessible. The association claimed in court that at least 8,755 Americans paid the full $2,350 since the 2023 announcement.

The renunciation process is intensive and lengthy, requiring applicants to repeatedly confirm their understanding of the implications through multiple written and verbal attestations to a State Department consular officer before taking a formal oath of renunciation. The department said the new $450 fee remains well below the government’s actual cost of processing renunciation requests.

The State Department estimates roughly 4,661 people apply each year for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. Lowering the fee is expected to reduce annual federal collections by about $8.9 million, which is deposited into the U.S. Treasury and not used to fund State Department consular operations.

Applications to renounce citizenship rose sharply in the early 2010s, climbing from 956 cases in 2010 to 3,436 in 2014, according to State Department figures. Stricter financial reporting requirements imposed on Americans living overseas, including rules tied to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), have contributed to renunciation requests in recent years.