Within six months of arriving in New Zealand on a working vacation visa 10 years in the past, Erin Klatt knew she wished to make the nation her dwelling for good.
Klatt was on the lookout for “somewhere different to be” for a range of private and political causes when she left the US in 2016. “So when I came to New Zealand, it just kind of all clicked,” she stated.
A decade later, at 34, Klatt formally reduce ties with the United States. Earlier this yr, simply earlier than the US State Department decreased the fee to renounce US citizenship by about 80%, Klatt paid the then $2,350 value and browse an oath renouncing her US citizenship.
She had expertise with dairy farming in Wisconsin and located comparable work in New Zealand, via which she received an essential skills work visa permitting her to remain longer within the nation. It was via dairy farming that she met her English husband, who was equally residing and dealing in New Zealand.
The two turned New Zealand residents collectively in May 2025. That was additionally when Klatt determined it was time to shake her US citizenship.
“I never felt overly patriotic or connected to the country,” Klatt stated, and he or she had lengthy been dismayed by the course of the United States beneath President Trump.
Between nationwide politics and tax burdens for US residents residing overseas, giving up her citizenship appeared just like the pure course of motion.
Official authorities figures associated to Americans renouncing citizenship are troublesome to pin down.
A State Department spokesperson stated in an electronic mail to NCS that it doesn’t publish statistics on the quantity of US residents who select to resign their citizenship, including that the Treasury Department publishes a quarterly IRS report on expatriations. The IRS informed NCS that it doesn’t have compilations of the quantity of annual expatriations.
But based on Americans Overseas, a useful resource for US residents residing overseas that tallies the quantity of names reported throughout the quarterly IRS studies, 4,889 individuals are listed on the company’s listing for 2025, the best quantity since 2020 when the determine spiked to six,705. The group stated it is receiving considerably extra inquiries about renunciation this yr and is predicting a 15% improve in expatriations over final yr, with numbers anticipated to stay elevated over the approaching years.
Americans Overseas is at present advising roughly 40,000 US residents, most with twin citizenship, in Europe and all through the remainder of the world who are both within the course of of renouncing or inquiring about pursuing it, based on Daan Durlacher, co-founder of Americans Overseas.
Durlacher stated he isn’t seeing all of the names of purchasers he is aware of have renounced their US citizenship within the IRS studies, and he means that the figures are underreported. The IRS didn’t instantly reply to follow-up questions concerning the studies.
“These numbers are not complete, and I don’t know why,” stated Durlacher, a twin Dutch and US citizen who was born within the Netherlands to an American mom.
To resign one thing means to present it up, normally by formal declaration. Indeed, renouncing US citizenship is each a proper and authorized course of that requires probably arduous paperwork in addition to showing for an in-person oath in entrance of a consular officer at a US embassy or consulate office outdoors of the US, together with different necessities.
Klatt stated she was stunned, when she went to start out the method, at how troublesome it was to seek out help. She contacted a authorities electronic mail tackle together with her want to resign in August 2025 and didn’t get a reply till October of that yr, when she submitted the required kinds requested.
Durlacher confirmed that sending an electronic mail into the ether along with your intention to resign is step one.
“You have to contact the consulate or embassy in the country where you live, and then wait,” he stated, including that it can take so long as six to 9 months earlier than you hear again.
Klatt stated Facebook teams like Renounce US Citizenship – Why, How ??? All the answers here, amongst others, had been helpful for muddling via the method.
By the top of January 2026, she acquired an electronic mail with an appointment time for early March on the US consulate in Auckland to formally resign.
The charge was nonetheless $2,350 then (now dropped to $450), and he or she was requested to pay it on arrival earlier than studying the oath to resign her citizenship. That the timing coincided with the start of the battle in Iran made the act really feel much more politically motivated, she stated.
Once she’d renounced, Klatt felt solely pleasure and reduction.
“I’m very happy with my decision. No regrets,” she stated. “If anything, I celebrate every now and again that I am not a part of them.”
Of course, there are many causes that drive individuals to resign US citizenship — a main one being monetary.
The burden to file and pay taxes on worldwide earnings till loss of life is usually a motivating issue, stated Jonathan D. Tiegerman, of Tiegerman, a US tax and authorized advisory agency in Zurich, Switzerland. Those curious about renouncing are typically US residents who work and stay overseas in addition to so-called “accidental Americans,” who could have acquired citizenship by being born on US soil or to an American father or mother and sometimes could not have ever lived or labored within the United States.
The US, via the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, is one of simply two nations requiring residents to file and pay taxes on worldwide earnings regardless of the place they stay and earn (the second is Eritrea in East Africa). Often known as FATCA, the US regulation was enacted in 2010 however didn’t formally go into impact till 2014.
Most of the US residents Americans Overseas advises are renouncing or contemplating renouncing their citizenship resulting from FATCA reasonably than political motivations, Durlacher stated.
There’s additionally an id “limbo” at play for some who take into account formally reducing ties with the US.
That’s the case for Caroline Chirichella, who considers herself a “very proud American.”
Still, the twin US and Italian citizen residing in Italy has been trying into the method of giving up her little blue ebook in favor of absolutely embracing her burgundy EU one.
Chirichella, who lives northeast of Naples in Guardia Sanframondi, turned an Italian citizen in 2018 via her great-grandfather because of jus sanguinis, or “blood right,” which regardless of a law change final yr nonetheless has some descendants of Italians clinging to hope of Italian citizenship.
For a few years earlier than that, the 37-year-old proprietor of a PR company in Italy stated she was coming and going to the nation of her ancestors from New York City, the place she had lived most of her life.
“Quite frankly, my life now is in Italy. I don’t have any connections as far as family in the US. My kids were born in Italy and my husband is Italian,” stated Chirichella, who first began trying into renouncing her US citizenship proper after her Italian citizenship got here via and he or she gave start to her first baby in Italy.
The resolution she’s weighing is unmotivated by US politics, she stated. And she stated she’s not contemplating it for monetary causes both.
“I am grateful for all the opportunities America has given me. But I feel like when you’re a dual citizen, there’s this unspoken limbo of being too American to be in Italy and too Italian to be in the States,” she stated.
Reducing her passport assortment to that of the nation she’s dedicated to residing in, she stated, will hopefully assist uncloud this attitude.
US residents can solely resign citizenship if they’ll show they’ve the authorized proper to stay someplace else.
“You cannot renounce your US citizenship without another citizenship, so you have to have that first,” confirmed Durlacher.
As half of the renouncing course of, US tax returns from the 5 years previous to renouncing should be filed and updated.
Separate guidelines and taxes apply to individuals with greater than $2 million in property who are seeking to resign, amongst different diverse eventualities, stated Tiegerman.
“The reporting is very complicated, so you really want to work with someone who’s either a licensed lawyer or a CPA,” specifically somebody with worldwide expertise, he stated.
Every 4 years, coinciding with the US presidential election cycle, Tiegerman stated his agency sees an uptick in inquiries from potential and present purchasers about renouncing US citizenship and the implications that include it.
“Usually, half the population of Americans are happy with the result, the other half are incredibly disappointed, and that’s simply a consequence of how polarized American politics are,” he stated.
Paying taxes within the US may be notably irritating for “accidental Americans,” many of whom have by no means even lived within the United States throughout their working years.
FATCA’s results may be far-reaching, stated Fabien Lehagre, president and founder of the Paris-based Association of Accidental Americans, who can also be on the board of Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad.
“FATCA, in particular, leads many European banks to refuse to open or maintain accounts, mortgages, or life insurance contracts for clients identified as ‘US persons’ for fear of the 30% withholding penalty provided for under US law. Acts as ordinary as receiving one’s salary, taking out a loan to buy one’s main home, or saving for retirement become an obstacle course” for unintended Americans, he informed NCS in an electronic mail.
And the time period “accidental Americans” refers to a world inhabitants much more numerous than one may think, Lehagre stated, including that there are an estimated 300,000 individuals all through Europe that fall into this class (40,000 in France alone).
“The main obstacle, for accidental Americans who retain their citizenship, lies in US extraterritorial laws that make a normal financial life extremely difficult in Europe,” he stated.
The time period primarily considerations people born within the United States throughout a quick keep by their father or mother(s) and people who left US territory as youngsters, presumably as infants, he stated.
“Others were born abroad to an American parent and automatically inherited citizenship without ever having set foot in the United States. Many do not speak English, hold neither a US passport nor a Social Security Number, and discover their status late, often through a letter from their bank requesting them to provide a US Tax Identification Number,” stated Lehagre.
For those that’ve been contemplating renouncing, the current charge discount would possibly assist to place the method into movement.
Originally from Missouri, Jennifer Sontag — a twin US and Italian citizen who lives in Sicily and owns a relocation company, ViaMonde — says she’s been speaking about renouncing her US citizenship for years and feels motivated to lastly get it executed now that the charge has been considerably decreased.
Sontag, 53, left the US for good in 2018, calling Trump’s election in 2016 “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” She acquired her Italian citizenship via ancestry in 2021 and stated she’s able to “put my money where my mouth is” and resign her US citizenship.
Sontag is at present within the course of of having her accountants audit all the pieces from her enterprise for the previous seven years, after which she’s going to make an appointment at a consulate in Rome or Naples — wherever an appointment opens up soonest — to take the oath and resign.
The course of of getting all her affairs so as has been a nightmare, she stated, since it requires a “huge audit” of her Italian enterprise utilizing US accounting guidelines.
“My reasoning for doing this is that my life is now outside of the US. I’m very American — no taxation without representation — and I no longer benefit from paying taxes in the US. It’s one of two countries in the entire world with taxes based on citizenship,” Sontag stated.
She’s “ready to divest from the US,” she stated. And whereas her resolution to resign seems like a reduction, Sontag additionally feels unhappy to let go of this half of being American.
“It’s part of my identity. It’s who I am, right? You know, I’m never going to be fully Italian. I’ve lived here for five years. I’m learning the language, I’m learning the culture, but I still don’t have those core experiences that make me Italian,” she stated.
Many individuals don’t absolutely suppose via what renouncing citizenship can imply, stated Brad Bernstein, president and managing companion of The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, a New York City-based immigration and private harm agency.
US citizenship comes with main benefits, he stated, together with sturdy international mobility and entry to many nations while not having a visa.
“After you renounce, you’re no longer a US citizen. You’re treated like any other foreign national. If you want to come back to the US in the future, even just to visit, you’ll need a visa and that’s never guaranteed. Some people get approved, others don’t,” he wrote in an electronic mail to NCS.
People typically underestimate what renouncing means and could also be met with remorse later, he stated, including that renouncing shouldn’t be a choice that needs to be based mostly on “short-term thinking” or “small financial matters.”
“Saving a few thousand dollars shouldn’t be what drives a decision this serious,” he stated. “The real issue is understanding that you could be giving up your ability to live and work in the United States permanently.”
Howard Lavine, a professor of political science and psychology on the University of Minnesota, stated renouncing US citizenship can have profound results in different methods, too.
“I think people who want to renounce their citizenship want to begin to think of themselves in a very different way, they want their lives to be different. And one way their lives can be different is by holding different social identities,” he stated.
Shedding a competing nationwide id may help with that, placing those that resign citizenship extra according to how they need to see themselves.
“And that has implications for how you feel. It’s part of emotional regulation,” Lavine stated.
For Chirichella, who’s nonetheless within the figuring-things-out section of the method, till her resolution is closing, it’s one she stated she gained’t be taking flippantly.
“As much as I like the idea, to renounce my citizenship makes me very sad. I do not want to make this decision until I’m 100%. Once I renounce my citizenship, I can’t get it back.”
Reflecting is vital, stated Durlacher.
While he respects the explanations for eager to resign US citizenship — political or in any other case — he all the time leaves these he advises with one thought: “Being a US citizen, you still have a vote,” he stated.
“That’s why I’m still a US citizen.”
Florida-based journey author Terry Ward lives in Tampa and is awaiting a choice on her Italian citizenship.