Why thousands of Americans are giving up their citizenship

Erin Klatt renounced her American citizenship at the U.S. consulate in Auckland, New Zealand. (Kehan ChenMoment RF/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Within six months of arriving in New Zealand on a working holiday visa 10 years ago, Erin Klatt knew she wanted to make the country her home for good.

Klatt was looking for “somewhere different to be” for a variety of personal and political reasons when she left the U.S in 2016. “So when I came to New Zealand, it just kind of all clicked,” she said.

A decade later, at 34, Klatt officially cut ties with the United States. Earlier this year, just before the U.S. State Department reduced the fee to renounce U.S. citizenship by about 80 per cent, Klatt paid the then US$2,350 price and read an oath renouncing her U.S. citizenship.

She had experience with dairy farming in Wisconsin and found similar work in New Zealand, through which she got an essential skills work visa allowing her to stay longer in the country. It was through dairy farming that she met her English husband, who was similarly living and working in New Zealand.

The two became New Zealand citizens together in May 2025. That was also when Klatt decided it was time to shake her U.S. citizenship.

“I never felt overly patriotic or connected to the country,” Klatt said, and she had long been dismayed by the direction of the United States under President Donald Trump.

Between national politics and tax burdens for U.S. citizens living abroad, giving up her citizenship seemed like the natural course of action.

Tracking expatriations

Official government figures related to Americans renouncing citizenship are difficult to pin down.

A State Department spokesperson said in an email to CNN that it does not publish statistics on the number of U.S. citizens who choose to renounce their citizenship, adding that the Treasury Department publishes a quarterly IRS report on expatriations. The IRS told CNN that it does not have compilations of the number of annual expatriations.

But according to Americans Overseas, a resource for U.S. citizens living abroad that tallies the number of names reported within the quarterly IRS reports, 4,889 people are listed on the agency’s list for 2025, the highest number since 2020 when the figure spiked to 6,705. The organization said it is receiving significantly more inquiries about renunciation this year and is predicting a 15 per cent increase in expatriations over last year, with numbers expected to remain elevated over the coming years.

Americans Overseas is currently advising roughly 40,000 U.S. citizens, most with dual citizenship, in Europe and throughout the rest of the world who are either in the process of renouncing or inquiring about pursuing it, according to Daan Durlacher, co-founder of Americans Overseas.

Durlacher said he isn’t seeing all the names of clients he knows have renounced their U.S. citizenship in the IRS reports, and he suggests that the figures are underreported. The IRS did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about the reports.

“These numbers are not complete, and I don’t know why,” said Durlacher, a dual Dutch and U.S. citizen who was born in the Netherlands to an American mother.

‘No regrets’

To renounce something means to give it up, usually by formal declaration. Indeed, renouncing U.S. citizenship is both a formal and legal process that requires potentially arduous paperwork as well as appearing for an in-person oath in front of a consular officer at a U.S. embassy or consulate office outside of the U.S., along with other requirements.

Klatt said she was surprised, when she went to start the process, at how difficult it was to find assistance. She contacted a government email address with her desire to renounce in August 2025 and didn’t get a reply until October of that year, when she submitted the required forms requested.

Durlacher confirmed that sending an email into the ether with your intention to renounce is the first step.

“You have to contact the consulate or embassy in the country where you live, and then wait,” he said, adding that it can take as long as six to nine months before you hear back.

Klatt said Facebook groups like Renounce U.S. Citizenship - Why, How ??? All the answers here, among others, were useful for muddling through the process.

By the end of January 2026, she received an email with an appointment time for early March at the U.S. consulate in Auckland to formally renounce.

The fee was still $2,350 then (now dropped to $450), and she was asked to pay it on arrival before reading the oath to renounce her citizenship. That the timing coincided with the beginning of the war in Iran made the act feel even more politically motivated, she said.

Once she’d renounced, Klatt felt only excitement and relief.

“I’m very happy with my decision. No regrets,” she said. “If anything, I celebrate every now and again that I am not a part of them.”

Of course, there are many reasons that drive people to renounce U.S. citizenship — a prime one being financial.

The burden to file and pay taxes on worldwide income until death is often a motivating factor, said Jonathan D. Tiegerman, of Tiegerman, a U.S. tax and legal advisory firm in Zurich, Switzerland. Those interested in renouncing are often U.S. citizens who work and live abroad as well as so-called “accidental Americans,” who may have acquired citizenship by being born on U.S. soil or to an American parent and often may not have ever lived or worked in the United States.

The U.S., through the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, is one of just two countries requiring citizens to file and pay taxes on worldwide income regardless of where they live and earn (the second is Eritrea in East Africa). Often referred to as FATCA, the U.S. law was enacted in 2010 but didn’t officially go into effect until 2014.

Most of the U.S. citizens Americans Overseas advises are renouncing or considering renouncing their citizenship due to FATCA rather than political motivations, Durlacher said.

‘There’s this unspoken limbo’

There’s also an identity “limbo” at play for some who consider officially cutting ties with the U.S.

That’s the case for Caroline Chirichella, who considers herself a “very proud American.”

Still, the dual U.S. and Italian citizen living in Italy has been looking into the process of giving up her little blue book in favor of fully embracing her burgundy EU one.

Chirichella, who lives northeast of Naples in Guardia Sanframondi, became an Italian citizen in 2018 through her great-grandfather thanks to jus sanguinis, or “blood right,” which despite a law change last year still has some descendants of Italians clinging to hope of Italian citizenship.

For many years before that, the 37-year-old owner of a PR agency in Italy said she was coming and going to the country of her ancestors from New York City, where 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 U.S. My kids were born in Italy and my husband is Italian,” said Chirichella, who first started looking into renouncing her U.S. citizenship right after her Italian citizenship came through and she gave birth to her first child in Italy.

The decision she’s weighing is unmotivated by U.S. politics, she said. And she said she’s not considering it for financial reasons either.

“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 said.

Reducing her passport collection to that of the country she’s committed to living in, she said, will hopefully help uncloud this perspective.

Not a simple process

U.S. citizens can only renounce citizenship if they can prove they have the legal right to live somewhere else.

“You cannot renounce your U.S. citizenship without another citizenship, so you have to have that first,” confirmed Durlacher.

As part of the renouncing process, U.S. tax returns from the five years prior to renouncing must be filed and up to date.

Separate rules and taxes apply to people with more than $2 million in assets who are looking to renounce, among other varied scenarios, said Tiegerman.

“The reporting is very complicated, so you really want to work with someone who’s either a licensed lawyer or a CPA,” in particular someone with international experience, he said.

Every four years, coinciding with the U.S. presidential election cycle, Tiegerman said his firm sees an uptick in inquiries from potential and current clients about renouncing U.S. citizenship and the implications that come with 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 said.

Paying taxes in the U.S. can be particularly frustrating for “accidental Americans,” many of whom have never even lived in the United States during their working years.

FATCA’s effects can be far-reaching, said Fabien Lehagre, president and founder of the Paris-based Association of Accidental Americans, who is also 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 ‘U.S. persons’ for fear of the 30 per cent withholding penalty provided for under U.S. 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 accidental Americans, he told CNN in an email.

And the term “accidental Americans” refers to a global population far more diverse than one might imagine, Lehagre said, adding that there are an estimated 300,000 people throughout Europe that fall into this category (40,000 in France alone).

“The main obstacle, for accidental Americans who retain their citizenship, lies in U.S. extraterritorial laws that make a normal financial life extremely difficult in Europe,” he said.

The term mainly concerns individuals born in the United States during a brief stay by their parent(s) and those who left U.S. territory as children, possibly as infants, he said.

“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 U.S. passport nor a Social Security Number, and discover their status late, often through a letter from their bank requesting them to provide a U.S. Tax Identification Number,” said Lehagre.

Ready to ‘put my money where my mouth is’

For those who’ve been considering renouncing, the recent fee reduction might help to put the process into motion.

Originally from Missouri, Jennifer Sontag — a dual U.S. and Italian citizen who lives in Sicily and owns a relocation agency, ViaMonde — says she’s been talking about renouncing her U.S. citizenship for years and feels motivated to finally get it done now that the fee has been substantially reduced.

Sontag, 53, left the U.S. for good in 2018, calling Trump’s election in 2016 “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” She received her Italian citizenship through ancestry in 2021 and said she’s ready to “put my money where my mouth is” and renounce her U.S. citizenship.

Sontag is currently in the process of having her accountants audit everything from her business for the past seven years, and then she will make an appointment at a consulate in Rome or Naples — wherever an appointment opens up soonest — to take the oath and renounce.

The process of getting all her affairs in order has been a nightmare, she said, since it requires a “huge audit” of her Italian business using U.S. accounting rules.

“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 U.S. It’s one of two countries in the entire world with taxes based on citizenship,” Sontag said.

She’s “ready to divest from the U.S.,” she said. And while her decision to renounce feels like a relief, Sontag also feels sad to let go of this part 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 said.

Profound effects of shedding citizenship

Many people don’t fully think through what renouncing citizenship can mean, said Brad Bernstein, president and managing partner of The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, a New York City-based immigration and personal injury firm.

U.S. citizenship comes with major advantages, he said, including strong global mobility and access to many countries without needing a visa.

“After you renounce, you’re no longer a U.S. citizen. You’re treated like any other foreign national. If you want to come back to the U.S. 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 email to CNN.

People often underestimate what renouncing means and may be met with regret later, he said, adding that renouncing is not a decision that should be based on “short-term thinking” or “small financial matters.”

“Saving a few thousand dollars shouldn’t be what drives a decision this serious,” he said. “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 at the University of Minnesota, said renouncing U.S. citizenship can have profound effects in other ways, 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 said.

Shedding a competing national identity can help with that, putting those who renounce citizenship more in line with how they want to see themselves.

“And that has implications for how you feel. It’s part of emotional regulation,” Lavine said.

For Chirichella, who’s still in the figuring-things-out phase of the process, until her decision is final, it’s one she said she won’t be taking lightly.

“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 per cent. Once I renounce my citizenship, I can’t get it back.”

Reflecting is important, said Durlacher.

While he respects the reasons for wanting to renounce US citizenship — political or otherwise — he always leaves those he advises with one thought: “Being a U.S. citizen, you still have a vote,” he said.

“That’s why I’m still a U.S. citizen.”

By Terry Ward, CNN

​​Florida-based travel writer Terry Ward lives in Tampa and is awaiting a decision on her Italian citizenship.