Renunciation of citizenship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Renunciation is a voluntary act of relinquishing one's citizenship (or nationality). It is the opposite of naturalization whereby a person voluntarily acquires a citizenship, and related to denaturalization where, however, the loss of citizenship is not voluntary, but forced by a state.

1 In law
2 Regulations in different countries
3 Political radicals in the United States
4 References

[edit] In law

Renunciation of citizenship is particularly relevant in cases of multiple citizenship, given that additional citizenships may be acquired automatically and may be undesirable. Many countries have pragmatic policies that recognize the often arbitrary nature of citizenship claims of other countries and negative consequences, such as loss of security clearance, can mostly be expected only for actively exercising foreign citizenship, for instance by obtaining a foreign passport. However, some people - in particular politicians and government officials - may wish to be free even of the purely theoretical obligations and appearance of dual loyalty that another citizenship implies.

Another relevant case may be political refugees who may wish to renounce allegiance to the country they have escaped.

Renunciation of citizenship has also been used to avoid tax obligations (see tax haven), in particular in countries which tie taxation to citizenship in addition to residence.

In one case (Vincent Cate^[1]), an encryption expert living in Anguilla chose to renounce his US citizenship to avoid the possibility of violating US laws that may prohibit US citizens from "exporting" encryption software.

[edit] Regulations in different countries

Each country sets its own policies for formal renunciation of citizenship. There is a common concern that a person about to relinquish their citizenship do not become a stateless person and many countries require evidence of another citizenship or an official promise to grant citizenship before they release that person from citizenship.

Some countries may not allow renunciation of citizenship or establish administrative procedures that are essentially impossible to complete.

Renunciation of citizenship is the most straightforward in those countries that recognize and strictly enforce a single citizenship. Thus, voluntary naturalization in another country is considered as "giving up" of one's citizenship or implicit renunciation. For practical reasons, such an automatic renunciation cannot officially take place until the authorities of the original country are informed about the naturalization. In Japan, a formal report is required from the renouncing person to be submitted at an embassy. Germany actively investigates whether its citizens living abroad have naturalized there when they apply for a passport, for instance in Canada they have to submit a search of citizenship record.

The United States has one of the simplest renunciation procedures ^[2] that requires only personal appearance before a diplomatic representative abroad. The U.S. law is not concerned whether or not the renouncing person will become stateless. The formal confirmation of the loss of U.S. citizenship is provided by the Certificate of Loss of Nationality.

Canada and Australia are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and renunciation is possible only if it will not result in statelessness [1] [2]. Applications for renunciation of citizenship need to be submitted in those countries with a waiting time of several months until approval.

[edit] Political radicals in the United States

In the United States, various radical organizations and individuals, sometimes collectively called the Sovereign Citizen Movement, attempt to renounce U.S. citizenship while remaining "common law" citizens of their states or counties. This is typically done to avoid payment of debts or taxes, as a form of tax protest. They claim various legal bases for doing so; these typically involve claims that the Fourteenth Amendment created a new and more onerous form of national citizenship that can be renounced by U.S. citizens, or that the U.S. government has enslaved its citizens by using them as collateral for foreign debts, but that through various documentary maneuvers you can "redeem" yourself from this servitude. A conspiracy theory explains why these secret legal maneuvers are not better known, and why public officials refuse to accept the claims made for them.

These maneuvers have no legal effect under U.S. law.^[3] Renunciation of any sort of U.S. citizenship must be done on foreign soil.^[4]