Ella Heyder is bracing for a breakup, even though she already moved out decades ago.
She’s contemplating cutting ties altogether with her home country, the United States of America, and President Donald Trump.
“I’m quite disturbed by what’s happening in the U.S. under Trump’s regime. It’s a fascist, imperialist regime,” Heyder said as she and others waved signs outside the American Embassy in Ottawa during what has become a twice-weekly protest against the current U.S. administration.
“It makes me a little bit ashamed. It makes me feel very sad,” she said.
For decades, Heyder has carried two passports. While she grew up in Norfolk, Va., Canada has her loyalty, and she figures a permanent split is inevitable.
Better fun fact from the article …
It’s better, but it’s not enough. IRS will hunt you down for like 7 years after you renounce.
Meanwhile you’re a persona non grata in your own home country because no banks want to deal with their reporting requirements (FATCA).
I had been living in a foreign country legally as a tourist for about 6 years.
I was not able to open a local bank account here because of that reporting requirement.
After getting married and getting residency they allowed it.
It may depend on the country and even the institution. I know of dual citizens from my home country, Norway, who were denied financial services there despite being born there and having citizenship.
If you’re moving back permanently the only sane thing to do is to renounce US citizenship ASAP to get the clock started on becoming a non-US person.
However, I’m staying, because I have a wife and children here who are all single-citizenship natural born US citizens.
If those are your children, wouldn’t they automatically get your citizenship?
No. Rules vary country to country. My children could have filed to get one of they did before age 21 and had spent something like 6 months total in Norway before that age. They’re past that and they didn’t have enough time in the country, though they have visited. They can still apply on grounds of my citizenship at the time of their birth, but it’s a much longer process and they’d need to learn the language. If they have a spouse or children, they would have to go through that as well. Norway is harder to immigrate to than most countries.
If I had only predicted the demise of democracy 28 years ago, when I moved, I would have made sure they learned the language and had dual citizenship. Alas that didn’t happen. These days there are online schools and such we could have used so it’s a little easier and I see that lots of parentsb these days do exactly that.
We had no issues in the Netherlands. We did stick to the largest banks, who might have an easier time dealing with the additional regulatory compliance.
We had no trouble opening a bank account in Germany as a US citizen residing on a EU Blue Card visa.
I’ll admit my evidence is only anecdotal, but it was what pretty recent (many others said they had no problem some years ago) and as mentioned in Norway not Germany.
My impression from that discussion is that the requirements have become stricter and the banks etc have no obligation to do business with you and will simply say no. That still leaves them open to allow it if they want your business anyway.
You’re not the only one reporting those kinds of issues. My account was recent (last four months) too, but it was also with one of the biggest banks too. I could see how smaller banks would have more hurdles with how crazy the US regulations are getting. It places huge reporting burdens.
Are you saying FATCA continues to apply for 7 years after renouncing?
That was from memory. I’ll have to find it. My understanding (I’ll try to find references or retract my statement after work) is that at a minimum you have to file a tax return or submit some other form as long as you are a US person or up to 7? years after renouncing your citizenship or losing green card status.
Even if I was mistaken, it’s hella complicated and expensive.
Edit: Okay, tried to find where I originally read that and came up empty. I found that there is expatriation tax and a form 8854^1^2 you can file. There is a 5-year compliance rule that maybe is what I was thinking of. Either way, talk to an accountant if you’re planning to move. I think I’d rather piss off the Yakuza than the IRS in terms of who can make your life suck more.