How do I go about renouncing my U.S. citizenship?

[Elendil's Heir]

An oldie but a goodie: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_229.html

An earlier thread that may be of interest (I referred to the Manashian case in post 14): http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=365078

And lastly, a typographical suggestion: the references to the U.S. State Department are inconsistent. Usually it's (properly) capitalized. However, it's lowercase in numbered paragraph (3) of Cecil's column, numbered paragraph (5) of Jose Diaz's story, and in [Little Ed's bracketed reference].

[JRDelirious]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

And lastly, a typographical suggestion: the references to the U.S. State Department are inconsistent. Usually it's (properly) capitalized. However, it's lowercase in numbered paragraph (3) of Cecil's column, numbered paragraph (5) of Jose Diaz's story, and in [Little Ed's bracketed reference].

Looked into it, being one of the parties to the correspondence in question. In this case there is a difference between the online material and the print published version -- In the paperback The Straight Dope Tells All, pages 231-234, it is properly capitalized, so it may be that the online version was copied more immediately from drafts/e-mails before the style editing for publishing. My first correspondence with Cecil and later with Zotti on the issue was in '97 (that's before I joined the SDMB but I was already a regular at alt.fan.cecil-adams) and I would not be surprised it did go out missing that.

[TubaDiva]

I point out that since this column was first produced it has been through more than one editor in more than one location including the Chicago Reader, AOL, and Ballantine Books. All have their own editors and their own styles.

Lemme ask Ed what to do in this instance.

[Johnny L.A.]

(2) Apply for citizenship somewhere else. Strictly speaking this is optional, in the sense that it's optional to put on the parachute before you jump out of the plane. But if you're a stateless person living abroad and you get in a jam with the local authorities, or you want to get a passport to travel to yet another country (or back to this one), you're up fecal matter creek.

What if you renounce your citizenship and you haven't applied for citizenship elsewhere? You're hanging out in Italy or someplace, and suddenly you're not a U.S. citizen. The Italian (or wherever) government says, 'You must leave.' But as pointed out, you don't have a passport. Do they deport you? Where to? Or do they lock you up as an illegal immigrant until such time as you can find someplace to go (while being locked up)?

[Johnny L.A.]

OK, I hadn't read the second link when I posted that. That link had a link to a government page.

Nonetheless, renunciation of U.S. citizenship may not prevent a foreign country from deporting that individual back to the United States in some non-citizen status.

So in the scenario above, the government would (or could) deport the ex-citizen back to the U.S. But would the U.S. be required to accept him? I know that there have been people confined for years here in prisons while awaiting a determination of their status.

[Elendil's Heir]

There's always the guy whose story was fictionalized in the Tom Hanks movie The Airport: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=288643

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

There's always the guy whose story was fictionalized in the Tom Hanks movie The Airport: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=288643

The movie was The Terminal, of course. Duh.

[Elendil's Heir]

Looks like there's an uptick in American expats seeking to do so: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us....html?emc=eta1

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

What if you renounce your citizenship and you haven't applied for citizenship elsewhere? You're hanging out in Italy or someplace, and suddenly you're not a U.S. citizen. The Italian (or wherever) government says, 'You must leave.' But as pointed out, you don't have a passport. Do they deport you? Where to? Or do they lock you up as an illegal immigrant until such time as you can find someplace to go (while being locked up)?

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

OK, I hadn't read the second link when I posted that. That link had a link to a government page.

So in the scenario above, the government would (or could) deport the ex-citizen back to the U.S. But would the U.S. be required to accept him? I know that there have been people confined for years here in prisons while awaiting a determination of their status.

Hasn't the US done that in the past? For instance, with certain mafiosi. Stripped of citizenship and deported back to Italy. Or did they still hold dual nationality?

The main reason Americans and other Westerners take Thai citizenship is for the fantastic tax breaks in business and benefits like being able to own land. They're supposed to renounce their old citizenship, as Thailand does not allow dual nationalities for adults -- children must decided which nationality to take upon reaching legal age in the event the parents are not both Thai -- but usually they don't really do so. No one checks, and they tend to retain their original nationality on the sly. There is one prominent white American businessman here, very prominent, who has Thai citizenship, but no one believes he really renounced his US status.

[Elendil's Heir]

Bumping this thread, since Cecil's column is back on the front page.

[colonial]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

Bumping this thread, since Cecil's column is back on the front page.

Link?

I really do want a link because I hate to miss anything written by and about our Master.

However, this post is also partly a ploy to knock that goddam stupid jerkoff-shrunkdick thread out of the most recently viewed position, forcing me to look at the title half the time I navigate to the site home page.

How administration could fail to appreciate how stupid such a title makes the entire site look to first-time viewers is beyond me.

That is, to the caliber of first-time viewers we might want as new members.

There are of course lots of people who will never make it past a mental age of 13 who will see it and sign right up.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by colonial

Link?

I really do want a link because I hate to miss anything written by and about our Master....

See the original post.

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Siam Sam

They're supposed to renounce their old citizenship, as Thailand does not allow dual nationalities for adults -- children must decided which nationality to take upon reaching legal age in the event the parents are not both Thai -- but usually they don't really do so. No one checks, and they tend to retain their original nationality on the sly. There is one prominent white American businessman here, very prominent, who has Thai citizenship, but no one believes he really renounced his US status.

Well, it turns out that is not true, at least not anymore. An American friend just obtained Thai citizenship, a five-year effort, and he was not asked to renounce his US citizenship. He has three children with his Thai wife, and he's pretty sure they will be able to keep their dual nationalities in the future (although being a military officer -- not being in the military, but rather being an officer -- is not condoned by the other country).

[colonial]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

See the original post.

I understood your post #10 to indicate there might be a recent update to OP.

And I am getting damn sick and tired of that transsexual thread too. This thread of yours should come in handy for knocking that one off the site HP too.

[Elendil's Heir]

No, it's just that the column itself was (at the time I last posted) back on the front page of the Dope.

[colonial]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

No, it's just that the column itself was (at the time I last posted) back on the front page of the Dope.

(1) Thanks for the reply.

(2) Time to start bumping the word castration off HP whenever I see it.

[colonial]

I believe a "Thanks again" might be in order:

As soon as "masturbation" and "transsexual" get bumped into oblivion
"castration" and most recently "faggot" show signs of becoming permanent
HP fixtures. 50+ replies, several of them quite lengthy, should be more
than enough to cover the etymology of any word.

[bigkimshew]

if u do,they treat u like in the story"man w/out a country."cant come back ever.denial of visa.vindictive,heh>

[Irishman]

You gotta cite for that, or just like spouting off in gibberish? Note to bigkimshew, this isn't Twitter. You can actually type full words, use spaces and capitalization, and don't need random periods between words.

[colonial]

Originally Posted by bigkimshew

if u do,they treat u like in the story"man w/out a country."cant come back ever.denial of visa.vindictive,heh>

Not a great first post.

[colonial]

Thanks again.

[colonial]

Again redux.

[colonial]

Again trifecta.

[C K Dexter Haven]

colonial: I don't get what you're doing here. Bumping threads once because you're hoping for more response, OK, that's fine. Bumping threads over and over in the hope that some dead threads (to which no one is posting) will replace live threads (to which people are posting) from the front page... just because you don't like that topic? That strikes me as pretty close to being a jerk.

Do not do this again.

Of course, I realize that my posting has bumped the thread yet again, but this is the last time. And my post does have content: it is a friendly reminder to you that the ice here is very, very thin.