# Can I renounce my citizenship? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488 "2006-03-30T01:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/41 "2014-12-12T02:00:26Z")
Are there any countries that hand citizenship out like candy i.e. you don’t need to be rich or live there for years? Need answer fast. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/42 "2014-12-12T02:22:29Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > So they stay in the US as long as it’s economically advantageous, then want to bow out of a good part of the bill for that rewarding life by moving somewhere they aren’t taxed on their investments and property… but somewhere they’d still be a fieldhand or a seamstress at their age. > > No respect for this mindset, at all. Let Unca Sam shake them down on exit. I’m not sure I quite agree with this. I don’t think the basic premise ever was, or at least ever should have been, that this country or the state you live in “gives” you stuff. Depending on your individual situation, it might amount to that on the great balance sheet at the end of your life, but I don’t think this invalidates my assertion. The services and infrastructure you get from the government are something that you typically help to fund through the taxes you pay throughout your working life, or in the case of local taxes most likely your entire life. With regard to deferred-tax investments like IRAs and vested pensions, I certainly agree that the government should get its cut just as they would if the individual still lives here, so why can’t it work the same way for expats? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/43 "2015-02-15T20:07:47Z")
A small group, to be sure, but a record number of Americans gave up U.S. citizenship last year: [Record number of Americans giving up their citizenship](http://www.aol.com/article/2015/02/15/record-number-of-americans-giving-up-their-citizenship/21142876/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D613506) ---
**Author:** ![Postariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Postariti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Postariti)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/44 "2015-02-15T21:13:19Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > The [Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1996](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/(E)%20Former%20citizens%20who%20renounced%20citizenship%20to%20avoid%20taxation) provides that those who renounce US citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxes are no longer admissable to the US. I don’t know if there is a case where it has actually been enforced. I know this post is a couple of years old, but in case anyone is interested - [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ver) is someone who has been denied a visa because he renounced his citizenship to avoid taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/45 "2015-02-16T02:10:22Z")
> [@Postariti](#): > > I know this post is a couple of years old, but in case anyone is interested - [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ver) is someone who has been denied a visa because he renounced his citizenship to avoid taxes. Ah but suppose you renounced to avoid filing tax returns? I have faithfully filed US tax returns for 47 years and never paid a cent of taxes (except on some US investments where the tax was deducted at source). ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/46 "2015-02-16T02:16:27Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Are there any countries that hand citizenship out like candy i.e. you don’t need to be rich or live there for years? > > Need answer fast. Israel has the Law of Return, which obviously has a requirement or two attached but technically doesn’t require wealth or any particular length of residency. Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/47 "2015-02-16T02:42:26Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Israel has the Law of Return, which obviously has a requirement or two attached but technically doesn’t require wealth or any particular length of residency. > > Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. But you must be Jewish, correct? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/48 "2015-02-16T03:20:00Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But you must be Jewish, correct? You need at least one Jewish grandparent, of either gender, and through either the maternal or paternal line. You don’t have to be Jewish in the rabbinical understanding. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/49 "2015-02-16T04:03:06Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > You need at least one Jewish grandparent, of either gender, and through either the maternal or paternal line. You don’t have to be Jewish in the rabbinical understanding. [Oswald Rufeisen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Rufeisen), ethnic Jew who converted and was denied right of return. This was the 60s, don’t know if this has changed. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/50 "2015-02-16T04:20:28Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > [Oswald Rufeisen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Rufeisen), ethnic Jew who converted and was denied right of return. This was the 60s, don’t know if this has changed. The original Law of Return didn’t clarify exactly what was meant by “Jewish”. An amendment in 1970 set out the general rule that you need one Jewish grandparent, as stated. The thinking, I believe, is that if you are Jewish enough to have been persecuted by the Nazis, then you are Jewish enough to seek a home in Israel. That doesn’t absolutely guarantee admission, though. Even if you meet the grandparent test they can exclude you on other grounds - if you’re a fugitive from justice, have been convicted of serious crimes, pose a danger to the state of Israel, etc. This doesn’t arise that often, and when it does it’s not an automatic bar; it just gives the authorities grounds to knock you back if they are minded to do so. There is also an exception for someone “who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his/her religion”. Thus someone who has been raised as a Christian, but has a Jewish grandparent, is fine, but someone who has voluntarily converted to Christianity can be excluded even though, halikhically, he remains Jewish and, historically, he would have been persecuted by the Nazis as a Jew. This looks like an attempt to confirm by legislation the judgment in the Rufeisen case that you mention. I don’t know the rationale for this exception, but I expect it has to do with voluntary conversion being seen as an attempt to repudiate Judaism, and a sense that you can’t simultaneously repudiate your Judaism and seek to take advantage of it. It doesn’t bar you from immigration; it just means you don’t have an automatic right of entry under the Law of Return. I suspect if you were actually being persecuted as a Jew and had no other way of escape, the Israeli government would not invoke this clause against you, but I don’t actually know that. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/51 "2015-02-16T12:58:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But you must be Jewish, correct? Yes, that’s the “requirement or two” I was referring to. Sorry about that; understatement doesn’t always come across well in plain text. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488/52 "2015-02-16T17:53:44Z")
I think Israel’s situation is kind of unique. I was thinking of somewhere like Chad or Detroit with, “You have $5 in your pocket and are willing to live here? Congratulations New Citizen.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-renounce-my-citizenship/350488.md?page=2)