And in state and local elections. You can opt out for the lesser ones and have them send you a ballot just for the national elections if you want. I still vote in all.
Just a guess, but possibly they register using a relative’s address as their legal domicile.
If their births were registered in the states their parents resided in at the time, then they’d be eligible to vote by absentee ballot in those states. If their births weren’t registered, they’re not US citizens (though they’re entitled to automatic citizenship).
Some states allow people who were never residents of the US to vote if their parents are eligible to vote in the state.
That’s a matter for states and localities to decide. California, the state where I’m registered, only allows it if you’re (a) military or (b) living abroad only temporarily.
Where I’m registered, the county clerk/voter registrar knows the specifics of my case. We’ve corresponded a lot by e-mail, and I have the impression the elephant-themed stamps on the envelopes my ballots are mailed back in are a big hit in the office.
Not true. I thought this way until very recently as well. Actually, they ARE US citizens as far as the IRS is concerned. My bet is too that they could show proof of an American parent and get a passport very quickly. Not that I would recommend that though, especially if they plan to live overseas.
The last DOJ/IRS case was against a Dutch guy, who didn’t have US Citizenship but he lives there. Because he never delcared his accounts, he was forced to cough up about 2 million, if I remember correctly.
So if your friends move to America, they must declare their accounts very quickly, or else suffer the same fate. I’m just saying because I doubt customs gives anyone a pamphlet that says that.
Ok, if you don’t live in America, why should your only options to park your money, be:
All this amounts to is capital controls, and a blatant restriction on Americans abroad. If someone IS actually making money in a backass country with a terrible banking system, they are screwed by this. I don’t really care so much because it won’t be my problem for very much longer. 
That sounds like it borders on illegality. But not my place to decide. I have lived in several US states, and yeah, at least of few of them don’t want to deal with you if you live abroad permanently. This is on a wide range of services like driving records, criminal background checks, etc..
I’m sure someone will come on here to tell me how wrong I am, and how the services are all th same. Yeah right! I have been told “Sorry, we can’t help you” by at least 3 departments in different states.
US Expat = oxymoron 
, unfortunately.
Well, I don’t think international banking is a human right, I guess. It seems to me that having the option to bank in the country where you reside is fairly fundamental, but for all 7 billion humans to have the option to open accounts in any random country would bring drawbacks (tax evasion, money laundering, screwing over their own country in favour of Switzerland) but no benefits to society at large.
The example I gave you about Argentina was spot-on. How do you think the people felt when the government froze their bank accounts and eventually the peple lost 75% of the value in their accounts. This kind of control is great for governments, but terrible for people. But people who had kept money in Urugay banks had no such problem. I guess that’s why a preferred banking spot for Argentinians is Urugay.
Swiss bank accounts are overrated and expensive. They usually have high maintenance fees and you pay a percentage for the “insurance”.
I don’t see offshore banking as “cheating” I see it as insurance. Even where I live, I know many people, even here, who get dollar accounts or Euro accounts in other countries. They always declare these accounts on their yearly taxes so when they need to bring the money here, there will be no problems. The reason WHY these people have these accounts is because nobody call tell you what’s going to definitively happen in the future.
My gripe is my compatriots who I live with can open these types of accounts, but I can’t because I have a blue passport!! (for now)
I don’t see any legal issue with states’ denying the vote to people who don’t live there anymore. You’re not paying taxes there and not subject to their laws in any way that I can think of. The vote in federal elections is a different story.
I completely agree. I am shocked at this. That seems so…I don’t know…unfair isn’t the right word. If you have never lived here or paid taxes or anything how do you get to say who leads?
Expatriate US citizens do pay taxes.
Oh well if that’s the case then that’s different. But not paying taxes and getting to vote?..
They may pay taxes, if taxes are owed. Take me for example, I’m going to have to pay around a couple of thousand for capital gains from a brokerage account I have there. But what kind of services has AmeriKa provided me with? Nothing, zip, zilch, zero in the last 6 years.
AmeriKa wants all of the benefits from US expats, but the US doesn’t want to spend one dime. We even pay for all of the services at the consulates. To renounce it costs $450 and for them it is minimal work.
But that $450 is a good deal to not have to file zero taxes owed for the rest of one’s life. I can’t wait to pay it.
In Australia it is due to privacy legislation. We are required by the US government to send US customer details to them and well our laws make this very difficult for Australian Banks. I would think that you might have an easier time with a US based bank, but that is only a guess.
And Canadian banks too.
Nothing prevents you from going down to the consulate and telling them to stuff it and thereafter not paying taxes anyway. You won’t because you want something from “AmeriKa”: the opportunity to move back there one day.
This is what some people just don’t understand: I don’t want to move back there one day. Ok.. maybe if I could collect Welfare. I’m perfectly happy living overseas in Europe or South America. I’m 35 now, but since I was 18, I have only lived in the US for 5 years, and I hated those 5 years. That was just to use up my GI Bill that I had earned after 8 years of military service. And you may say “You were educated in America! You owe America” Guess what! I went to private schools, and my degrees aren’t even **valid **where I live. They are just pretty pieces of paper in my life.
Most of us, the people in my situation, have perfectly functioning lives overseas with families, jobs, and friends. We don’t need anything from America and we resent the extra baggage that US citizenship requires. I think being denied a bank account because of my place of birth is the stupidest things I have ever seen. But with the other dumb laws in SSR-AmeriKa, I’m not surprised.
Actually, that is a dumb move and I would NEVER recommend defying the US/IRS in any way. In every case where I have seen that, those people were extradited and thrown in jail in SSR-AmeriKa. Yeah, real freedom of speech!
I’m just saying why I want to renounce. I know lotsa overseas Americans and they are happy to keep US Citizenship. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I have a feeling I’ll be telling them “I told you so” in a couple of years.