----------------------------------------
Renunciation
February 03rd, 2024
----------------------------------------
On Feb 2, 2024 I formally renounced my US citizenship at the US
Embassy in Reykjavik Iceland.
It's been a while coming. In fact, I knew this was something
I wanted to strongly consider before we left the country. I had
rough plans for ~5 years abroad, and it happened at 4.7 years.
Pretty accurate!
I started the formal process back in October when I notified the
embassy of my intentions. There were some back and forth emails
and I eventually received an appointment date. I had to fill out
a lot of repetitive forms, have a phone call that repeated what
was on the forms, and finally have the in-person appointment where
it was all repeated again.
Once the forms and signing were done I got to stand up in front of
a flag I was literally telling these people I don't care about and
I got to say a formal oath of un-American-ing. Or something. It
was very bazaar. Like, who was the oath for exactly? They didn't
record it or anything. It was so performative.
Speaking of performative, the consular officer I met with was
pretty creepy, in that Stepford Wives sort of way. She had
a really fake pleasant thing going on, and offered up small talk
that was not really small talk. She kept asking questions, "just
out of curiosity," which were obviously designed to probe me about
my reasoning. Which was strange, since they literally ask about
the reasoning.
Why do they do that? Well, there's one very special provision in
the middle of all the lists. It says something to the effect of,
"If the Attorney General decides you are doing this for tax
avoidance you can be banned from entering the US." I think the
questions were to see if that was my reasoning.
Thankfully, that's not my reason! My reason is that America is
a shitbag. It was founded on racism, has been responsible for
countless atrocities even before its founding, continues to impose
horrible ethics upon the world at the end of a gun, and
indoctrinates its people in a cult of self delusion. But yeah,
getting taxed as an expat is pretty annoying too. Not that I avoid
it, it's just annoying.
So yeah, I'm done! It's both official and not official. It's
official in all the ways that count outside the US. It's not
official yet in the US as that requires them to do some absurd
amount of paperwork or something and it'll take months. Right now
I don't have my passport because they took it, but it technically
is still issued and valid. So in a few months when I fly through
the US with my Italian passport and an ESTA, I risk a border
patrol agent deciding that's interesting enough to make my day
horrible. I don't really have any recourse, but then again that
could have happened for no reason at all. That's how America rolls
for anyone with a badge. ACAB, bitches.
Oh! It cost me $2,300 to renounce. That's a nice little extra
bullshit on top, isn't it? Whatever. It's done. I'm free. No, not
like in America, actually free.
I'm an Italian citizen, though I've never lived in Italy and
haven't spent a total of a full month in the country in my life.
I'd like to spend more time there eventually. We've been
discussing that in the 6-8 year timeframe it would be great to buy
a flat in Italy to spend our winters. Wit will be out of school by
then so it shouldn't create schedule problems. I work remotely, so
as long as we find some place with decent internet it will be
great. And lets face it, Iceland is amazing, but it sucks monkey
butt in January and February.
So yeah, I'll get around to brushing up on my Italian and we'll
look into splitting up the year. Who knows, maybe when I'm ready
to retire I'll like that more than Iceland (I doubt it). Then
again, I really love it here. I have about 2 and a half more years
before I can apply for citizenship here. That will bring my
passport count back up to two!
Plans, plans, plans. Sometimes they work out.