After years of legal challenges over the price of giving up U.S. citizenship, the State Department has cut the renunciation fee by about 80%, moving it from $2,350 to $450. The department said the change is set to begin April 13 and was formalized in a final rule published in the Federal Register.
The department said the new reduced fee follows a promise it made in 2023 but that had not previously been put into effect. The State Department also said the $450 figure is back in line with what it charged when it first began collecting a renunciation fee in 2010.
State Department officials previously raised the fee from $450 to $2,350 in 2015, describing the higher cost as tied to administrative expenses. The AP reported that the increase was implemented as demand for renouncing citizenship surged, in part because changes to U.S. tax reporting requirements for certain expatriates angered some Americans living abroad who wanted to relinquish citizenship.
The fee increase drew organized opposition, including litigation involving groups that represent Americans who live outside the United States and who say their U.S. citizenship is tied only to being born in the country. In the AP report, the Association of Accidental Americans, based in France, said it filed multiple lawsuits challenging the fee and arguing that the Constitution does not allow a charge for renouncing citizenship.
Fabien Lehagre, the association’s president, said in a statement that the group “welcomes this decision” and described it as recognizing “the need to make accessible to all this fundamental right.” He added that the outcome was the result of what he characterized as six years of legal advocacy.
In court filings, the association told the court that from the time of the 2023 announcement that the fee would be reduced, at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 amount to renounce their citizenship. The State Department did not provide figures on how many people overall have renounced their citizenship, AP reported.
The State Department’s renunciation process requires applicants to make repeated confirmations—through written and verbal statements to a consular official—before they are permitted to take a formal oath of renunciation, and the department then reviews the application before proceeding. The fee cut changes one part of that broader, multi-step administrative process but could reduce the cost barrier for would-be expatriates.
Correction: This story was corrected to note that the reduced fees take effect April 13.