Renouncing US Citizenship: The Appointment, the Paperwork, and the Things Nobody Tells You

Renunciation of US citizenship occurs at a US embassy or consulate outside the United States. You cannot renounce at a US domestic office — the process must occur abroad. You schedule an appointment specifically for renunciation. At the appointment, a consular officer will conduct an interview to verify that you understand the nature and consequences of the act — specifically, that it is voluntary and irrevocable, and that you understand you will not be able to return to the United States as a citizen or use a US passport after renouncing.

The documents involved are Form DS-4080 (Oath/Affirmation of Renunciation of Nationality) and Form DS-4081 (Statement of Understanding Concerning the Consequences and Ramifications of Relinquishment or Renunciation of US Nationality). You sign both under oath in the presence of the consular officer. There is a $2,350 administrative fee payable at the appointment. The fee is non-refundable and must be paid regardless of outcome.

The consular officer submits your case to the Department of State in Washington, which reviews and approves the renunciation. The Certificate of Loss of Nationality is then issued — this is the official document confirming that you have relinquished citizenship. The CLN is not issued at the appointment; it typically arrives several months later, mailed to the address you provide. Your citizenship technically ends on the date of the consular oath, not the date the CLN is issued — but the CLN is the document that proves it.

Appointment availability varies significantly by consulate. Major English-speaking or high-demand locations — London, Toronto, Sydney, Dublin, Amsterdam, Zurich, Singapore — have historically had the longest wait times, often six months to over a year. Smaller consulates in less-trafficked locations may have considerably shorter availability.

The practical consequence: the renunciation date is not entirely within your control. You can select a consulate based on availability, but you cannot simply choose a date and appear. Your departure sequencing — when you arrive in the second country, when your residency is established, when you are prepared from a tax compliance perspective — must account for a potentially extended wait between when you submit your appointment request and when the appointment actually occurs.

This matters for the tax timeline. If you arrive in your destination country in January, establish residency, and expect to renounce in March, but the earliest appointment is October, you spend seven months as a US citizen in a foreign country — with all the FBAR, FATCA, and US tax filing obligations that entails. That is not a problem, but it must be planned for rather than discovered after arrival.

The consular officer's job is to verify that you understand the nature of the act and to process the paperwork. It is not to advise you on the tax consequences of renunciation. The IRS filing obligations that follow the consular appointment — the final US tax return, Form 8854, the exit tax calculation if applicable, the final FBAR — are not discussed at the consulate. The consular officer will not ask whether you have addressed your prior five years of compliance. They will not mention that failing to file Form 8854 results in automatic covered expatriate status. Those obligations exist whether or not they are mentioned.

Americans who leave the consulate having completed the renunciation oath sometimes assume their US obligations are finished. They are not. The consular appointment terminates your citizenship. The IRS process — the final return, Form 8854, the final FBAR — terminates your tax status. These are separate events and both must be completed for the exit to be administratively clean.

After the consular appointment, in rough sequence: surrender your US passport (or have it cancelled), wait for the CLN, file your final US tax return with Form 8854 attached, file your final FBAR for the year of renunciation covering through the renunciation date, notify US financial institutions of your former-citizen status, and — if you held US deferred compensation accounts — manage the withholding implications for future distributions.

The CLN itself becomes a document you will use repeatedly in subsequent years — for foreign bank account applications, for documenting your status when receiving US-source income as a non-resident alien, and for any US tax or legal matter where your former citizenship is relevant. Keep multiple certified copies.