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About 30,000 American citizens living abroad did not manage to give it up during the pandemic period, reports the British The Guardian.
Such is the case of Michael who already considers his country the United States as an abusive parent.
“I accept my previous relationships with that ‘person’ but I want to keep future relationships with him as minimal as possible.”
Michael – a fake name for the interviewee who asked for anonymity – revealed that his dissatisfaction with the country of birth peaked in 2020. The chaotic process of the 2020 presidential election and the inequalities exposed by the Covid pandemic, made him desperate for the fact that he was American.
“The coronavirus made me realize that in the US, if you are not part of the money elite, you just have to survive without any help from the federal government,” he said.
“The farce of the presidential campaign made me realize that I do not want to be a member of a society where my vote is invalidated by manipulation or by the ‘electoral college’.”
So Michael decided to give up American citizenship after living in Finland for 10 years.
But like thousands of his compatriots living abroad, he found himself trapped in a “Kafkaesque” trap.
For nearly two years, since the 2020 pandemic, US consular services around the world had suspended the citizenship resignation process.
For this service the American state requires an interview with the person present, but this was made impossible by the pandemic.
Calculations say they are about 30,000 of the 9 million Americans living abroad who want to resign but cannot get it.
Joshua Grant was born and raised in Selma, Alabama, but when he was 21 he moved to Germany to learn the language.
He has since lived in Lower Saxony and last year married a German. To get German citizenship he has to give up American citizenship, but even for him this is not something simple.
Nine other U.S. citizens who can not give up citizenship have already sued the state department in Washington.
The lawsuit filed against them with the help of a French advocacy group compares the situation to feudal times.
“The United States seems determined to stop citizens from exercising their natural and fundamental right to renounce their citizenship.” stated in the lawsuit.
James, one of the plaintiffs, says: “I did not apply for US citizenship, no one asked me when they gave it to me, and now they do not allow me to give it up.”
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