Does anybody else get the feeling that our government is running a protection racket like in those old mob movies?

Frakkin' hell! $82 to add pages to a passport?? That's pretty ridiculous.

Not really. Most people who renounce US citizenship do it for tax purposes, so $450 is nothing for them and it does take time to process.

$82 bucks for passport pages? If those rich pigs can afford to travel international and spend all the money they stole from America in foreign lands, then I think we should take a fee. It's only fair.

Bukharin: jaylectricity: Does anybody else get the feeling that our government is running a protection racket like in those old mob movies?

Dont all governments?

"You know the gang, and the government are no different" ~Jane's Addiction, one percent

Yeah, but they used to be better about disguising it and making it seem like they were protecting us for our sake and not for theirs.

I was more interested in the last line of the article. As someone who might have to sell my house while living overseas, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies having to pay some embassy drone fifty farking dollars a page to notarize the 700 pages of closing documents.

When you consider that in most states notaries are legally allowed to charge no more than $5-10 per page, that's just highway farking robbery.

Ha! Ha! Sucks to be a Conservative under Obama!

I had no idea there was a fee to renounce your citizenship, but it makes sense. Get them coming and going, that's the name of the service charge game. Just ask a banker.

I'm going to have to check to see if there's a charge for renouncing Canadian citizenship. I know a passport is $95 because I have the forms. I might want to join my family in a shopping trip or dinner and a movie some day.

Not that I intend to renounce Canadian citizenship. The Government may be pretty poor at getting you out of trouble, especially when it's Conservative and assumes that to be charged is proof of guilt, but there's no reason to not hold onto it. Even Lord Black of Cross Harbour and Lady Babs know that--now.

Conservatives give up their citizenship easily because they think it's easy to get it back and that even if they don't all they have to do is triapse across the border looking a whiter shade of pale and they'll be given citizenship by some damned Democrat. Ha! I bet some of them find it ain't so.

I wish Rush Limbaugh would scurry his fat ass off to Costa Rica like he said he would if Obamacare became law. He could enjoy the free medical care of another socialist country--a poor socialist country, but a decent, passable poor socialist country, and see if he really likes it better than the high price, high quality USA model.

I be he wouldn't. Because he's a fat-headed fugly redneck whinger who feels entitled to everything that he calls "entitlements" with derision when anybody else asks for it.

vpb: Not really. Most people who renounce US citizenship do it for tax purposes, so $450 is nothing for them and it does take time to process.

Not an excuse to charge for it though. They'll collect a piddly compared to what the people doing it are concealing for tax purposes.

And, since this is happening, the government decides to penalize everyone? I'm not getting it. This is just like Sprint or your cable company adding extra fees they hope you don't see and/or complain about.

I'm sure the State Department will just say that it's because of the economy, bla bla, bla, but the reason why we have such a lousy economy right now is because of all the greedy rich bastards who left a scorched earth behind them as they bailed out.

"Home Of The Free" my ass. Freedom also means the ability to leave without any penalty.

/wonders if they'll charge all Texans this fee when we secede....

This really sounds suspicious. I mean, I'm all-for usage fees for non-infrastructure services, but I'd like to see a full detailed breakdown of where they're coming up with those numbers.

The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me thinks it's a way of preventing poor people from making a rush across our near borders when shiat starts going down.

But that's a ridiculous idea, so I just tell him to shut up and get more tin foil.

/little does he know, foil isn't made from tin any more
//all part of the plan...

Well, I'm back from the Canadian Government's Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada site.

There is a two-track system. If you are eligible, you can take the fast track and do not pay a fee. If you are not eligible, you pay $100 for the more thorough version for people born Canadian citizens. Got that? Streamlined, free service for those of you who "acquired or reacquired your citizenship as a result of changes to the Citizenship Act that took effect on April 17, 2009, you may be eligible to apply to renounce your citizenship through the streamlined renunciation process. This process is available, at no fee, to adults born before February 15, 1977, who automatically became Canadian under the new law and who are citizens of another country."

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/renounce-how.asp

***

"The fee is $100 for the general application to renounce Canadian citizenship. There is no fee for those who are eligible to apply to renounce through the streamlined process."

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/renounce-how.asp

***

Isn't that typically Tory and Canadian. They'll bend over backwards to help you ... out of the country.

Just had a thought: maybe the Great Obamanation could help a few conservative Americans along their merry way.

It was just a thought. As a Canadian I don't expect anybody to actually listen to my natterings.

After seeing what the Tories have done to facilitate the process of renouncing Canadian citizenship, I must say it makes me proud to be able to renounce Canadian citizenship -- for a price, while so many less fortunate Canadians can do it for free. I would like to thank our Stephen Harper^(TM) Government of Canada some way. I am willing to waive all fees for pushing them off in the Arctic Ocean on a small rubber dinghy, with a letter of recommendation to the officials in Putinist Russia.

I'll even be happy to fly North and waive a little Canadian flag and shout Huzzah! three times as they go.

Maneck: Torqueknot: vpb: Not really. Most people who renounce US citizenship do it for tax purposes, so $450 is nothing for them and it does take time to process.

This.

It's just a fark you to the ex-pats.

Not at all true. You're thinking of people who were born and raised in the US and moved elsewhere for whatever reason. But you have to remember that the US has birthright citizenship. There are also rules for sons/daughters of US citizens living elsewhere.

This is a huge problem for lots of Canadians. And specifically, NOT people who are high income earners. It's ordinary folks who in some cases might not have even realize the US considers them citizens. They have never lived in the US in their life. They don't want US citizenship. There are huge tax penalties for not reporting their Canadian income. And now there's a cost to get rid of something they acquired through no fault of their own and from which they have derived no benefit in their lives.

Stay classy, US government.

That's a really good point. I wonder if they're going to start going after "citizens" soon...

/I needz moar foilz

brantgoose: It was just a thought. As a Canadian I don't expect anybody to actually listen to my natterings.

Please. As a Canadian you know we'll listen politely to your natterings and then do whatever we were going to anyway.

/have you marked now as "nattering but usually insightful Canuck"