Relinquishing U.S. citizenship in Tokyo (part 2 of 4)

During my first attempt at trying to relinquish my U.S. citizenship as part of the Japanese naturalization process, I learned that not just anybody at the embassy can process you, these people are very few and are very busy, and losing your U.S. citizenship is rare enough that it's not standard procedure and you will need to hook up with special phone numbers and appointments to bypass the standard "passport and visa and marriage and birth" services that make up the bulk of the American Citizen Services (ACS) work at the U.S. embassy.

Unfortunately, I wasn't having much luck with the special "direct line" phone number that was given to me for making the appointment. I couldn't get a human to answer the phone; it kept going straight to voice mail. After waiting two business weeks for a return call, I called again. Got the voice mail again. I left another message. And I waited. Another week (five business days) passed and I didn't get a call back. Could she have given me the wrong number? Did the person checking the voice mail think I was a crank caller?

Frustrated, I attempted to circumvent the system using connections. One of the nice things about going to networking events in Tokyo for the expat population is you eventually get to meet interesting and well connected people from various industries. I happened to have a 名刺 {meishi} (business calling card) from a U.S. embassy employee, and we had exchanged mails and met over several functions that year, and she knew me and about me acquiring Japanese citizenship.

I mailed her and explained my situation. She gave me her direct number at the embassy, and she told me to call right after lunch the next day.

I call my contact at the embassy as she instructed, and I connect to her immediately.

"Hi! She's at her desk. I'll transfer your call to her."

So she transfers the call. Except when she transfers, it goes straight to voice mail. I hang up and call her back. "Are you sure she's at her desk?"

"Uh, yeah, let's try this again. I'll tell her to expect a call to be transferred." This time I get through. Oshima apologizes, and we then play calendar 20 questions. Apparently this is a game where I'm not permitted to ask when the consul officer is available. I can however request a date and she will tell me if the date is possible or not. Apparently the consul officer travels as much as I do (in my head I was envisioning me finding time in between golf course reservations with other ambassadors), as there is more than three weeks left in the month and there were only two days he was available. I book the earlier day.

I ask her how I should get in the embassy, as they require you show an I.D. and proof that you made an appointment, but I won't have a print out from the web site showing an appointment. "Just have them or you call my number," she says. Trying to think optimistically (no voice mail), I thank her again.

At the day of the appointment, I enter with no problems. When I'm at the gate, I explain to the Japanese guard in Japanese that I'm here for a special appointment and here's the number to call to confirm. They let me through.

When I get inside the embassy, I discover that my appointment is not with a consul officer after all. It's more of a consul officer "in training". At the window, to the left of him, is a Japanese-American (I'm guessing because we're inside the embassy, even though she had a non-native English accent) who is supervising him and coaching him — she would be whispering into his ear while I spoke to "him". I see he has a printout of the Foreign Affairs Manual 1200 section, a blank DS-4079 (Request for Determination of possible loss of U.S. citizenship), a blank CLN (DS-4083), the DS-4081: Statement of Understanding of Concerning the Consequences and Ramifications of Renunciation or Relinquishment of U.S. Citizenship, and the dual purpose check-list form that is used to determine if I'm willfully renunciating/relinquishing with the intent to lose U.S. citizenship and whether the loss of citizenship is a renunciation or a relinquishment. DS-4082: Witnesses Attestation Renunciation/Relinquishment of Citizenship is not present.

Prepared, I had pre-filled out all of the above paperwork, and had brought my 戸籍 {koseki} (Japanese family register) and my Japanese passport in addition to my U.S. one. I had also read the Foreign Affairs Manual from section 1200 so I had a good idea regarding the procedure he would take and the questions he would ask me. I was trying to complete the process that day.

Although a relinquishment back dates to the time you naturalized, for your final U.S. taxes, your last day as an American is the day the embassy "receives your paperwork." They do this to prevent the loophole that would exist where you could naturalize, wait many years, report the expatriating event, receive a CLN that's dated a few years in the past, then claim to the IRS that you were not a U.S. citizen for the last couple of years and therefore not subject to U.S. citizenship-based taxation. Additionally, you can't file the 8854 (expatriation statement) "logging you out" of the IRS until you get your approved CLN & cancelled U.S. passport in the mail from the U.S. Department of State.

For an American's last tax filing, they submit at least (probably in addition to the 2555: foreign earned income exclusion and 1116: foreign tax credit form) three forms:

1. a 1040 for the part of a year before the acceptance of your DS-4081, DS-4082, and DS-4083.
2. a 1040NR (a 1040 for "non-resident aliens") for the part of the year that occurs after the embassy receives and accepts your renunciation application (which is different from the date of approval and the date of loss of nationality)
3. a 8854 form (expatriation statement) that determines if they're a "covered expatriate" or a "non-covered expatriate". If you're non-covered, you're in luck. Providing you don't live in the U.S. under a visa or permanent residency and don't stay longer than 60 days per year, you never have to file again. If you're "covered," you pay The Exit Tax and keep filing 8854 for the next ten years.

The only time you would not need to file a 1040NR is if the date that the renunciation/relinquishment occurs (defined by the date they accept the paperwork) is December the 31st — which is impossible to do, as U.S. embassies and consulates are closed for non-emergencies for U.S. holidays like New Year's Eve.

My appointment was on December the 20th, though, and I was determined to get them to accept my paperwork that day as it would make my 1040NR very simple: lots of zeros as it's a tax return for eleven days, most of which would be spent on holiday earning no income.

To make matters worse, I'm hard of hearing that day; I had an accident with my daughter and a 耳かき {mimikaki} (Japanese ear cleaner/pick) the day before — don't ask — and a big blood clot formed in my ear canal making me temporarily hearing impaired in my left ear. The trainee wasn't using the microphone and speaker system, and I wanted to hear want the supervisor was saying and make sure that she could hear me too, even though she was not in front of the perforations in the window where it's easy to hear. So, I was putting my ear close to the glass like an old man, and I was raising my voice so that the woman to the guy's side could directly hear me without having the trainee rephrase my statements and questions.

As before, there was zero privacy regarding this matter. The other people in the ACS are all there to report an event of joy: doing something related to marriage, doing something related to a birth, and doing something related to living and working in the New World. During the winter holidays too! As I was raising my voice to make myself heard, I noticed the other Americans and their Japanese spouses and children looking at me with suspicion. "America is such a wonderful place! Why am I here today with this maniac who is delivering his anti-America manifesto to these nice people! I bet he's some sort of animé loving confused weeaboo Japan apologist!" I imagined them thinking. One American did comment after I was told to have a seat so they could read my papers, "Renunciation?! That's a new one!"

The consul-in-training calls me back to the window and then starts reading me the DS-4083 item by item, and his tone of voice is in the form of a warning — as if he's trying to scare me.

"You understand that you may need a visa to come back and live or visit the United States?" "Yes."

"You understand that your children may not receive U.S. citizenship?" The smart-ass devil in the back of my head was tempted to say "Oh, I'll just have the mother fly to the U.S. and give birth to an anchor baby that gets citizenship jus soli and may eventually one day be able to become president," but I kept my mouth shut and solemnly said "Yes, I understand."

He did make at least one mistake that his supervisor didn't catch: he said that I would never be able to get U.S. citizenship again. 7 FAM 1211 section i specifically says that:

“Individuals who lose citizenship would need to reacquire it through naturalization.”

So now I'm getting a little miffed that I'm getting a trainee. After spending all that time finding a time to meet the VIP (and taking another half of my paid work days), I find out I'm getting a rookie that probably can't accept my forms. I have no problem talking to a trainee when I'm say, at a fast food restaurant. But when I'm doing something that's permanent and important with lifelong ramifications? I want the seasoned pro who's done tons of these and can do them in his or her sleep. Rather than argue with him, I nod, as I'm motivated to complete the handover of paperwork before near the end of the year, and hopefully receive my CLN before the U.S. April tax deadline.

At the end of the questions, he gives me back my completed forms and tells me, "why don't you think this over, and make another appointment if I still want to proceed." Knowing that I'm near my self-imposed end of year deadline, and knowing how hard it is to book an appointment, I start to get a little frustrated.

"Oh, thanks for the caution, and I know you're required to say that as part of your job, but I assure you, I've spent at least half my adult life thinking about this in one way or another and getting to this point, and I didn't naturalize on a whim. It was a process that took years to earn and months to complete. If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it if you could accept my application today please."

Wendy Torrance wishes she had a bulletproof glass divider and a panic button

My trainee starts getting defensive, probably because he's not authorized to receive renunciation/relinquishment paperwork as a trainee. His "coach," sensing him starting to lose control of the process, starts leaning her head into the speaking portal in front of him during our discussion, practically pushing the late twenty-something guy out of the way as she takes control of the conversation. At one point I see them looking at their watches, and he starts filibustering me by giving me a speech about the procedures (which he's reading from a printout). I'm not going to leave without getting them to at least receive my paperwork, so I attempt to interject. He protests "would you let me finish please?" Uh oh. I imagine him thinking he wants to press the "trouble" button under the counter.

Eventually, I got my paperwork "signed and submitted", which accomplished one goal. They did give me one bizarre hand-made form which they asked me to fill out. They also said that to complete the process, regardless of whether they had the paperwork or not, I'd have to make yet another appointment with a real consul officer to review the paperwork and swear directly to him that the information is true and correct.

He gave me some printouts of web pages from the state.gov site about the laws and consequences regarding the loss of U.S citizenship as a souvenir of my visit, so I can read them later and think about the ramifications of the action I'm trying to take:

• Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship
• Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship by Persons Claiming a Right of Residence in the U.S.
• Advice about Possible Loss of U.S. Citizenship and Dual Nationality

The "CLN Personal info sheet" (available in our Docs and Forms page) looked like this:

I laughed at the measly three lines for "Precise period of your physical presence in the United States," but I was depressed by its demands. It was not easy to figure out my period of physical presence in Japan. But for the United States? In my lifetime? Unless U.S. immigration provides me with access to their database, it's not going to be precise. I'll do my best, though. Additionally, I was alarmed that they were asking me for my Social Security Number. None of the other DS-4079, DS-4081, DS-4082, and DS-4083 official forms asked for this information, and your Social Security number and status is generally unaffected by whether you're a U.S. citizen or an alien.

After leaving the embassy, I turn on my returned mobile phone and make another call to Oshima to set up another appointment with the real consul officer. It goes straight to voicemail. I would not get a return call that year, despite leaving three messages.