Tokyo U.S. Embassy Updates its Loss of Nationality Procedures

I had shared my experiences with relinquishing my U.S. citizenship in past posts. Ever since U.S. Embassies and consulates around the world have beefed up security post 9.11, you can no longer just walk into an embassy without an appointment unless it was a major emergency.

In the name of efficiency and modernization, they eventually began discouraging people to call the embassy, and instead encouraged (by making the telephone numbers harder to find) people to use the web to make appointments.

The problem with that method was that only the most common "American Citizen Services" (marriage, birth, visas) were listed as options. Coming into the embassy for the wrong type of appointment would generally get you turned away, as the proper person that is capable of processing more complicated procedures (such as loss of citizenship) would not be at the embassy on that day.

Since I became legally Japanese and, by that action, ceased to legally be American, the United States changed it's procedures so that renouncing your U.S. citizenship is now no longer free ($2,350). This does not apply to most people; if you lose your U.S. citizenship by willfully naturalizing to another country knowing that that will cause you to lose it, it is called "relinquishment" and the procedure is free.

Anyway, the Tokyo American Citizen Services (TACS) have an updated page on their web site to reflect this:

Fee for Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship - $2,350
The fee applies only to those persons who choose to take the Oath of Renunciation pursuant to Section 349(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Section 349(a)(5) means you renounced and are becoming "stateless", meaning a person without citizenship, similar to former U.S. citizen Mike Golguski. People that naturalize or choose Japanese citizenship from two or more citizenships had since birth will have "Section 349(a)(1)" or "Section 349(a)(2)" in their cancelled passport and CLN (Certificate of Loss of Nationality).

Interestingly, there is another interesting update on that page: a phone number for making appointments related to loss of citizenship, and an expectation as to when those appointments occur!

Scheduling a Renunciation Interview
In Tokyo, contact the American Citizen Services section at 03-3224-5000 to schedule a renunciation interview appointment. Interviews are held on Fridays at 2:30 p.m.
For appointment information elsewhere in Japan, consult the page on Consular Posts in Japan.

I checked my notes and my older calendar appointments regarding my experiences on making an appointment; the phone number I had was an internal extension, that bypassed the main number above. Also, none of my appointments were at 2:30pm (JST). In fact, none of my appointments were on Friday. However, I should note that technically I was not performing a "renunciation", but rather a "relinquishment".

Apparently, this information is now old. TACS has since updated their website with a newer version of the page. It's "Social" with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ support! The page is much better in that it uses more precise language ("loss of citizenship" to cover both "relinquishment" and "renunciation" cases), and contains numerous references to Supreme Court cases regarding multiple citizenships and a link to the "(unofficial [sic])" Japan Ministry of Justice / MoJ (法務省 {hōmushō}) page on dual nationality:

Applying for Loss of U.S. Citizenship
To make an appointment for loss of U.S. citizenship, please contact the American Citizens Services directly via e-mail at tokyoacs@state.gov.

In other words, they would now prefer that you email them, rather than call them.